You can run the most successful project management office (PMO) your industry has ever seen, but it’s of limited value if no one knows about it. To get the business engaged in your PMO, you need to understand how to raise awareness of your PMO.

Having recently covered novel and emerging communication methods your PMO can use, it’s time to explore:

  • Why you need to tell the business about your PMO
  • What message you need to deliver when raising PMO awareness
  • How to go about raising awareness of your PMO

To help you develop and execute a communication plan for your PMO.

Why do I need to raise awareness of my PMO?

Whatever kind of PMO you run, you won’t work in isolation. PMOs need to work across the business to get the job done, collaborating with human resources, IT, accounting, customer care – pretty much every area of the business.

Making sure that everyone in the business knows the function of your PMO is invaluable. The benefits include:

  • Smoother project rollout – when one of your projects requires changes to other areas, having an established relationship and awareness of your office will make the changes easier to implement.
  • Deeper talent pool – having more people in the business know what you do will mean more people interested in working with or for your PMO. Establish your PMO as a centre of excellence and watch the talent gravitate towards your office.
  • Better practices across the business – telling leaders across the business about effective management practices should raise the whole business, and your PMO can learn about different management styles and processes through stronger personal networks.
  • Demonstrate value – Every area of a business needs to justify itself and its costs, so letting everyone know what your PMO achieves and how will secure the future of your office.

What message should I be delivering about my PMO?

You need to learn what people across your business already know about your PMO. You can achieve this through informal networking or a more formal survey. Look at what people already know and the actual functions of your office and find the gaps.

There are two main strands in terms of what the business needs to know about your office. First, you can let everyone know about your successes and achievements. Talking about your wins will ensure everyone across the business understands your financial and strategic contribution.

Next, you need to tell people what you can do for them. If you have a business-focussed PMO that pitches projects to the C-suite, you can invite other business areas to pitch ideas for projects to you.

A process and monitoring, or traditional PMO can help other parts of the business design new processes. Since your office knows how to track progress you can bring that knowledge across the business.

The bottom line is, you need to raise awareness of the value that your PMO can offer to the wider business. This will embed your presence and help the role of your PMO to develop in importance.

How do I raise awareness of my PMO?

There are lots of different methods of communication open to your PMO. Some tools are more suited to general information about what your office does, such as infographics and data visualisations.

To really draw in employees from across the company, you can hold events that demonstrate your value. A virtual session on how to suggest a project or getting the most out of the new tool you just introduced will let people see you’re there to help.

To help people know what it is that your office does, you can:

The take home

Knowing how to raise awareness of your PMO should help to ensure its long-term survival. The more important your office is to the business, the harder it would be to lose it in a restructuring. You need to choose what to tell the business about you. It’s not just about saying how amazing your office is, you need to offer some value to build trust. Getting the communication method right is vital in the process, and there are lots to choose from.

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