What are the criteria for a good resource planning ?

Building a high-performing and committed team remains a challenge for companies today, and more specifically for consulting firms and ESNs. How do you identify the right talent? Recruiting the right people for the right jobs is a big decision that can impact projects. Recruiting new subcontractors, or resource planning of your employees on projects remains a strategic move. You are looking for skills in your talent that will add value to the company's productivity.

On what criteria should the right candidates be selected?

The right questions to ask yourself to make your resource planning

I - A solution from resource planning for more visibility on talent skills

What experience do they have in this type of mission?

When you start your search among your employees and subcontractors, you are faced with a wide range of possibilities. Your management of resource planning can be made faster and more automatic by using Stafiz software. The tool allows you to identify the right people for your projects based on their experience and skills.

Stafiz is the most complete software you will find on the market thanks to the Smart resource planning algorithms that make it possible to optimise your resource planning. Your research work could not be easier! You have full visibility on your database and on the different profiles of your employees, subcontractors and freelancers.

It is important to ensure that the people you select for your missions already have experience in this field at a higher or lower level.

Have they worked with this type of client before?

Being able to see each person's past experiences also allows you to see if they have previously worked with the type of clients you have. This is an important and determining element in choosing the composition of your team for a project.

Your decision depends on your goals. Is this an opportunity for one of your junior staff to gain more experience? Are you short on time and need someone with great experience to ensure better results and success? What does your customer expect from you?

The answer to these few questions will guide the choice of the right collaborator for this project and for the long-term objectives of your company.

Do they have a specialty?

The talent search engine available in the resource planning tool will make your life easier. In addition, the tool allows each user to update their CV. This update can also be done automatically, according to the different missions on which each person works.

This functionality indicates more precisely the skills and specialty of each employee, based on the tasks to which they are most often assigned.

II - The availability of staff in your resource planning management

Where are your employees assigned?

Before you start allocating your resources to different parts of your project, you need to find them. Sometimes you will find certain collaborators suitable for the available missions, but they will not be. In your management of resource planning , have a vision of the workload of the people you want to work with.

They may already be assigned to a mission with a client, which is inappropriate. Indeed, you cannot ask this person to leave their responsibilities with their clients to work with you. You have two options: wait until this person is available or assign someone else to this task. This of course depends on the deadlines imposed on you.

If one of the resources that interests you is responsible for an internal mission, the issues are different and less important. It is possible to postpone your tasks if they are less urgent than your project. In which case, you can staff her where her skills are required.

What workload do they have?

With the assistance of a solution resource planning , you will have the visibility necessary to know the workload of your employees. Whether they are overloaded or underloaded. Based on this information, you will be able to make a decision about the team you are forming. Do you want employees who are 100% available and operational, or do you want to work with people already assigned to other missions, who will be able to give a little less time and energy to the tasks that you allocate to them?

The second possibility should not be eliminated, on the contrary. Many people are quite capable of working on several things at once and have proven success. Just know that the resource planning is just the beginning. Your ability to manage your project successfully will depend on how you collaborate with your team. If one of the people finds themselves overloaded, the responsibility to notify accordingly will fall on your shoulders. Taking care of your team members is part of project management.

How to notify:

  • Delegate certain tasks to other team members
  • Staff additional resources
  • Negotiate project end dates (add additional time)
  • Stay available and listen to your colleagues: sometimes, this is all it takes for them to regain the energy and motivation they need to provide their deliverables on time.

The workload of your employees is not always visible on a resource planning tool. Take into account that this workload is sometimes subjective, it represents what each person considers to be his workload (his own feeling). It is not always the prescribed or real workload, which is really achieved according to the objectives set. A tool cannot account for the total dimension of workloads. This is even more true today, when many of your employees are teleworking. Therefore, whenever possible, talk to your employees and assess their situation.

When are they absent?

Other things to check at resource planning are the holidays and absences of staff. They may be on holiday, sick leave, maternity leave or other. If the dates of their return do not coincide with your project, you will have to continue looking for people for your assignments.

 

Stafiz is a tool for resource planning which allows you to improve the management of your employees' workload and your performance. More than 10,000 users in 10 countries use Stafiz daily to simplify their profile searches

Discover the tool resource planning Stafiz

III – For one resource planning even more efficient

The localisation

THE resource planning is not just about finding the best skills or checking employee workloads. There are other details to take into account that can be game-changing. Ensuring that the people involved are close to the mission location is important.

But it is true that today many projects can be carried out remotely, especially in the digital sector. It's up to you.

The appetites

This element is a plus that can add value to your project and its quality. Taking into account the preferences of employees, by exchanging with them, is often positive. They are more engaged on projects that they are passionate about and in which they have talent and experience.

However, assigning an employee to a task based on their inclinations is not always possible.

Know the professional project

Just like with appetites, being aware of your employees' future projects and what type of experience they expect can strengthen their commitment and motivation on the project if they are taken into consideration.

Again, it is not always possible to have these discussions in advance nor the opportunity to assign each person to where they would prefer to be.

IV – Why take these criteria into account in your resource planning ?

Benefits for the employee and the company

The success of the project is guaranteed if the team is properly constituted. Your company will meet its production and profitability objectives if each competent person is staffed in the right place at the right time.

The employee will feel in their place and motivated. He will be able to use his skills and acquire new ones. The experience he will obtain will strengthen his CV and allow him to be staffed in the future on similar projects which will be adapted to his abilities and which will train him.

Employee retention

Retention and well-being of employees in business

As you will have understood, your employees will be more productive if the resource planning is effectively carried out. They will be more competent if you pay attention to the small details. The goal is to ensure that they stay and commit to working on new projects afterwards.

To conclude, your resource planning represents the search and assignment of collaborators who share a common vision for achieving the company's objectives and the success of the projects on which they are assigned. An effective team is a complementary team, where each talent has its place and fulfills its mission. A tool for resource planning remains the most efficient way to find the right people by having visibility on their schedule and skills. It allows you to optimize everyone's workload and centralize your recruitment requests. The tool's automatic suggestions and assignments will make your job easier.

However, there is no perfect solution for measuring each person's activity and workload. When possible, it is therefore appropriate to adapt and adjust your objectives by prioritizing the well-being of employees while ensuring the quality of projects.

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Stafiz helps professional services gain visibility and effectively manage their teams' work schedule. Optimize your resource planning and your profitability with software resource planning dedicated to your business.

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