Role and Responsibilities of the Project Management Team
This document was produced in Northern Ireland by the Working Group to recommend that a small group of senior figures from the two charities take overall responsibility for the operational work of all the project workstream teams.
The Project Management Team is an operational team. Members of the Team are nominated from the merger partner organisations and agreed by the Integrated Working Group. (They do not include current members of the Working Group). Its role is to:
§ Implement the merger plan (except for due diligence associated with the establishment of the new organisation).
§ Take responsibility for the delivery of key areas of the work – Communications, Human Resources, Legal Support and Culture & Values.
§ To be responsible to and take forward actions agreed by the Integrated Working Group.
The Project Management Team will comprise four members with individual responsibilities as follows:
Team Leader
The Team Leader is responsible for:
- Coordinating, chairing and administering the Project Management Team to effectively implement the merger plan.
- Liaising with merger partners to provide support and ensure effective engagement with and delivery of merger process.
- Liaison with legal experts and coordinating support to merger partners on the process of due diligence, exit strategies, and other legal processes associated with merger.
- Providing reports to the Integrated Working Group on progress and/or issues.
Team Members (4)– Workstream areas responsibilities
1. Communication
This team member is responsible for:
- Coordinating a Communications Sub-Group.
- Liaising with the PR Consultant.
- Ensuring the implementation of the agreed communications plan, including delivery of agreed communications internally to staff, committee members and volunteers as appropriate.
- The coordination of external communications as agreed by the Integrated Working Group.
- The provision of administrative support to implement communication activities.
2. Human Resources
This team member is responsible for:
- Coordinating a HR Sub-Group.
- Liaising with the HR consultant.
- Ensuring the implementation of the agreed HR plan.
- Overseeing the provision of information and briefings to staff, including the establishment of staff forums as appropriate.
3. Culture & Values
This team member is responsible for coordinating a Culture and Values Sub-Group to explore and agree internal stakeholders understanding of the culture and values that should underpin the merger process and be incorporated within the new organisation to include dedicated programme of merger.
4. Business Case
This team member is responsible for producing a three-year Business Plan (to include redundancy/synergy assumptions based on the structure).
Project Management Team Working Methods
Meetings to be held every two weeks, in advance of the monthly Integrated Working Group meeting, to facilitate the preparation and dissemination of reports.
Staff Resources
Time allocated according to the available project management budget. For example:
Team Leader – 2 days per week, plus ½ day per week of administrative support.
Communications – 1.5 days per week, plus 1 day per week of administrative support.
Human Resources – 1.5 days per week, plus ½ day per week of administrative support.
Culture & Values – ½ day per week, plus ½ day per week of administrative support.
Budget
A budget for this work to continue should be prepared and agreed. In addition to the costs associated with the staff time requirements above, you will need to make allowances for the work required from support divisions of your organisation. For example, HR and Communications support.
With regard to the work involved in preparing Legal Due Diligence reports, you will need to budget for significant time involvement by your senior Finance staff: there will also be a considerable budget required to cover the necessary professional fees of the solicitors who will be appointed for Due Diligence work – one for the merger partners and one for the new organisation.
Separate sums should also be calculated and included in the budget for a) general project management costs, and b) culture and values work.
AmalgaMate – A toolkit of ideas and practice for mergers in the third sector
Based on the merger to form Age NI, developed by CO3, funded by Atlantic Philanthropies