What is the resource planning ?

Capacity planning, resource planning , resource management... although these terms may seem vague, they all refer to human capital , which is essential to master to ensure the balance and growth of a company. In this article, we focus on resource planning , which consists of organizing the human resources available on projects.

Find out what resource planning is, how it is strategic for your company and how to implement it effectively within your company.

resource planning : definition and advantages

resource planning is one of the building blocks of resource management , in French called resource management . We are mainly talking here about human capital.

This resource management includes: 

• Capacity planning , which makes it possible to identify employees suitable for building high-performance teams
• resource planning , which includes, among other things, resource scheduling . This involves strategically placing profiles on different projects.

Finally, by resource planning we mean the ability to place the right person(s) to carry out a project . Specific tools such as resource planning software resource planning also been designed to optimize this task. They provide real-time visibility on the allocation of your resources to different projects, clients, internal projects such as training.

The advantages of setting up a resource planning effective

• Find the best profiles for given projects 

resource planning considerably improves sourcing thanks to a global vision of the allocation of your resources. Thus, it becomes easier to find the ideal profile for a project based on the availability of your employees, their desires and the needs of the company at a given time.

• Anticipate recruitment and training needs

Recruitment and training are greatly facilitated by good management of resource planning . Indeed, it allows us to answer strategic questions such as:

• Are employees overstaffed?
• Are the teams lacking resources? 
• What types of profiles should be recruited?
• What type of training should be allocated?

A resource planning tool like Stafiz will allow you to quickly analyze employee occupation over the coming weeks and months. You will then be able to identify your recruitment and training needs , and anticipate them .

• Optimize utilization rate of your teams (and gain financial visibility)

Effectively managing your resource planning will help you define your forecasts . In fact, you will be able to determine the forecast utilization rate of your employees, thus avoiding overloads and underloads .

This visibility will help you better distribute the workload and increase productivity. In addition, if your tool integrates project financial management functions like in Stafiz, you will be able to anticipate your financial data: your forecast turnover and your margins.

• Contribute to the professional development of your teams

Obtaining visibility on the skills and availability of your employees will improve the knowledge you have of your employees and the people around you. You will thus be able to strengthen your relationships and offer them projects that correspond to their profiles , as well as their appetites .

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What are the challenges of resource planning ? 

resource planning is part of a strategic approach to business management; it indeed builds the foundations of success . Two aspects should be considered with particular attention: the financial and the human .

• Guarantee customer satisfaction

A strategically designed resource planning will allow you to best carry out the projects entrusted to your company. The objective is to deliver maximum quality , within the set deadlines , in order to meet the expectations of your customers and increase your customer satisfaction .

Good resource planning will help you renew your contracts but also land new ones thanks to your ability to address them and your good reputation .

• Retain talent

The consequences of a bad resource planning

Be vigilant, the consequences of poor management of capacity planning and resource planning can be disastrous: loss of time, stress, frustration, loss of motivation or even resignation and bad reputation.

You risk conveying a negative image of your company, thus complicating your recruitment . In addition, poor management of resource planning can also impact your company's finances . Indeed, productivity and profitability can be significantly impacted by poor human resources planning.

Advancing teams 

Your responsibility as a company is to help your employees progress . Therefore, you must entrust them with projects adapted to their:

• SKILLS
• Expectations in terms of development
• Appetites
• Geographic and time availability (location, part-time management)

You will thus help to establish a stimulating work environment in which your employees will flourish and put all their energy into contributing to the growth of the company . With good resource planning , you maximize your chances of retaining and recruiting the best talent.

Select suitable profiles and build the best teams

To choose the most relevant profiles for a project, establish needs sheets by defining:

• Required experience
• The type of profile sought
• The skills needed
• Availability dates
• The location of the mission 

Depending on the functionalities of your tool resource planning , you will be able to search among your colleagues for the profiles that best match your needs. This is particularly the case with Stafiz. 

• Help with decision making

As mentioned in our article dedicated to the implementation of business management , clear visibility is essential for coherent decision-making.

A reliable and relevant vision will not only simulate , but also measure performance . This will also help you prioritize missions to stay competitive.

How to set up a resource planning optimal in your business?

Some good practices but also a relevant choice of tools are necessary to implement effective resource planning .

Integrate the resource planning in a business management approach

Your employees being the heart of your reactor, your resource planning has a key financial dimension for your company and must therefore be integrated into project management control . Monitoring and anticipating the financial impacts linked to your resource planning will help you control your performance and profitability.

You must be able to accurately associate costs with your resources and other elements. Therefore, calculating your costs according to your capacities and resource planning needs is essential.

Use a platform resource planning efficient

A powerful tool like Stafiz will allow you to centralize and consolidate your data and increase productivity. No more complicated resource planning meetings and corrections via messages.

With Stafiz, you benefit from everything we described previously: capacity planning and resource allocation . Stafiz goes even further and integrates financial project management functions in forecasting: the projects, operations, HR and finance teams collaborate effectively!

Stafiz combines the visions of “time”, namely the allocation and monitoring of time, the “tasks or phases” vision and the “costs” vision associated with the previous elements (you can also decorate these visions). You can, among other things: 

• Monitor future turnover, project progress and calculate project margins “on landing” (at the end of projects)
• In addition to in-house talent allocation, you can allocate outsourcing or other costs
• Be alerted in advance if initially planned budgets are exceeded

• Automatically update the workload and capacities of employees using the data reported in the Time Time and Activity management Management section.

Learn more about the resource planning

By using a resource planning tool, no double entry on your different tools, you will save time for your entire company and help improve the reliability and precision of data.

Ensuring the satisfaction of your customers and employees requires implementing resource planning optimal resource planning strategy. One of the advantages obviously remains financial . You monitor profitability and can make the best decisions, for example: renegotiate with the client or modify your resource planning with less expensive collaborators. In addition, you also help provide a fulfilling and motivating work environment for your teams.

Your objective as a leader or manager will be to bring financial and human aspects together , by integrating resource planning into data resource planning based business management . Use resource planning tools like Stafiz to help you gain visibility and allow you to make informed decisions .