If your institution has decided to hire an art service contractor for your project this does not relieve the internal project manager of responsibility. Always keep in mind that the art service contractor works for the institution. They provide labor, materials and services. The institution schedules and supervises the project and manages the budget. This is best done by having the project manager from the institution working on-site and over-seeing the project.
The institution project manager’s responsibility is to define the project goals, outline and communicate the day’s labor requirements to the contractor, monitor quality control, record progress, manage the project budget, record labor and anticipate labor needs.
The art service contractor will also have a project manager, or a project lead. Their responsibility is to communicate with the institution’s project manager, relay the day’s labor requirements to their staff as communicated by the institutions project manager, monitor and direct their staff’s labor and record and report labor used to both the institution’s project manager and to their home office for billing.
The institution has the final say on how an object is handled, packed and transported and in the order and staging of these tasks. The institution controls the project and the budget.
The art service contractor controls their staff and monitors the requests for addendums and contingencies. Addendums and contingencies are overages from the original contract agreement and will require additional charges.
Both parties must be aware of the contract requirements and both need to monitor when the project veers off budget.
The contractor works for the institution, but the contractor’s employees work for the contractor. In practice how does this relationship work?
The relationship between the institution and the contractor would be defined by a contract. The institution initiates the contract and identifies all methods, materials, techniques, staffing, scheduling deadlines and protocols that will be expected from the contractor. The contractor will review and accept the contract, or they will review and negotiate changes. All changes or adjustments must be discussed and agreed upon before the contract is signed binding both parties. These discussions will be between the principal project managers. The institution will be represented by an owner, vice president or senior manager and the contractor will be represented by an owner or sales manager. The important people missing from these discussions are usually the people that are responsible for the daily activity of doing the work required to complete the project. It is important for a project to be successful to have the on-site project mangers for both parties present and involved in all project contract negotiations and discussions. This way both the institutions and the contractor’s project managers know not only what is expected but they will know what is not expected and what possibilities have already been discussed and dismissed.
The institution will supply a schedule for the contractor’s staff. The schedule will outline arrival time, work start time, breaks and lunch times and end of day. The schedule should be an eight-hour day with lunch and breaks included or a seven-hour day paid by the institution with lunch and breaks paid for by the contractor. Who pays for the contracted staff’s lunch and breaks should be defined in the contract.
The project is the manifestation of the contract and the contract is defined by the schedule, the budget and the defined and agreed on roles of the institution and the contractor. The implementation of the contract requires communication between the institution, through their project manager, and the contractor through their project manager. The institution will have a daily schedule that needs to be met. This information needs to be reviewed with the contractor project manager who then places their staff in teams as needed. The institution monitors object packing quality control and the contractor monitors their staff. Communication between these two factions should be funneled through the two project managers. All secondary labor on the institution side of the project needs to understand that other than in the case of an emergency or in the case of specific object handling, all staff placement directions to the contractor staff must come from the contractor management. If there is need for disciplinary actions to the contractor staff the request again goes through their management. The institution can request that a contractor staff member not be used, or they may request preferred employees.
To ensure that daily interactions and relationships between the two groups goes smoothly both sides need to communicate clearly and accurately. Communications in the form of daily, weekly, monthly and end goals or calendars need to be prepared as data bases and schedules by the institution project manager and shared with the contractor project manager who should disseminate the important daily information. Both sides will monitor quality and quotas and if there are issues the institution project manager will raise them with the contractor project manager who will implement the requested action. If the requested actions are not taken, then the contractor sales manager or owner can be involved as this would be a breach of contract.
Daily morning goal setting meetings and end of day reviews are important to ensure that both parties understand the projects daily and big picture objectives and are working towards a common goal.
Chuck Agro - Project Management For The Arts 