One of the biggest grant management challenges facing awardees comes when staffing changeover occurs mid-grant. Every position fills a vital role and holds an integral piece to the puzzle. When working under a grant, compliance is high-stakes and the accurate transfer of information is vital so nothing gets lost or misreported.
There is no way around it, especially when it comes to multi-year grant management: the team you started with will not be the team you finish with. But that’s okay so long as your organization employs strategies to address this.
- First, use discretion when assigning roles from the beginning. When looking for key leaders and those who will be responsible for supervision, training, and information management that spans the entire term of the grant, be picky and be honest. While there a will be changeover throughout the course of the project, do everything you can to make sure that key leadership roles stay consistent.
- While you don’t want to duplicate work or responsibilities, you also don’t want to end up in a situation where only one person is privy any vital part of the project. There are many reasons that someone may leave a project suddenly, and that’s why you need a contingency plan in case of emergency. Structure responsibilities so that no one person can leave the project and take a big chunk of it with them.
- Be detailed when creating manuals for positions, technology, methodologies and processes, and data reporting at the beginning. That way, if a position needs to be filled, training is streamlined and new hires can be brought up to speed.
- If possible, fill central positions through promoting someone already working on the project who is familiar with the information, the project, the personalities and the workflow.
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