How To Host an Effective Resource Planning Meeting?

The success and growth of a business that sells projects (IT Services, consulting firms) often rely on the ability to allocate resources in an optimal way. It is then a question of distributing the right talent, on the right projects, at the right time. Thus, the Meeting of resource planning makes it possible to arbitrate the distribution of resources and becomes strategic. But then, how Organize a resource planning meeting by taking into account both economic constraints and the aspirations of consultants?

In this article, we focus on the resource planning meetings in the context of service companies. We offer you a guide to understanding the Challenges of the resource planning meeting and above all, how to implement it in your company.

Why Host a Resource Planning Meeting?

Reconciling customer needs, skills, availability, preferences and profitability 

The resource planning meeting document the distribution of resources in a project, it brings together all the information necessary to coincide:

• the skills of the consultants,
• their availability, 
• their professional appetites and aspirations. 

All this, while integrating into timing and budget constraints;maintaining the profitability of the structure remains essential.

The resource planning is the activity of composing different scenarios in order to meet resource requirements. So, the resource planning meeting takes stock of the different desires and needs, structures them by role, by project, and clarifies the necessary skills.

Identifying gaps

The resource planning meeting highlights the needs in terms of resources, it thus makes it possible to identify the missing resources : either in terms of expertise or availability. It highlights the need to call on other teams or entities to cover these needs.

Strengthening employee cohesion and commitment

The resource planning meeting represents an opportunity to come together to exchange and express everyone's wishes. Indeed, the Preparation for the resource planning meeting allows employees to share their positioning preferences on the different offers. If these expectations are listened to, it can help to strengthen their motivation and commitment.

How To Host an Effective Resource Planning Meeting?

Define a process

An optimal resource planning meeting  starts with a clear process in place, which then provides a framework to follow. Among other things, he must specify the steps to follow to position himself when a new opportunity arises. The objective is to avoid the multiplication of communication channels (oral, email, Slack, etc.) in order to avoid a loss of information.

Use a dedicated tool 

While Excel may be sufficient in some contexts, it finds its limits as soon as the company grows. One resource planning then facilitates the organization of resources. In particular, it allows you to synchronize the data from resource planning and finance to make choices based on profitability criteria.

A comprehensive view 

Indeed, this type of tool centralizes the information needed for decision-making by allowing a view on who, what and when, all in real time.

In addition, it offers a view of current, upcoming or pending projects, as well as the availability of consultants. This facilitates The pre-resource planning and helps to delay the changes to be expected.

Time saving

Bringing all the information together in one place, available in real time, makes decision-making easier. This saves time. 

The all-in-one Stafiz solution even makes it possible to record decisions live, thanks to the tracking, traceability and commenting functionalities, thus constituting a history.

This helps to limit reporting and facilitates the sharing of information by offering the same level of information to everyone, live.

Opportunity Management

Stafiz helps you prioritize and organize your opportunities through statuses or notes. The pipe Syncs with your project planning for more reliable business proposals.

Our integrated CRM

Structure needs

In addition, Stafiz also allows you to structure needs. The Kanban view of open needs, with a breakdown by status, helps to arbitrate decisions.

In addition, the view of current opportunities helps prioritize and highlights emergencies to be addressed at resource planning.

Sometimes, a decision cannot be made in the resource planning (limited time, unforeseen events, etc.). With Stafiz's Kanban of Needs, you can organize priorities through statuses. 

Anticipating needs

The features offered by a dedicated tool like Stafiz provide a global view. The information on the current load and capacity then makes it easier to take a step back. In addition, in the event of additional needs, the platform offers visibility on peaks in activity. This makes it possible to anticipate the needs for subcontracting, recruitment or training.

In addition, Stafiz offers a vision of current resource needs, with the possibility of classifying them by BU, role or level. This comprehensive view facilitates the conduct of resource planning.

Stafiz allows you to record resource requirements on your projects and tasks. This serves as a common thread for your meetings resource planning.

Who should attend the resource planning meetings ?

The list of participants at a resource planning meeting depends on each organization. However, it is customary for consultants not to attend directly, but to be represented by their managers. This implies good preparation beforehand in order to meet the different expectations, and requires having a well-updated skills matrix .

The resource planning meeting usually includes directors of operations or teams, and sometimes the resource planning manager if this role exists within the company. The latter ensures the follow-up of needs and decisions: this role of responsibility requires seniority and experience.

What is the ideal frequency of a resource planning meeting ? 

