Resource allocation is a key aspect of project management. If neglected, it may have an adverse impact on your project. Resource overallocation has become a common hazard these days. This may happen when you are leading multiple projects with a limited number of resources. There is a higher probability of overallocation particularly when your resources are involved in various tasks simultaneously.
If project managers plan their resource allocation efficiently, then your projects stay on track and within the pre-determined budget. After the project schedule is created and you assign the resources, you can assess if there is any overallocation. But before that, let’s understand what exactly does resource over allocation.
What is Resource Overallocation?
Overallocation of resources happens when a business has insufficient resources for completing and delivering the critical tasks in a project within an established timeframe. This error can also be termed over-booking, over-commitment, or over-scheduling. In simpler words, overallocation is when you have assigned too much work to your available resources.
Overallocation occurs if there are fewer employees and too much work or projects that may lead to resourcing risks. In this case, people have to work overtime as they are overutilized and that results in frustration, burnout, poor performance, bad quality deliverables, etc. It can also lead to attrition or even loss of some critical projects or clients.
The Negative Impacts of Resource Overallocation
1. Your project schedules can be derailed
When you need to align a resource on a critical project, what do you do? Find the most suitable candidate as per the required competencies, check his/her availability, and align them; isn’t it? Now, imagine you have assigned this talented and experienced team member on a high-visibility project for a very important client and just towards the delivery date, your resource goes missing.
Your project schedule will go for a toss. You find out that you missed factoring in the planned leaves in the project plan. But if you had a resource planning software, you could just open the resource calendar in the software and check the availability of the resource you have selected.
2. Employee burnout and dissatisfaction
When your team members are overly busy or overloaded with tasks, they will tend to be frustrated and not so motivated. Overallocation eventually leads to dissatisfaction, and burnout, and even has a negative impact on people’s performance and productivity. In the longer run, those employees will start looking for better job opportunities that have a work-life balance.
3. Lower productivity and impact on revenues
Also, when your team is too stretched or overburdened, they may end up missing deadlines, thereby lowering the revenue. Organizations that have a stressful and long work hour culture usually spend more on their resources as they have to eventually hire more employees than necessary to be able to meet the demand. Therefore, longer working hours don’t necessarily mean more output; rather, it may lead to lesser productivity and more stress levels.
4. Scope of more errors and lower quality work
Imagine if you had to work 12 to 14 hours every day. You may be able to pull along initially but in the longer run, you will start feeling stressed and working such long hours will negatively affect your performance. Overallocation always has a risk of lower quality of deliveries and higher error rate. If the projects are not allocated efficiently, there could be harmful long-term effects on a business’ reputation and profitability. As a company, you would fail to deliver top-quality projects and can’t survive in today’s competitive times.
Top Features in eResource scheduler that Prevent Resource Overallocation
1. Tool’s scheduling chart offers precise availability and utilization data
With resource planning software such as eResource Scheduler, you can view resource availability and utilization both in total hours and percentage on the scheduling chart. This makes it simple to identify the best resources that have the bandwidth to accept your project. You can easily track the utilization and productivity of your team and ensure they are using their time wisely and in the best possible manner on billable work. You can also check the availability of resources and then allocate them to work. This ensures that you do not end up over-allocating tasks to them.
In addition, estimating the utilization on a regular basis enables to assess the performance and project status, and do feasibility studies for various projects in your pipeline. The reports you can pull out from this web-based resource planning software help you in deciding if your resources are being utilized productively or not. You can also check if the deliverables are going to meet the client’s expectations. If by chance you notice any gaps in planned and actual effort or utilization, then you could take remedial measures for it.
2. Accurate staffing plan
eResource Scheduler also helps you create accurate staffing plans. A staffing plan is a document that lists the skill sets that you need in your resources and how many of those resources you need to complete a specific project. This plan includes details such as: Is there any additional number of people you may need? What are the core competencies you are looking for? And at what stage or milestone of the project is each person required?
Thus, the ideal way to battle resource overallocation is by preventing it altogether—and putting a staffing plan in place well in advance. This is because the staffing plans enable you to forecast which team members would be available for each forthcoming project by plotting out their leave plans and other commitments well ahead of time.
3. Gantt charts of this resource planning software ensure efficient scheduling
Gantt chart view of the leading resource planning software, eResource Scheduler, shows you the scheduled time along with available data for each team member on multiple projects for a particular time. This makes it easy for you to identify those employees who have available time slots suiting your schedule and then you can align them on your project.
This feature helps you easily build your project team according to the required skill sets. If in case, as many full-time employees with the competencies you need are not available, then you can think of hiring contractors or freelancers too. The Gantt chart view enables efficient and accurate resource planning. Additionally, you can also decide what roles you need, finalize the contracts, and guidelines, freeze the budgets, etc. Hence, by implementing a resource scheduling software like eResource Scheduler, you get accurate resource availability and productivity reports.
4. Monitor resource availability in real-time
A resource planning software such as eResource Scheduler also helps you to determine the exact availability of resources and thereafter schedule employees on projects. The software displays the real-time availability of employees on an hourly, per day, or monthly basis.
Also, when any new booking is added to the system or some current booking is updated or deleted, the availability data gets updated automatically. So, it is very simple. You just login in to the tool and view the up-to-date resource availability and spot the most suitable person for your projects.
5. Resource overload notification feature
eResource Scheduler is a top-rated, multi-user resource management software that automatically monitors and gauges if any team member is overloaded or overbooked more than his or her capacity. In case this happens, the system will display a resource overload warning both in hours and percentage. Accordingly, you can decide if you wish to still go ahead with that booking or abandon that action. With this feature, it’s very simple to monitor all bookings and avoid the overallocation of resources. You can also assess your team’s total effort spent on each activity and project and then utilize that data to strategize for future projects.
6. Automated and efficient resource management
If you want to enhance the efficiency of your resources while avoiding burnout, dissatisfaction, and eventual losses, use an advanced tool such as eResource Scheduler that automates your resource management process. Using this tool will enable you in automating and streamlining resource planning and project and resource management processes. It will also remove any scope of human errors and allow you to scale team members up or down in case the demand fluctuates.
eResource Scheduler Helps you Prevent Overallocation and Deliver Top-Quality Projects
Do you aim to utilize your resources optimally while making sure that you avoid overallocation? Choose the award-winning resource planning software, eResource Scheduler for efficient staffing, balanced allocation, and to find the best-fit people for your projects.
eResource Scheduler not only offers real-time visibility of all resources, projects, and status, but it also helps to raise your resource utilization anywhere by 18 to 30%. It also helps to do load levelling across multiple resources and does accurate scheduling estimations based on past actuals.
You can draft precise hiring plans based on estimated shortages, gaps, or excesses. This cloud-based tool also helps in reducing bench-time and enhances overall revenue. So, if you wish to nail a perfect and accurate resource plan, sign up for this tool’s free trial before you actually invest in it.
