Hamilton City Council – Case Study

Case Study

Hamilton City Council​

Hamilton City Council’s vision is to improve the well-being of Hamiltonians. With people at the heart of everything Hamilton City Council (HCC) does, they purposefully seek feedback from the community to ensure they continue to achieve their vision.

HCC’s Capital Projects Unit (CPU), tasked with running HCC’s larger infrastructure capital investment projects, has evolved significantly over the past three years. This is due to the increasing demands for change across the City to meet Hamilton’s growing infrastructure.

With CPU’s projects growing in scale and complexity, the project management community has needed to grow too (in experience, knowledge, and skills) to deliver these projects successfully.  

CPU was committed to raising the level of maturity in project management by introducing a Project Management Competency Framework and partnered with ValueKey to help develop one for the Unit. The intention was to trial the framework within CPU with the potential for the framework be rolled out later across the wider Council’s project management community.

The value

The outcomes for the framework were to ensure:

  1. CPU has the appropriate mix of project management skills that allow for the Unit’s project pipeline to be resourced suitably
  2. CPU has a clear benchmark on competencies required for each level of their core programme and project roles. This will lead to the development of existing talent and career progression within the Unit to drive retention. 

In addition to developing the Project Management Competency Framework and an assessment tool, ValueKey also reviewed and mapped existing position descriptions to the framework and developed new standard position descriptions for the Unit.

How did we do it?

ValueKey developed a framework based on international good practice project management. However, we wanted to ensure the framework was fit for purpose in an HCC context. We adopted an iterative approach to its development and sought feedback from key stakeholders and the CPU project management community. We did this at every step to enhance the framework, so it aligned with HCC’s project management framework and core behavioural competencies.

CPU selected a pilot group for ValueKey to assess against the framework and we developed individual Professional Development Plans (PDPs) for them in collaboration with their line managers. Feedback was sought from the pilot group at every stage of the process and incorporated before we rolled out the framework to the wider Unit and undertook their assessments (to produce their individual PDPs).

The pilot group were excellent in their efforts and feedback, and we were well-positioned to share the framework with the wider CPU.

How did it go?

The process ValueKey took Orion through, to determine which product offering best met all their requirements, provided Orion with enough confidence to choose a vendor and product and start their PPM tool implementation journey.

  • The result was a framework that was relevant and applicable to CPU’s project roles, an easy-to-use assessment tool and a Professional Development Plan (PDP) template that feeds into HCC’s HR development tool (Culture Amp) and goal-setting process.
  • The CPU project community each received their own individual personalised PDPs with recommendations from ValueKey and career development goals created with support from their line managers.
  • The team are clear on CPU’s requirements and expectations for each project role and what experience, knowledge and skills are needed to deliver the project pipeline successfully. The PDPs capture their individual development paths and goals for career progression.
  • There is a process to maintain the framework, to keep it fit for purpose, allowing it to be used at any time for recruitment purposes, new starter assessments or the next round of assessments and PDPs for the Unit.

“We are thoroughly impressed with the level of support and guidance ValueKey have provided us. ValueKey has understood our team and our business and has been innovative with their suggestions on approach to ensure what we have created works for our business.

ValueKey’s knowledge and experience has been very helpful when implementing the Project Management Competency Framework which is a new approach for us. We are excited to continue this partnership alongside ValueKey in this space!” – Erin Roberts, Capital Projects Performance Manager.