Project Manager (Workforce Consulting)

ABOUT US

PFM is a recognized national leader in providing financial and consulting advice to public sector, non-profit and other institutional entities. For more than forty years, PFM has advised many of the country’s largest municipal and institutional entities including states, counties, municipalities, townships, boroughs, authorities, school districts, not-for-profit organizations, and pension funds. The firm has more than 350 employees located in every region of the country.

PFM is currently seeking a Project Manager to join our Workforce Consulting practice as a Senior Managing Consultant or a Director.

PFM’s Workforce Consulting practice advises clients on their largest cost center and most important asset – their employees. We help local and state governments address their most pressing workforce challenges.

PFM’s Workforce Consulting professionals bring extensive experience into PFM Group Consulting’s suite of capabilities by providing clients with a wide range of consulting and advisory specialties, including (but not limited to) the following service lines:

• Collective bargaining support (including expert witness testimony in fact-finding, interest arbitration, and related proceedings)
• Human resources operational reviews
• Overtime studies
• Compensation studies
• Recruitment and retention studies
• Pension and OPEB reform
• Labor analytics, costing, and modeling
• Multi-year financial plans

The Project Manager will focus on supporting and leading successful client engagements and expanding the Workforce Consulting footprint and service offerings. The client base for this role is national, but many longstanding clients are in the Mid-Atlantic region and current served from our Philadelphia office.

Successful candidates for this role will bring a passion for helping governments identify and implement creative solutions to the unique challenges they face and a strong foundation of public sector workforce and/or human resources knowledge and experience. The incumbent will be nimble in a dynamic, fast-paced environment in which they are given significant responsibility; possess significant capacity for leadership; and demonstrate the ability to manage professional staff and grow a business plan.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Primary responsibilities include the following:

Project Management

• Project planning and workplan development
• Ensure client satisfaction and the successful and timely completion of all in-scope project deliverables
• Oversee assigned projects and all related project activities (e.g., data collection, research, quantitative and qualitative analysis, the development of written reports, presentations, and other deliverables)
• Manage assigned resources in a responsible, efficient, and cost-effective manner
• Serve as the daily “face” of PFM to clients for all projects; ensure regular and effective communication with clients and project partners
• Communicate project findings, results, and recommendations to clients and other stakeholders
• Coordinate and lead project teams

Technical Analysis

• Analyze demographic and socio-economic data, as well as data from third-party resources (e.g., U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and HR consultancies)
• Perform a wide range of compensation and benefits analyses for public sector employees. These include benchmarking of pay ranges, pay premiums, and career average compensation, as well as benchmarking of pension/retirement, health, retiree health, paid leave, and other ancillary benefits
• Develop creative and innovative strategic recommendations around compensation, recruitment, and retention in an array of client deliverables
• Lead in the development of expert witness testimony for interest arbitration, fact-finding, and related legal proceedings. Assist the bargaining team in evaluating exhibits and testimony put forth by union expert witnesses
• Assist with the development of costing models to be used to used in client deliverables (e.g., compensation studies, recruitment and retention studies, collective bargaining support)
• Support organizational reviews of human resources and civil service functions, as well as perform workforce analyses in support of multi-year strategic financial plans for public sector entities

Marketing and Business Development

• Serve as a go-to resource for PFM colleagues on public sector workforce issues
• Assist in the development of scopes of work and formal responses to Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
• Maintain knowledge of and share business insights, including industry trends, challenges, and issues
• Support the professional development of team members through coaching, training, mentoring and leadership
• General Management and Administrative Responsibilities
• Identify prospective clients for workforce consulting engagements
• Contribute to positive team culture by participating in team-building activities and being a supportive and empathetic colleague
• Identify additional project engagements with existing clients by leveraging existing client relationships
• Facilitate marketing efforts by organizing resources

QUALIFICATIONS

• Qualified candidates will possess the following education and work experience:
• Education: A bachelor’s degree or beyond is required. An advanced degree is desirable.
• Experience: A minimum of seven years of work experience (graduate level course work may be substituted for work experience) with increasing levels of responsibility is required (preferably in the public sector or in a consulting capacity). Prior project management experience is highly desired.

Candidates should be knowledgeable and experienced with a broad range of public sector workforce issues, such as:

• Human capital management
• Recruitment and retention
• Classification and compensation
• Consumer Price Index (CPI) analyses
• Collective bargaining
• Local and state government budgeting practices
• Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB)
• Paid leave
• Human Resources organizational functions and best practices
• Labor Costing
• Compensation analyses
• Health benefits
• Labor relations
• Pensions

In addition, qualified candidates for this role will possess the following knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Client Service: Excellent writing skills and effective personal communication skills are a must. Develops effective written correspondence. Actively listens to others and conveys information clearly and concisely. Can make effective presentations and routine communications to smaller audiences. Excellent listener.
• Effective Leadership: Demonstrates strong leadership abilities and serves as a strong role model for other team members. Acts as a valuable, collaborative team player, willing to take on a variety of roles within a team including leader, follower, and facilitator. Actively promotes team success and encourages others to contribute to the greater good.
• DEI Commitment: Successful candidates must be fully committed to and supportive of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
• Interpersonal Skills: Insists on accountability of self and others. Understands the relationship between individual and team objectives and the broader company goals. Resolves problems proactively. Demonstrates unwavering integrity and instills confidence in others.
• Other Attributes: Candidates should be detail oriented with strong organizational skills and should also be comfortable using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Most client deliverables in PFM’s Workforce Consulting Practice are developed in these three programs.
• Critical Thinking: Ability to think and act strategically. Looks at issues affecting the team from a larger, longer-term perspective than just day-to-day task-execution. Demonstrates flexibility when approaching complex situations and often uses creative methods/solutions to avoid conflicts and/or negative outcomes.
• Strong Analytical Skills: To be successful, candidates will be knowledgeable and experienced in conducting the types of analysis described above. While the Project Manager will be responsible for overseeing teams in performing these services, they will also be expected to have the ability to conduct such analyses on an as-needed basis to ensure project continuity.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, the following skills and experience are highly desirable:

• Familiarity with budgeting and/or costing of personnel initiatives
• Ability to perform analysis of pension and OPEB liabilities, as well as identify and evaluate potential structural reforms
• An advanced degree

If you are ready to experience the challenge, satisfaction, and reward of an opportunity with PFM, please apply at www.pfm.com/careers, or refer a qualified candidate.

PFM is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.

PFM is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, M/F/D/V) and maintains a drug-free workplace.