Resource Management Office (RMO)
The institutionalization of resource management, governance, structure and corporate management
The institutionalization of resource management: Benefits of central resource management
Whether companies opt for a central or central-decentralized resource management, it is time to give this governance body a name: The Resource Management Office – or the RMO for short. It is usually chaired by one or more Enterprise Resource Managers (ERMs). The tasks and responsibilities of the RMO are similar to those of the PMO: to act as a neutral entity in the interests of the company and to support team and project managers in the most efficient allocation of available resources.
The RMO also centralizes and institutionalizes resource management to promote the acceptance and adaptation of all stakeholders to new policies. As an escalation point, the RMO has to moderate and manage conflicts and bottlenecks and is responsible for their early detection. The RMO is also the point of contact for management, operations and PPM, as well as acting as the interface with HR to support personnel development and recruitment.
The trend in the corporations is towards RMO
An empirical study (Analyst Syndicate, The State of Resource Management, 2022) concludes that 38% of all companies surveyed already live and breathe the concept of centralized resource management, while 56% of companies are still decentralized. The remainder (7%) specified that they would pursue a hybrid (central-decentralized) approach involving a centralized system for transparency on capacities and skills, but individual units (departments and team leaders) taking responsibility for the actual resource assignments.
“To manage through an ongoing environment of skills and labor shortages requires identifying and forecasting skills needs and prioritizing how they are gained or acquiring another business. This cannot be done effectively in mid-to-large organizations without a degree of centralization.”
2022 The State of Resource Management, The Analyst Syndicate
Valkeen Expertise | We install your Resource Management Office
Implementing central (or central-decentralized) resource management requires certain preparatory work with regard to standards in capacity management, training of resource managers and a fully integrated process design. We develop a roadmap for your RMO that suits your company and level of maturity. A modern RMO (like the PMO for projects) is responsible for applied methodology, the enterprise resource management process, governance and the tools used. We accompany the implementation of RMOs for the most part at the corporate level and for SMEs. Read the Deloitte Case Study for more information.
