Why Having M&E Skills Will Get You A Promotion Before The Year Ends.
How does it feel when you stagnate in the same position for long?
It feels discouraging especially when others are getting promotions and salary increment.
What could therefore be the secret to those who climb higher in career ladder? Perhaps, upskilling.
Monitoring and evaluation is essential to any project because it allows the collection and analysis of data and determine if it has fulfilled the goals. Monitoring begins immediately while evaluation is conducted when assessing how well the program performed.
Employers will always select someone with relevant hands-on M&E skills and competencies because this will lead to results-based end-to-end project lifecycles.
Here are 5 reasons why having M&E Skills will get you a promotion.
1. Improves Decision-Making
M&E involve gathering relevant information that is essential to picture the whole project. Data therefore drives decisions and with good monitoring and evaluation, it is easier to identify the mistakes, success and way forward for the success of future projects. What was leant during monitoring and evaluation therefore influences decision making for future projects.
2. Encourages Innovation
Monitoring and evaluation fuels innovative ways and methods of collecting data. Some fields may require specific methods while others may not and this means that using innovative tools provides new perspectives on data and new ways to measure success.
3. Helps in Identification of Problems Early
Occasionally, projects may not go as well planned but having a well-designed M&E enables the project to stay on track and perform well. Defining projects scope and establishing interventions to proactively act to offer effective solutions to a problem is essential during the process.
Mistakes and failures are inevitable and M&E pinpoints everything that went right and everything that went wrong during a project and this gives an opportunity for learning from the failures and mistakes. If you take an initiative to solve a problem, you may have an advantage over other employees to get promotion.
4. Improve Project Performance
A well planned M&E helps design objectives that are relevant, measurable and achievable. It also clarifies the process and interventions that will lead to the project’s outputs and deliverable. This allows observation of the progress, identification of the gaps as they arise and timely amendments to achieve the desired results. Making effort to add value to the company is one of the best ways to get promoted at work.
5. Effective Resource Allocation
M&E enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of resource allocation in project implementation. It facilitates the estimation of the value, worth and impact of project components; and enables the team to validate what works and what doesn’t and where more resources should be allocated or where budget should be cut.
It also allows the team to make appropriate changes to the financial budget to avoid unfavorable contingencies. Most project operations are intertwined around project budgets because finance dictates the timeline, interventions, or sets of resources.
Finally,
Monitoring and evaluation are essential to any project in any company. With relevant skills, you earn a promotion which enables you to assume a more important role, earn a higher salary and gain a heightened sense of accomplishment. To effectively advance your career, you should have excellent work performance.
Want to be an expert in monitoring and evaluation of the projects?