Work packages are a collection of steps or processes required for the completion of a piece of work. Work packages are often used in project management, thought of as sub-projects, which support the overall project. They are also used in shared services when documenting the work to be transitioned. However, with an ongoing theme of the great resignation and hiring struggles, why are we ignoring other work approaches? What if we could package up work into smaller, bite-size chunks for others to complete? Read on to find out about work packages and why organisational design should allow fluidity.
Work packages
A work package normally has a deliverable or an outcome at the end of a series of tasks. In project management, this is a deliverable as part of a larger project, sometimes within a programme of change. In shared services, the work packages represent each piece of work that someone will deliver on your behalf. These work packages form part of the transition plan to relocate work to a Shared Service Centre (SSC), which is a project in itself. They are also the specific outputs that the internal (or external) shared service customer needs to be completed. In general, these bundles of steps and their outcomes are best when required on a regular basis, which is ripe for optimisation and automation. They also come less regularly when a piece of work needs to be done and there is nobody to deliver it in the rest of the organisation or when the most appropriate home is the SSC.
Managers thinking of work as packages
If you have a team of ten people and one of them resigns, it is natural to think of hiring a replacement to perform nearly the same job as the leaver. There are many challenges to hiring someone to backfill a role:
- Do I have the headcount to replace them?
- Will I get approval to hire someone now?
- Will I find the skills that I think I need?
- How long will it take that person to arrive?
- How will the team respond after someone resigns?
- What do I need to do to prepare for them leaving?
- What will happen to the work they perform?
- Can the work be distributed amongst the remaining people?
- Will they conduct a thorough handover?
- Will we know how to complete all of the tasks after they leave?
These are a few of the things to consider. The last four are of particular concern. Various studies suggest that it takes 4-5 months for a new professional hire to get up to speed. This rises with seniority and job complexity to about 6 months. So, your team member is leaving and you want to know what they do. Easy, ask them to complete a full handover. Job done? Perhaps thinking of work in terms of packages will allow you to manage this transition more smoothly. It may also be an opportunity to enhance EX across all of the roles in your team.
Directors thinking of work as small projects
As a company director or someone with a high position of authority in an organisation, you often get other people to deliver projects for you. As the CEO, this is something you ask the rest of the board to recommend how to get it done. Alternatively, you may have a go-to person to make it happen. On some occasions, the CEO or the board are stumped on who will help them get what they need internally. They consider hiring but the requirement is short-term. They consider asking around at the next level down but that doesn’t always yield an answer. So, how about thinking in terms of work packages?
If we stop thinking of work in terms of someone to push accountability on (which may be one reason that nobody wants to do it), it becomes a small project. If we can find the skills that we need to complete it, who said that it needs to be a full-time role? For boards, they can cut across organisational politics, sidestepping of accountability and fear to find people to carry out projects. This is often how external consultancies find their way into organisations. However, it could also be a way to create social value by bringing in short-term support from micro-businesses and specialists. Also note that with the Government’s repeal of part of IR35 from April 2023, it makes is easier than ever to hire resource to complete your projects.
Organisational design and fluidity to enable work packages
It is comforting to think of an organisation like a skyscraper. Everything is neatly structured and organised, people know their place, it offers stability and security. However, if we think of an organisation like this – a static, unchanging and rigid edifice – we may find that people no longer want to work there.
Employee experience, employee wellbeing, flexible working, hybrid working and rewarding jobs are now expected. Whilst once considered to be the future demands of millennials entering the workplace, this expectation has spread to others. The pandemic, is in part, responsible for this shift in attitudes. The great resignation appears to be closer to the ‘partial resignation’ at the moment but many are unhappy at work. Attempts to curb the great resignation appear, at the moment, to be tokenistic and temporary. As people wake up to the opportunities of hyper-flexible hybrid working, they will increasingly demand variety and work on their terms. Unfortunately, the organisational design may not be able to offer that fluidity.
With clear structures and roles to enable an organisation to achieve its goals, the organisational design is for many companies troublesome. Complex to change but risky to leave to stagnate, many boards feel that tinkering around the edges is the only way. Perhaps some incremental improvement will be enough before the next management team take over. However, as the late, great Geoffrey Chaucer said, “Time and tide wait for no man.”
Organisational design to help package up work
Think Beyond is a management consultancy with skills and experience in business, finance and marketing. Having worked both on boards and as consultants to boards, we see and hear many of today’s hiring challenges from clients. We offer businesses a range of value-add solutions to help you find new opportunities and accelerate your business performance. We offer workshops, strategic planning support and also assurance for troubleshooting or change. In summary, we believe that we can help all private sector organisations with structural issues, providing advice and solutions.
If you would like to speak to a consultant, simply call to arrange an introduction on 01565 632206. Alternatively, you can email us at sales@think-beyond.co.uk or ask for a call back online, whichever is easiest for you.
Finally, why not check out our services to help you design a better workplace.