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Federal Market Intelligence for Small Business |
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M-P rule limits PM hiringThe Small Business Administration’s new mentor-protégé final rule has been enthusiastically received, but it may have created a problem when it comes to protégés hiring a project manager. Under the new rule, the protégé cannot hire the project manager from its mentor. While this change was described as a “clarification,” it was not previously included in the proposed rule and the public did not have a chance to comment on the change, according to an analysis by Jon Williams, partner at the Piliero Mazza PLLC law firm. “If SBA had sought public comment on this new requirement, the small business community (as well as large business mentors) surely would have voiced strong objections.... SBA’s new rule will force small businesses to forgo the mentor as a source of a new hire for the project manager position. This undercuts a key aspect of the mentoring relationship and makes the mentor-protégé joint venture harder to form than it should be,” Williams wrote in a blog entry. SBA said the provision is needed because the project manager may return to the mentor after the contract is done, providing no long-term benefit to the protégé. But Williams believes that giving protégés the flexibility to hire a project manager from outside its workforce is better for the long-term growth of the protégé. Additionally, by using a project manager from the mentor firm, the protégé is maximizing the benefits of the mentor-protégé relationship, he added. “Having an experienced project manager on staff with the protégé is the type of assistance that can make a real difference for the protégé and should be encouraged, rather than prohibited, by the new rules,” Williams asserted. He is urging that SBA not implement the project manager provision, at least until the public has a chance to comment.
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