Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

Project Role:  As an organizational partner, I was on the Employer Outreach Team.  Our responsibilities were to recruit local community employer partners for The Neighborhood Jobs Pipeline leveraging existing and new relationships.

Project Purpose: The Neighborhood Jobs Pipeline a new model of workforce development service delivery that influences local neighborhood support services and community based organizations to create a place‐based approach designed to encourage a targeted set of local employers in a local city to work with the pipeline to strengthen their hiring strategies.  In addition, to develop networks with local workforce agencies that provides employment resources and/or opportunities for local residents within the designated community.

Project Problem: A disconnect between residents of the city target area and employment opportunities both within and around the area. Residents with the training and skills necessary to be good candidates for available job openings are frequently not aware of and/or considered for those job openings.

What contributed to the project’s success?

·       The local city was able to sustain their community by assisting employable residents to sustain their families through short-term employment within their community.  This allowed local businesses to increase their revenue, tax incentives and hire local residents to support their families.

·       The place‐based Pipeline method provided better job search outcomes for residents in their community.

·       The job pipeline increased the stability and sustainability of both businesses and some families in the target area.

·         It helped employers to decrease their human resources costs by allowing the workforce agencies to find, pre-screen and assessed potential job candidates that proved to be ready to work.

·        Residential support increased by frequenting local businesses in the community, created, and improved partnerships and collaboration with local organizations.

What contributed to the project’s failure?

·        Program prerequisites (high school diploma/GED, drug-free, no criminal history) cause low participation from local residents in the job pipeline. 

·        Residents that met program prerequisites could not afford the upfront cost of the drug screening of $35.  If afforded, they would have been reimbursed after participating in the program after 6 weeks

·        Majority of the residents that met the prerequisites skills for the job pipeline did not match the business partners needs

·        Most employers provided short-term employment with no intentions of long-term hiring because of limited tax incentives available that actually covered the majority of the employees pay rate.

Which parts of the PM process, if included, would have made the project more successful? Why?

The project could have been more successful with increasing residents’ participation if there was allocated funding/grants available to assist with drug screening, and identification costs.  The project was design to reimburse the program participate and not provide upfront cost.  The pipeline was designed to assist persons with barriers to employment (non-violent/sexual criminal history, and lack of skills training) and available educational resources for those residents who do not have a high school diploma or GED.

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.