The numbers tell a chilling – or reassuring – tale, depending on what side of the educational fence you’re standing on. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in January for those with less than a high school degree stood at 13.1%. For high school graduates with no college, it was 8.4%. And for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, it was just 4.2%.
The lesson is one that every school kid already knows but that adults in the workforce still ignore far too often: Education is paramount. There may be no such thing as a recession-proof industry or profession, but your prospects in the job market improve considerably with each gaudy, big block letter you can add to your curriculum vitae.
That’s no less true, of course, for continuing education.
According to Scott Converse, director of project management and process improvement programs for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business, project management is a booming field right now, as businesses strive to develop and retain their high-performing staff.
“More and more firms that have weathered the recession and firms that have been successful are starting to think more in a project-minded way,” said Converse during a recent In Business radio interview. “More project-based activities are occurring, and they’re seeing the benefits from having functional specialists skilled in the art of managing projects – how to get things done on time, within budget, meeting the deliverables that the customer is looking for. I mean, these are skills that we all should have.”
A fertile field
Whether or not it’s realistic to make project management a universal skill, there’s no question that those who are proficient at it are not only helping their employers, but also themselves.
A recent survey by the Project Management Institute found that 71% of project managers saw an increase in compensation over the 12 months preceding the survey, and that nearly 33% reported increases in compensation of at least 5%. In the U.S., the median salary of a project management professional was $105,000, while around the world it was US$92,000.
Converse says that just as companies have and continue to adjust to the economic downturn by becoming more efficient, a form of natural selection is also going on with employees, who have adapted to leaner times by making themselves indispensible.
“Many of the people that have made it this far are the folks now that are having to deal with multiple activities,” said Converse. “Think of your own day today. Think of what you’ve had to do today, and it’s juggling many plates. The days of focusing in on only one task or one activity, well, those days are gone. And so the ability to manage multiple activities and understand the needs that different stakeholders have for the projects and activities, it’s important.”
Converse says there’s also generally a gap between what’s taught in undergraduate business programs and the kinds of project management skills that are useful to employers, which is helping to drive interest in the UW’s programs.
“While we all see the benefits of project management in the workplace and the work that we do, it’s not typically a topic that’s covered in your undergraduate business classes,” said Converse. “There aren’t a lot of folks that are walking out of trade schools, four-year schools, even master’s programs with an emphasis in project management, and so there are a lot of people then that have this gap in their professional development.”
But while there are some who were born to project management, there are others who had project management thrust upon them – and they need no less education than folks who have long been groomed for such tasks.
“For many of us, if you’ve done a good job at your day job, you often get assigned to be the project manager,” said Converse. “You were the great person who ran that marketing activity earlier, so now let’s have you manage this project over here. And we call folks like that, half-jokingly but mostly true, ‘accidental project managers.’
“You know the old phrase, ‘if you want something done, give it to your busiest person.’”
Saving time and resources
Converse says he’s also seeing considerable interest in the area of process improvement – or finding ways to answer the question “how do you get performance increases with the same or less stuff in the system?” It’s an area where manufacturers, who’ve long since relied on “lean” manufacturing to tighten up their operations, could teach business owners in other sectors a thing or two.
“There will always be folks from the manufacturing sector that are interested in process improvement – it’s certainly [a] core [part] to how you’re able to succeed,” said Converse. “But where I see the biggest increase, it’s not in the manufacturing sector. They get it, they’re doing process improvement. Where I see the biggest gains right now, or where the lowest-hanging fruit is for process improvement, is [health care] and services industries. Anyplace that you see a lot of transactional activity, you’re ripe for process improvement work.”
According to Converse, the financial, insurance, and records management industries are also areas that are benefiting tremendously from process improvements.
“They’re all in situations where there are lots of users that are involved with transactional activity with customers.”
Sign up for the free In Business Wisconsin Report – your weekly resource for local business news, analysis, voices, and the names you need to know. Click here.
