A Supportive Work Environment: (Not So) Obvious Factors That Can Help a Project

PM Excellence regularly helps its clients improve project delivery performance. Our role can range from full project management under a PMC contract to individual functions—network-based scheduling, project monitoring, analytics, risk management, and more—or an assessment of the client's project management system. Applying project management tools and methods inevitably means that people use them for the benefit of other people. Every project is delivered by a group of employees with different experience, knowledge, personal motivation, and individual goals. One of the project manager's most important tasks is to turn these people into a cohesive team whose performance and results far exceed the sum of individual efforts.

An essential part of building a team is creating a supportive work environment: a comfortable atmosphere that enables the team to work effectively and develop.

New employees joining an established project team usually notice very quickly how comfortable the environment is. They see things with fresh eyes, picking up on issues that experienced team members may no longer notice. An external service provider carrying out a project assessment can also evaluate the work environment effectively.

Let us consider some of the factors that indicate a comfortable work environment. Many of the points below are hygiene factors: general and organizational management literature, team-building literature, and even some project management standards treat addressing them as essential. At first glance, some of the information in this article may seem obvious. Unfortunately, that apparent obviousness does not stop organizations from ignoring these issues—we see this regularly in project audits. In this article, we will explain why these factors matter specifically in project management.

1) The Workspace

Just as a theater experience begins at the coat check, an employee's first day begins on arrival at their workspace. Its setup matters: how much space there is, whether health and sanitation standards have been taken into account, whether there is somewhere to eat, and whether there are enough restrooms. Uncomfortable workspaces can reduce the effectiveness of even a very close-knit team.

On a project, core team members need to be readily accessible to the project manager and to one another. As remote work becomes more widespread, they do not necessarily have to be in the same location; what matters is being able to connect promptly by phone or video. To make this possible, the company's IT function must provide ready, fast access to the necessary IT infrastructure, including communication channels, company and project archives, the project workspace, and other resources.

Workspace arrangements must also reflect the nature of employees' work. At one company that invited us to assess the management system for a large-scale project—their term for what was actually a program—we found four project managers sharing a relatively small office. Project managers typically spend much of their time communicating, so concentrating in that room was difficult: phones rang constantly, several people spoke at once, and so on. This is an example of workspace arrangements that failed to account for the work of the people using them.

2) A Detailed Job Description

Employees need to understand their main duties, reporting lines, related departments, and how they are expected to work with those departments. A well-written job description should provide a stable point of reference amid the company's day-to-day activity.

Projects add another layer of complexity: employees are often assigned through a matrix structure, with dual reporting lines to a line manager and a project manager. This frequently creates work-related conflicts, particularly over the sequence and priority of activities. Clear allocation of duties, authority, and accountability, together with procedures for exchanging information, therefore becomes even more important. These and other arrangements should be documented in project team members' role descriptions and in the relevant sections of the project management plan—for example, responsibility and communication matrices.

3) A Thorough Briefing from the Direct Manager

Even a good job description and role description need to be supplemented by the manager's guidance. This adds context, establishes priorities, and clarifies expectations so that employees know what to focus on first.

On a project, the project manager's guidance on a role description helps team members focus on priorities, coordinate their work with one another more easily, and adjust the direction of their work in a timely manner.

4) A Mentor During the Initial Period

New employees—and established employees, too—need to know that they have not simply been thrown in at the deep end, but have an experienced person looking out for them and helping them. Direct managers are often too busy with their day-to-day responsibilities to act as mentors. A more experienced colleague working on similar or related tasks is therefore usually a suitable choice.

On small projects, the project manager often acts as the mentor. But when the project management team is large and includes dozens of people, the project manager cannot provide all the mentoring personally and should delegate this role to experienced employees. In some cases, it makes sense to link part of those employees' incentive pay to the quality of their mentoring, encouraging them to take on the role with greater enthusiasm.

5) Accountability to Management Without Fear of Escalation

Most employees try to work effectively and achieve their objectives. But when something happens that requires a manager's intervention, they should not be afraid to escalate the issue. Unfortunately, we regularly see managers punish the people who bring bad news. Others then become reluctant to tell the truth, problems go unresolved, and the situation worsens, putting the work as a whole at risk. This does not remove an employee's responsibility for solving problems: they should not automatically pass an issue to their manager, and when escalating it, they should propose one or more possible solutions.

On projects, failure to escalate promptly is particularly dangerous. The project manager or higher-level stakeholders—the client, project sponsor, and others—must be informed promptly when their involvement in a decision is needed. Delayed notification can lead to late decisions, which in turn cause missed deadlines, budget overruns, and other common project problems.

Let me emphasize: timely escalation is not the same as shifting a problem or issue onto the manager's shoulders. Every project participant must resolve issues independently within their authority and area of responsibility. But when that authority is no longer sufficient, escalation is not merely acceptable—it is necessary. Ideally, the employee should also give the manager several well-developed alternatives to support the decision.

6) Interim Performance Reviews

Employees need to know that their work is needed, that management cares about its quality, and that managers take an interest in its progress. Regular communication with the manager is therefore essential—not necessarily frequent, but regular—primarily to review results, adjust the direction of work promptly, clarify objectives, and address related matters.

On projects, this is part of the overall process of monitoring and controlling project work. Managing that process is a direct responsibility of the project manager.

7) Team-Building Activities

Birthday celebrations, recreational sports, company-wide events, and similar activities show employees that management cares about their well-being beyond work. Without these efforts, it is harder to build camaraderie within the team. The initially forced, and subsequently widespread, shift to remote work has only made organized team building more important. Remote employees are not continually surrounded by their colleagues and may identify less and less with the company over time. This increases the risk that they will leave at an inconvenient moment for the business.

The risk is even greater on projects: replacing a project team member is often harder than replacing someone in an operational role. It is doubly frustrating when the need for a replacement stems from a failure to build a friendly team atmosphere, or when a competitor attracts a remote employee with only a modest pay increase. Since remote work became widespread, we have encountered this regularly, and employees often explain it this way: ‘I sit at home in front of a screen, and it no longer really matters which organization I work for. If someone offers me a 5% pay increase, I see no reason to turn it down.’ This situation might have been avoided if the employee had been involved in team-building activities, among other things, that strengthened project team members' loyalty.

8) Regular Access to Internal and External Training

By creating opportunities for professional and personal growth through training, and investing company funds in it, management demonstrates that employee development matters. Training allows the company to develop specialists with the skills and proficiency it needs in a planned way; these investments also strengthen employee loyalty. Unfortunately for managers, the risk remains that an employee who has been trained and improved their qualifications will leave for a competitor. During project management system assessments, we have sometimes seen companies become training grounds for other organizations' future employees. When this risk materializes, however, it is more likely to indicate that other hygiene factors in the organization of work have been overlooked.

On projects, developing the team's skills through training also helps reduce spending on external expertise. However, there are situations in which it is already too late to train people for the project—for example, when less than a year to a year and a half remains before completion. Where necessary, it then makes sense to engage a service provider that can quickly fill the skills gap. Even in that situation, training opportunities—including the chance to use the knowledge and skills gained on subsequent projects—remain a significant source of motivation for employees.

Professional literature on operations management, human resource management, and occupational health and safety identifies other factors that directly or indirectly affect the quality of the work environment. This article has outlined the main factors we consider essential, based on PM Excellence's experience of delivering small and medium-sized projects as well as managing megaprojects.

Putting these measures and processes in place can create a genuinely supportive work environment within an organization and its project team. This, in turn, will improve team performance and increase the likelihood of successful project delivery.