Staff Resource and Allocation Management

Who is this article for?

Organization leaders and ops managers needing guidance for resource and allocation management.

Resource allocation and management ensure a company’s resources are maximized and effectively utilized towards tasks, projects, and general activities (e.g., administration, operations, support). Resource allocation is a part of project management. It helps project managers best optimize workflow (scheduling, budgeting, and implementing) by measuring and evaluating the resources available to the organization and assigning them effectively to achieve organizational success.

All organizations have several resources vital to their success and achievement of their goals and mission. These include financial resources, equipment, materials, people, and time. It’s important for organizations to measure and evaluate its resources to be able to best allocate them, reduce waste, and achieve the greatest impact.

According to research published by McKinsey, 83% of executives believe that resource allocation is the most critical management lever for growth. Alternatively, it’s also one of the top problems in project management, according to Wellingtone's The State of Project Management 2021. The mismanagement of resources leads to financial losses, missed deadlines, time wastage and reduced impact.

Benefits of Effective Resource Management

Helps with planning and organizing projects - You can plan strategically and prevent over-and underspending, especially when resources are limited.
Boost overall team well-being - Poor resource management can lead to burnout, underutilizing staff, and, thus, general inefficiency.
Improves decision-making - Resource allocation and management help identify gaps within projects and provide the best path toward achieving organizational goals.
Increases employee specialization and productivity - Matching employees with the right skills to the right tasks will benefit the project and increase employee productivity and company culture.
Improves communication - Team members are kept in the loop and updated while completing their project tasks, making it easier for them to organize and manage their time.
Saves time and saves money - when you know how you are utilizing your resources, what is flourishing, and what is costing the organization while optimizing workflow, you save time and money.

Creating a Resource Allocation and Management Process

Map out the project
1. Know the project's scope to see what and whom you will need from your staff, and document it accordingly.
  1. What is the overall goal, and how will you determine success?
  2. What tasks are involved?
  3. What skills are needed for each task?
  4. What team members have the required skills or experience?
  5. Any dependencies?
  6. Any skill gaps?
  7. What resources or outside support is needed? (Software, freelancers or contractors, financial assistance?)
  8. Set project deadlines and individual task deadlines
2. We strongly recommend utilizing project management software to track projects. It keeps team members on task and everyone centralized, improves communication, and can even track time - revealing bottlenecks and streamlining workflow. Project management software will significantly aid in optimizing staff resources and allocating resources appropriately.
Check the current availability of the employees you plan to include in the project.
1. This is especially important if your organization runs multiple projects simultaneously. But, again, we don’t want to overwork or underutilize team members.
2. You can also consider hiring outside the organization (freelancers, contractors) if the team roster needs to gain the specific skill you need for the project.
Assign tasks and ask for feedback from the team.
1. Organize an onboarding meeting before the start of the project to set expectations, answer questions, and ensure each team member is clear on their role and has the resources and support needed for project success.
2. Input the project and all relevant tasks into a project management or tracking system with clear expectations, aligned effort estimations, descriptions, and due dates.
Monitor the progress of the project
1. This helps measure the utilization of your resources for the project
2. It is easier to pivot, make changes, and prevent delays when you know where everyone is within the timeline.
Once the project is complete, do a post-project evaluation.
1. Review the original project goal and determine if it was achieved and successful.
2. Determine what worked, what didn’t, and which areas can be improved in succeeding projects through employee, director, and/or client feedback.
3. Evaluate resources such as time spent for each project stage and/or by the department to determine bottlenecks and adjust as needed.

Best Practices

Make the project's goals and scopes very clear and detailed. These must also be communicated to the team members on the front end.
Create a system to address changes during the project. Ensure that all these changes are documented and communicated to the team.
Create a backup resource allocation plan. This is helpful when sudden changes, for instance, when an employee becomes sick or transitions out of the company, occur while the project is ongoing.
Be realistic in assigning resources to a project and planning for the project.
Generate regular reports to see if any pivoting needs to be done
Adopt a people-driven approach when it comes to resource allocation and management. High-achieving employees can mean the success and growth of your organization.

Recommended Tools

Project managers will benefit from using software and other online resource allocation and management tools. It’s beneficial if these online tools offer additional integrations with other software in the organization to ensure a more streamlined process.

Project Management

Project management software aids with setting and keeping expectations, team coordination, and the overall execution of a project. Typical features include project planning and scheduling, team collaboration, time tracking, reporting, project budgeting, and billing. Some software, particularly project management systems designed for project and portfolio management (PPM) will have resource planning functionalities, which would be the best choice for PM software.

Resource Allocation

In addition to PM software, there is software specifically designed to conduct resource allocation and management. Such software includes allocation functionalities and management, capacity and demand planning, real-time analytics and forecasting, scenario simulations, and skill repositories and matching.

Before downloading or paying for any software, check out our article on Nonprofit Software Discounts.