How to Handle a Team Member Change

A team member leaving your project can be very disruptive. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the impact of that person’s departure. Here are some tips for welcoming and integrating your new team member to make the transition flow smoothly.

• • Include orientation time. Regardless of your team member’s abilities, allocate time for reviewing with the new person deliverable status, project methodology, assigned tasks, and identified risks. This review can take considerable time, especially with large, complex projects. Work with your stakeholders to reduce the pressure for your new team member to deliver immediately. That way, they can absorb the knowledge they need to contribute to the project and get up to speed more quickly.

• Facilitate introductions. A team’s productivity and harmony is thrown for a loop when a personnel change occurs. To reduce this negative impact, set up meetings to introduce your new team member to the team and other relevant stakeholders. Include a personal welcome and allow stakeholders to ask questions to promote rebuilding your team and moving forward with deliverables.

• Calculate and communicate any schedule impact. Meetings and introductions for your new team member to get up to speed take time. That means your schedule will be affected. Plan accordingly! Update your schedule to accommodate the person’s orientation and tasks. Don’t try to absorb into your existing schedule. If you do so once, stakeholders will expect you to do that at any time, which isn’t practical or wise. 
• Adjust your cost forecast. A new team member can affect project costs, especially if you’re dealing with contractors. Costs will also change if your new team member is an employee and you track internal resource costs. Also, if you end up with a less-skilled employee, it may take longer for them to accomplish tasks, which can add cost to your project.
• Monitor for changes or issues. A new team member can improve performance, generate personality issues, produce technical inaccuracies, or come up with a better way to deliver their tasks. A “plug and play” approach to change team members isn’t a good idea. Instead, pay attention to what happens with your new team member. Check in with them and watch the timing and quality of the deliverables they produce.

If you have other tips for bringing a new team member on board, share with us in the comments section.

For more about navigating team member change, check out Daniel Station’s Project Management Foundations: Teams course. 

Coming Up

I’m updating my Project Management Foundations course. Look for it in Fall 2022.

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