How to effectively manage your team’s workload

Managing team workload and keeping track isn’t easy.  Workload management is a technique that can help keep your team performing at their best, even when resource numbers are limited and deadlines are getting closer.

In this blog entry, we’ll highlight everything you need to know about workload management. We’ll cover what it is, why it’s important and will explore nine great tips to managing workload effectively.

What is workload management?

Workload management is crucial, especially when figuring out how to schedule film production to distribute tasks effectively among team members. Workload management is also the ability to distribute work equally, giving each employee their fair share and not overwork them. As overworking your team members could really affect the team's performance.

Workload management is a strategic approach to planning, estimating, and tracking the work that enables you to balance workload demands across the organization and meet the deadlines made to clients.

Why is workload management important?

Effective team workload management is very important for your business to succeed and your team's overall project performance. Developing a workload management plan is something everyone in your business could benefit from. It will ensure the teams remain on task and the work that needs doing gets done.

There are many elements to consider when making  your workload management plan, we will list nine tips to help you while creating it! 

Tips for effective workload management

1. Take time for planning

Taking your time to plan tasks and projects is very important. No matter what you’re planning, if you give yourself plenty time that will give you the ability to sit back and focus on what’s really important. It is also worth allowing yourself time to review your plan, as you may find mistakes.  Setting an estimate for each task, defining the start and end date, giving your task a name and description, will have a huge impact on how you achieve your company's goals. Using a scheduling software will also help you with this step as it will allow you to have a clear overview of everything you need.

2. Get to know your resource availability

To make the most of your team's time and talents, it is important to have clear visibility of all the assets you need. This becomes more difficult if you have multiple projects simultaneously. If you are assigning and tracking multiple projects and staff then it's highly recommended to get a simple project management software.

Once you have a clear picture of all you need you will be able to plan and allocate the project tasks in advance! 

3. Estimate tasks and set achievable deadlines

4. Allocate tasks fairly and evenly

If you have a team working on a lot of projects, then the ability to adjust tasks on a daily or weekly basis can make a big difference in the productivity.

Team workload management requires that the management team has the correct project management skills and delegate work well, therefore they should give out tasks according to the team members’ capabilities, job position, and role at the company. 

5. Split tasks into subtasks & make to-do lists

Splitting tasks into subtasks will help you structure the project plan and everyone’s expectations with it. It will also be easier to manage your workflow in case you need to reschedule or have some unpredicted changes.  Our powerful SaaS task and project management solution, Cirkus is the perfect tool for this. Cirkus will make it easy for your team to see what needs to be done! Check off tasks and projects while seeing your priorities with clarity.

Creating to-do lists is one of the most popular workload management steps. Breaking down your responsibilities can make you focus and organise better as it gives you a sense of structure. To-do lists can reduce anxiety and stress by bringing some order into your workflow.

6. Avoid multitasking

If you have a lot going on, it can be easy to think that you can multitask and finish faster. But you are wrong, multitasking will decrease your efficiency as you constantly shift your thoughts to different things.

In order to avoid multitasking, you should stick to working on one task at a time and only focus on it. This is why your to-do lists are important as they will allow you to focus on one task at a time, until you finish it.  

7. Register time

Registering time helps managers know where the team's time is going. Keeping track of your overall productivity  is very important. With a project management time tracking software you can also see how close you are to your project time tracking estimates and use this knowledge next time you are preparing a quote for another project.

8. Avoid perfectionism

A small amount of perfectionism can be good if you know how to keep it under control. Workload stress management will have enough challenges on its own. Adding perfectionism on top of that can reduce your productivity and have a negative impact on team productivity and project success as a whole. 

Let your team know that their work may not always be up to their own standards, but that you appreciate it and it’s perfect for your needs.

9. Use A workload management software to handle work processes

There are lots of workload management tools out in the market but if you want an effective workload management plan, you will need a tool that’s designed for managing your team. farmerswife is a great project management tool, that can help you manage your workload without any hassle.  It keeps everyone in track and it's a perfect fit for remote work collaboration  as more and more companies are adopting  work-from-home policies.

Conclusion

For your workload management to be successful, use all the assets you have available. Using a workload management tool like farmerswife will allow you to save time and money, maximize your team’s efficiency by effectively harnessing the power of your people.