Project Manager: What is the cost of hiring?

Why recruit a project manager?

Managing a project yourself can be time consuming, costly and less effective. Project management is one of the most complex responsibilities to have in a business, and involves ensuring that every step of your project’s life cycle is developed carefully, working with your analytics team to help predict outcomes based on the data. Therefore, the skills necessary to be a good project manager are broad and require a highly dynamic personality. With a trained project manager helping to lead your team, you are more likely to save money while successfully delivering projects on time. 

Qualities of a great project manager:

• Methodical yet able to push projects forward to completion
• Focused on stakeholders
• A great leader for your team

Deciding between a full-time vs freelance project manager

Before you decide whether to recruit a permanent or freelance project manager, consider how many projects you will need them on board for. If you require a project manager for ongoing projects, then it will be more time and cost effective to recruit one on a permanent basis. 

You might choose to seek a freelance project manager if you run an agency and require an overhaul of the system that you use to manage ongoing client projects. Freelance project managers may also be useful to your business if you are part of a small web or digital marketing services team without a project management department, and require help managing project-related processes.

What are the different types of project manager?

You should look to recruit a project manager who understands how to manage projects in the field that your business operates in. If you run an agency with several clients, consider the kinds of projects that you usually work on with clients. 

• Content Project Manager: A content project manager works with clients on achieving briefs, usually building a team of content creators to deliver projects according to client goals.
• Healthcare Project Manager: A healthcare project manager delivers projects in a healthcare setting such as a clinic or care home, with the aim of improving operations within the facility or patient safety.
• Construction Project Manager: A construction project manager recruits an architect alongside a construction team in order to achieve company goals within budget and on time.
• Assistant Project Manager: An assistant project manager assists a project manager with the execution of your client’s projects, usually helping to ensure that projects with larger workloads and more complex processes are completed on time. 
• Legal Project Manager: A legal project manager often works within a law firm, using their specialised skills to help lawyers manage their projects better and improve budget allocation.

Where to find a project manager?

To find the right project manager for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Hiring internally: Talk to your teams and learn more about who is already leading projects successfully. You may find that your employees make great potential candidates for a project manager role. 
• Using a recruitment agency: You can use a recruitment agency to help find the right project manager for your job, potentially using them to headhunt the most competent candidates.
• Searching for project managers online: Many project managers advertise their experience and portfolio on a professional website. Try contacting them directly via their own website, via email or telephone.
• Advertising in local job bulletins: Advertise for a project manager at your local job centre, universities or in your own staff bulletin.

Post your job online: Try posting your job for a project manager on Indeed to find and attract quality project manager candidates.

Skills to look for in a great project manager

A great candidate for a project manager role will have the following skills and attributes as well as work experience that reflects:

• leadership abilities
• conflict resolution skills
• time management skills
• organisational skills
• diplomacy and tact
• resilience

Writing a project manager job description

A thoughtful description is important for finding qualified project manager candidates. A project manager job description includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position.

When writing your job description for a project manager, consider including some or all of the following keywords to strengthen the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms resulting in clicks on jobs for project managers, according to Indeed data:

• project manager
• project
• manager
• construction
• construction project manager
• project management
• project manager construction
• contracts manager

Interviewing project manager candidates

Strong candidates for project manager positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• time management strategies
• previous project management experience
• relevant business or other industry qualifications
• experience with conflict resolution
• interest in your company, its projects and your clients

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of project manager interview questions for examples (with sample answers).