Effective workload management is a crucial aspect of leading a successful team. If employees are always struggling to complete tasks and assignments on time, or most of them are having to work overtime to hit their targets, you might want to re-evaluate your workload management practices.
If you get it right, your team will work more efficiently towards achieving their goals and those of the company. Get it wrong, and you’ll be grappling with burnt-out and stressed-out team members. And as a recent Gallup report shows, stress is at an all-time high, with almost half of the world’s workers feeling the burden of stress.
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As you are aware, when people are stressed, the quality of work and productivity levels will drop, which can be devastating to your bottom line.
The good news is that you can implement a few strategies to overcome the challenges of managing the workload for your team. Here’s all you need to know about workload management.
What Is Workload Management?
At its core, workload management involves managing the distribution of tasks optimally among team members and ensuring they have enough time to complete them. It involves allocating tasks based on:
- each team member’s skill set,
- task priorities,
- workload capacity,
- resource availability, and
- overall company goals.
Team workload management, when done correctly, will ensure:
- Proper planning, prioritization, scheduling, and monitoring of tasks
- Team members aren’t overwhelmed with their workload
- Fewer inconsistencies when managing teams
- Better work efficiency
- Better utilization of budgets and resources
- Team members aren’t burned out and stressed
By utilizing workload management tools and honing their project management skills, team leaders can help their teams work more efficiently and accomplish their goals without overburdening them.
Who Should Be Managing a Team’s Workload?
The task of managing team workload is a crucial one as it contributes to the overall success of a project. For that reason, the responsibility should be bestowed on individuals who possess the necessary skills and expertise in people management, project management, resource scheduling, and capacity planning.
Given the weight of this role, team leaders, project managers, and team supervisors are the most natural candidates to manage team workload. These individuals have a deep understanding of individual and team capabilities, which is critical to ensure tasks are completed effectively and efficiently.
Usually, managers will need to collaborate on the planning and scheduling of resources and decide which ones to prioritize.
When selecting an individual to manage the team workload, ask yourself:
- Are they skilled in conflict resolution and problem-solving? How will they address issues that arise during the project?
- Do they possess strong communication skills to clearly articulate project expectations and goals to team members?
- Do they possess leadership skills? Are they able to provide feedback and support to team members?
10 Proven Strategies for Workload Management
Managing team workload isn’t a walk in the park. It has many moving parts and might feel complex and challenging. Some of the common causes of workload issues include:
- Setting unrealistic expectations
- Uneven workload distribution
- Lack of enough resources
- Poor people and project management
- A culture of working long hours
So, how do you manage workload more effectively? Here are useful workload management tactics to try:
1. Define Clear Objectives
Before anything else, you want to ensure that every team member understands their roles and expectations in the organization. Setting clear goals and objectives ensures that everyone is doing what they are supposed to, which can contribute to work efficiency.
On the flip side, failure to define clear objectives will lead to confusion and a drop in productivity. In addition, team members won’t be able to align their efforts toward achieving the goals.
2. Evaluate the Current Team Workload And Capacity
According to a Deloitte survey, 77 percent of employees reported having experienced burnout at their current job. That’s why it’s crucial to perform a workload evaluation to get a clear picture of how much work is already happening and what’s pending. Doing so will help you understand the team’s capacity before assigning more tasks.
You may want to gather data from previous months to understand who’s good at handling what and how much time tasks take to be completed by each team member. This will paint a clearer picture of how individuals work, how much time they use, and their output, which makes workload management a lot easier.
3. Create a Resource Management Plan
Once you have evaluated the team workload, you can embark on creating an effective resource management strategy. Resource management is all about fully understanding the availability of resources, in this case, the number of people on staff and the amount of work they need to accomplish.
Understanding the scope of work and if you have the right headcount can help you allocate resources in a manner that ensures no one is overworked. An excellent resource management plan provides visibility over each team member’s capacity and enables you to create a schedule that’s realistic and achievable.
4. Implement Better Task Estimation Practices
Workload management will be more successful if you set realistic deadlines for tasks. To accomplish that, you’ll need to estimate how much time individual tasks within a project take.
Consider involving team members in the task estimation process since they have a better understanding of what it entails to tackle a specific task. The information you gather will ensure you create a more realistic work schedule.
In turn, your employees won’t be working under constant pressure to deliver work on tighter deadlines, which can affect project outcomes.
Use the help of project management tools already utilized by the company to get insights into how similar projects and tasks have been handled in the past so you can map out a better path.
It’s also advisable to allow some buffer time in their schedule for unexpected disruption, delays, and contingencies.
5. Create a Resource Calendar
So, you’ve reviewed the team workload, created a resource management strategy, and even performed task estimation. You might think you’re done with the tough part of workload management.
However, how do you plan to coordinate resources across multiple projects? That’s where a resource calendar comes in. A resource calendar gives you a snapshot of your team’s schedules. That is, it enables you to know who’s available, what their skills are, and how to assign each team member tasks at their specific (or preferred working) times.
A resource calendar provides a high-level overview of your team’s capacity and the company’s resources, facilitating effective project planning. It’s a great tool to help prevent work overload and ensure constant visibility of team members’ availability.
6. Prioritize, Prioritize, Prioritize
Task prioritization is among the most important techniques of workload management. It means reduced wastage of resources and directing efforts and focus where it’s required the most.
Aim at prioritizing each team member’s to-do list so they don’t waste time trying to figure out what to do next. Otherwise, handing them a long list of tasks for them to decide where to start will not only feel overwhelming, it can be counterproductive.
