Planning for success: how modern technologies can help organisations manage resources and remain resilient

With fewer employees expected to do the same amount of work, it's critical to work smarter, not harder

This year was supposed to be one of business promise. For many, January marked a fresh start in a ‘post-Covid' world. The beginning of putting the previous two years of turmoil and uncertainty behind us. As part of this, businesses across all industries set ambitious bounce-back targets and planned to be more aggressive than ever on their journey to achieving them.

However, the first two months of the year showed us that the pandemic battle is far from over, as businesses across all sectors were rocked with Covid-related staff shortages. At the time, it was predicted that self-isolation requirements could cost the economy £35 billion in January and February alone.

As the general public start to implement the government's ‘Living with Covid' plan, organisations must once again adapt. Although self-isolation is no longer a requirement, unwell employees must rest to recover and, whilst they do so, business objectives - no matter how ambitious - still need to be met. The number of projects will increase even when headcount does not, putting added pressure on the employees that are left.

Against this backdrop, it's never been more important for business leaders to have full visibility of resources to plan and forecast needs against capacity. This will not only enable them to ensure productivity whilst some employees are absent, but it also means they can help to reduce burnout amongst those that are still working.

Working smarter

In our current landscape, it's never been harder to predict what's around the corner. Whether it's Covid-related staff shortages or the Great Resignation, businesses need to be prepared to deal with the unexpected when it comes to managing their people. With fewer employees expected to do the same amount of work, it's critical to work smarter, not harder. As such, resource management needs to be prioritised.

Resource management is the process of taking the finite resources at a company's disposal and organising them to meet your goals. Accurate resource management is vital to ensuring that projects are delivered on time and objectives are met. If a project starts without enough resources on hand, or without the right job role resources available, it could have severe consequences, both financially and in terms of customer relationships and trust.

Using modern technologies - such as a collaborative work management tool - can help organisations to get a handle on the complex world of resource management. These tools increase overall visibility, providing information on each team member's capacity, workload, and availability. This enables managers to evaluate scheduling scenarios before assigning work, meaning that tasks can be fairly balanced and no one is left feeling overwhelmed.

Once the team's workload has been accurately accessed, businesses are ready to take their resource planning to the next level. They need to be able to continually track, optimise, and adjust their resourcing, planning for different scenarios across the entire portfolio. The best solutions on the market will go beyond providing a basic view of team workload and capacity and adopt a more holistic view. Businesses should choose a customised solution that can grow with them, managing project tasks, budgets, and resources end-to-end. It is only then that they'll be able to face the unpredictable head on.

Optimise your team

Accurate resourcing isn't just about managing reduced teams. It also has a big role to play when it comes to attracting and retaining the right talent.

Collaborative work management tools can be used by team leaders and managers to compare resource against actual availability. Flexible planning capabilities and real-time capacity and project progress updates mean that this can be assessed on an ongoing basis. Work can then be delegated based on both skill and capacity, ensuring that employees are not given tasks that they do not have the time or headspace to think about.

If workloads are balanced, employees are less likely to become stressed and, as a result, there will be fewer cases of burnout. This has a direct impact not only on productivity but also on retention, with recent research discovering that stress causes about 50% of workers to look for another job and 25% to quit their current jobs altogether.

Resource management is not one-size-fits-all. Different organisations will have different practices depending on their size, team structure, volume of work, business model, and work management sophistication. However, all organisations that get resource management right will be one step closer to achieving optimal team performance. This will enable them to boost productivity and remain resilient, no matter what's around the corner.

Andrew Filev is founder and CEO at Wrike