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.

How do you select the right candidates?

The right questions to ask when choosing 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's important to make sure that the people you select for your assignments already have experience in this field to a greater or lesser degree.

Have they ever worked with this type of customer?

The ability to see each person's past experience also allows you to see if they've worked with the type of customers you have. This is an important and decisive element in choosing the composition of your team for a project.

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

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

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 feature gives a more precise indication of the skills and specialization 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 loaded?

Before you start allocating your resources to different parts of your project, you need to find them. Sometimes you'll find that certain people are right for the job, but others won't be. In your management of resource planning, you need to have a vision of the workload of the people you want to work with.

They may already be working on an assignment for a customer, which is inappropriate. In fact, you can't ask this person to leave their customer responsibilities to work with you. You have two options: wait until this person is available, or staff someone else on this task. This, of course, depends on the deadlines imposed on you.

If one of the resources you're interested in has an internal assignment, the stakes are lower. It's possible to shift their tasks if they're less urgent than your project. In this case, you can staff them where their skills are needed.

What kind of workload do they have?

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

The second possibility is not to be ruled out - on the contrary. Many people are perfectly capable of working on several things at once, and are proving their worth. Just remember that resource planning is only the beginning. Your ability to manage your project successfully will depend on how well you collaborate with your team. If one person is overloaded, the responsibility for advising accordingly will rest on your shoulders. Taking care of your team members is part of project management.

How to notify :

• Delegate certain tasks to other team members
• Staffing additional resources
• Negotiate project completion dates (add extra time)
• Staying available and listening to your employees: sometimes that's all it takes to give them the energy and motivation they need to deliver 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.

 

III - For even greater performance resource planning

Location

The resource planning website is not just about finding the best skills or checking out employees' workloads. There are other details to consider that can make all the difference. Ensuring that the right people are close to the job site is important.

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

Appetencies

This element is a plus that can add value to your project and its quality. It's often positive to take account of employees' skills by talking to them. They are more committed to projects they are passionate about, and on which they have talent and experience.

Nevertheless, it's not always possible to staff an employee for a task according to his or her skills.

Knowing your career plan

As with appetencies, being aware of your employees' future projects and what they expect in terms of experience, can fortify their commitment and motivation to the project if they are taken into consideration.

Once again, it's not always possible to have these discussions upstream, or the opportunity to assign each person where they'd prefer to be.

IV - Why take these criteria into account at resource planning ?

Benefits for both employee and company

Project success is guaranteed if the team is properly assembled. Your company will meet its production and profitability targets if every competent person is in the right place at the right time.

The employee will feel at home and motivated. They will be able to apply their skills, and acquire new ones. The experience they gain will strengthen their CVs and enable them to be staffed on similar projects in the future, which will be adapted to their abilities and which will train them.

Employee retention

As you will have understood, your employees will be more productive if resource planning is carried out efficiently. They'll be more competent if you pay attention to the little details. The aim is to get them to stay and commit to working on new projects in the future.

To conclude, your resource planning represents the search for and assignment of collaborators who share a common vision for the achievement of the company's objectives and the success of the projects on which they are staffed. An effective team is a complementary team, where each talent has its place and fulfills its mission. A tool such as resource planning is the most effective way of finding the right people, with visibility of their schedules and skills. It allows you to optimize the workload of each person and centralize your recruitment requests. The tool's automatic proposals and assignments will make your task easier.

However, there is no perfect way of measuring everyone's activity and workload. Whenever possible, you need to adapt and adjust your objectives, prioritizing employee well-being while ensuring project quality.

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

To find out more about the Stafiz platform, request a demo.

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