In addition, avoid assigning tasks based solely on availability. For better work performance, assign tasks to individuals with the skill set to do the job well. This way, you’ll rest assured that the team member will not only do the best job but also have the job satisfaction of doing what they enjoy.
7. Be Flexible and Adaptable
As the project manager, you’ll encounter several challenges along the way. Your best option? Be ready to adapt and make changes to facilitate effective workload management. Since projects don’t always go as planned, you must be ready to address issues and make adjustments as necessary.
Your job as the project manager is to monitor project progress, identify issues, and nip them in the bud before they cause disruptions. In the same spirit, be sure to monitor individual performance to identify those struggling and step in to save the day, either by reassigning tasks or extending deadlines.
8. Conduct Regular Check-ins With Team Members
Don’t assume all team members are satisfied with their workloads. They could be dealing with personal issues that are negatively impacting their availability. That’s why it’s crucial to hold regular check-ins with every member of your team.
You can organize this to happen during scheduled weekly meetings or better, schedule frequent one-on-one check-ins. Use these check-ins to discuss workload issues and challenges they might be facing.
Doing so shows you care about their contribution to the company.
9. Avoid Micromanaging Your Remote Team
Research shows that 68 percent of employees who felt micromanaged reported it decreased their morale, while 55 percent said it hurt their productivity. Don’t be the manager who controls every aspect of a project and requests progress updates every 15 minutes, unless you want them to hate you!
When you micromanage your team, you’re telling them that you don’t trust them enough to accomplish tasks on their own and be responsible for the results of their work.
Instead, let your team use their creativity and innovation. Remember, “aha!” moments happen when the pressure is off. Replace micromanagement with guidance and support for what they are doing.
Additionally, show that you trust team members to get the work done by assigning tasks and getting out of their way.
10. Prioritize Work-life Balance
People work better when they are allowed time to unwind and enjoy their personal time. Otherwise, treating them like robots will lead to overworking and feeling overwhelmed. To encourage your people to balance work and life, ensure:
- They take regular breaks during their working days
- You allow flexible work schedules
- Team members take their annual leaves
- Remote team members have a shutdown ritual
Implement anything else that will help prevent work-related stress and anxiety among team members.
Tools that Help with Workload Management
When managing multiple teams, it can be challenging to track workload, especially for multiple projects. Doing it the traditional way simply won’t cut it. You’ll need the help of tools like Traqq that will simplify the task of managing the team workload.
The time tracking tool offers a range of features specifically designed to enhance workplace productivity. Apart from recording how much time each team member spends on a task, Traqq offers monitoring capabilities so you have to micromanage.
This means that you can identify areas where team members are spending too much time and track project progress in real-time. With such insight, you can take corrective action quickly before potential issues have a chance to impact the project’s overall success and goals.
Moreover, Traqq provides performance reports that allow team managers to analyze their team’s overall performance over time. These reports can prove valuable in recognizing team members who are excelling at their roles and those lagging behind, and need additional training and support.
Why Is Workload Management Important?
Any manager who’s serious about effective workload management understands that it isn’t just another buzzword. It’s essential to the creation of a healthy workplace environment. Where poor workload management prevails, the employees will struggle with stress, burnout, work pressure, and missed deadlines, all factors that can impact your employee retention efforts.
Implementing workload management practices prevents overburdening team members with work. What’s more, when your staff is provided with a manageable workload based on their skills and capabilities, they are more likely to be productive.
When team members are assigned tasks with realistic deliverables, you reduce the risk of higher turnover rates. In addition, workload management ensures projects are completed on time and within budget.
This, in turn, will result in improved business outcomes, and increased customer satisfaction.
Most importantly, effective workload management protects the mental, physical, and emotional health of your employees, which shows that you care about them as human beings.
Final Thoughts
You can’t create a healthy, productive, and efficient workforce without workload management best practices. With the strategies we’ve shared in our post, team leaders can reduce employee burnout, increase team collaboration, and enhance their team’s overall performance.
FAQs on Workload Management
Q: Is Workload Management a Skill?
Yes, workload management can be considered a skill as it involves the efficient distribution and management of work across your team. It requires abilities like delegation, prioritization, and progress monitoring. It’s essential for maximizing employee performance, improving the quality of work, and reducing burnout.
However, workload management is more than just a skill. It’s a critical component of every successful team leader. It can be accomplished with the help of time-tracking tools, project management software, and techniques that help you plan, schedule, delegate, and monitor work.
Q: How to Improve Workload Management
Here are useful tips for improving workload management:
- Communicate clearly goals, expectations, and deadlines with team members and other stakeholders.
Discourage multitasking and prioritize important tasks. - Do not micromanage team members. Instead, implement a powerful time-tracking tool like Traqq to monitor work progress and reassign tasks or adjust deadlines accordingly.
- Evaluate your team’s workload and assign tasks based on availability, skill set, and expertise.
- Promote a culture of work-life balance to prevent burnout and stress.
Q: What Is a Workload Management Plan?
A workload management plan is a document or project calendar that outlines steps and strategies for effectively managing your team’s workload to achieve maximum productivity. Typically, a workload management plan lists all tasks in order of urgency and importance, their deadlines, and a plan for delegating the tasks.
It helps with resource utilization, breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones, and distributing them equally based on team member’s skills, capacity, and availability.
Q: What Is a Workload Management Plan?
A workload management plan is a document or project calendar that outlines steps and strategies for effectively managing your team’s workload to achieve maximum productivity. Typically, a workload management plan lists all tasks in order of urgency and importance, their deadlines, and a plan for delegating the tasks.
It helps with resource utilization, breaking down large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones, and distributing them equally based on team member’s skills, capacity, and availability.