The frequency of a resource planning meeting Also depends on each company: weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. The important thing is that this frequency is defined and regular.

The recommended rhythm for a consulting firm is usually once a week. Its duration varies according to the size of the structure, generally between 1 and 2 hours. Since these instances are regular, you can establish a sense of ritual. The more structured the exercise, the more pleasant it will be. In this way, meetings will be expected and appreciated, and therefore more effective. 

What topics are being addressed pending resource planning ?

Integrating future customer needs

The resource planning meeting deals with future customer needs. It makes a trade-off between desires, financial constraints and availability to distribute resources over the different projects, strategically.

While this can be done from the information gathered by managers, a feature makes it easier to match profiles with needs. Stafiz offers Smart Matching, which automatically suggests suitable profiles when searching for profiles.

Stafiz's Smart Matching suggests the most suitable profiles for the assignments directly in the search tool, or from the requirements screen. 

While the tool takes into account the necessary skills, availability and appetites, the human element remains essential: it is a question of identifying personalities who can collaborate together.

The resource planning meeting discusses upcoming projects, but also those in progress and on stand-by to make a well-thought-out arbitration. The resource planning generally allows you to display opportunities that seem to be confirmed or on specific expertise needs. These involve temporary transfers of resources, for example from one BU to another.

Responding to short-term needs

Project resource forecasting involves considering the short-term needs that arise as a result of a need for reinforcement or replacement.  

Misestimating resources, time, or skill level may require reinforcement, as well as unanticipated downtime or absences.

So, identifying these needs requires visibility into the availability of resources.

To make your planning easier, Stafiz offers you a view showing you when your consultants will be available again, and for how long. 

What are the challenges of the resource planning meeting ?

Have reliable and centralized information

The organization of a resource planning implies having all the necessary, reliable, organized and up-to-date information. Thus, it is essential to have a  

Resource management information system that centralizes data. Sometimes, it even includes data from the pipeline to let consultants position themselves. Stafiz, for example, allows you to notify your interest in an assignment with a simple click. 

This simple feature allows you to take into account the aspirations of your consultants. Thus, they can be assigned to different types of projects, boosting their engagement.

Meeting expectations

The resource planning meeting must ensure that all open needs are addressed. The profile must correspond to the expectations of skills, but also from the point of view of availability so that the selection is at the level of the client's expectations. In addition, it is also a question of prioritizing missions in a way that promotes profitability.

Promote balance and rotation of resources

The resource planning meeting ensures that the allocation of resources is optimal. The load load is optimized, without being overloaded either.

In addition, the resource planning meeting organizes the rotation of the workforce. This is essential:

• it promotes the commitment of employees, who are offered the opportunity to evolve and increase their skills,
• senior profiles can be taken out of a project if necessary, even in progress, to be placed on more complex and challenging projects,
• High-potential profiles, experts in a field, are distributed among the different clients. 

Employee turnover allows you to build an effective strategy to maximize customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction. relevance of the resource planning.

What are the best practices for setting up a resource planning meeting ?

Preparing for the meeting

A resource planning meeting requires a lot of anticipation, and careful preparation is required. Thus, managers must have gathered the necessary information from their teams, developed proposals or even a meadow-resource planning in order to propose them at the resource planning meeting. It is a question of acting, not simply sharing.

In addition, we recommend that you appoint a person in charge of the preparation and facilitation of the meeting. He must have up-to-date data in order to record decisions. Finally, a person in charge of timing will make it possible to gain in efficiency.

Show empathy

The resource planning requires a certain seniority and leadership because it is a question of refereeing. In addition, it is necessary to listen and empathize in order to reconcile the needs of the company and customers in a profitability approach, but also the expectations of employees in order to maintain motivation.

Track the right KPIs

Choose relevant KPIs to track will help you make your meetings more resource planning more relevant, by focusing on the essentials. Here are the KPIs we recommend tracking:

• the Rate of resource planning (or billable utilization rate),
• the occupancy rate, 
• the inter-contract rate, 
• the customer rejection rate,
• the number of open needs, 
• the number of needs resolved. 

Organize a resource planning meeting is essential for determining the allocation of resources. This must be distributed according to the needs of customers and the company, while taking into account the desires of employees.

The resource planning meeting is therefore the trade-off between the constraints of profitability, strategy, and requires leadership and empathy. So, equip yourself with a resource planningwill help you make informed decisions because it allows you to gather all the available information. However, although a dedicated tool will make your job easier, rigorous preparation combined with communication with the teams will remain your best assets for succeed in your resource planning.