Centralized Resource Management – High Utilization Dream or a Planning Nightmare?

Human resources are an organization’s biggest expense. Ensuring that your human resource planning is well thought out and fully utilized is a critical aspect of projects.

Before hiring more resources, you want to make sure that the workforce you have on hand is fully utilized. There is nothing worse than bringing on additional resources only to realize that you cannot retain them due to lack of work.

Resource management software will help you manage resources for current and potential projects ensuring that you have the right resources with the best skill sets assigned to where they are needed the most. This tool will help you plan, schedule, and forecast by individual or role, including by project or task level.

All businesses do resource planning. It is necessary for employees, contractors, or both. The type of tools used reflects the size of the business. The initial planning done on a whiteboard by a small company will evolve as the company grows. A larger company will demand to put in place metrics to achieve its financial goals. When you need or want to invest in a resource management system, there are some advantages and disadvantages to consider.

Advantages

Visibility on Where your Resources are Assigned

To maximize your resources, you want to know which projects they are working on and when they will be available to take on another project. To accomplish this in an efficient manner, you need to have a system in place. A central resource system will give you a visual or a report on the allocation of your resources.

Predictability in Scaling

As the business grows, so will the number of projects. You want to have some level of predictability to help you scale up to the demand for resources. Maybe, you don’t need to scale up at all because you have the resources you need just getting off another project. Planning software can show you where you have resources available to assign to new tasks.

Easy Project Resource Management

Time Tracking

Projects typically have budgets assigned to them. For the duration of the project, you want a system in place so resources can enter their time so you can track their effort. You can use the planning software to see the project’s progress, confirm task estimates, and accumulate the associated costs.

Time Management

With resources entering their time and the visibility on task progression, you can quickly reassign the resource to another task. Depending on the type of resource planning software implemented, a resource could see the overall project status and the progress of their tasks. When a resource sees the progression of effort, it helps to maintain focus and stay motivated to achieve the project milestones.

Easy Project Resource Management

Disadvantages

Security and Privacy

Securing and protecting employee privacy is an important business responsibility. Yes, the system will be password protected, but some hackers would find this information valuable and attempt to break into your system. Other security measures can be put into place such as limiting access to authorized individuals or investing in other security tools to diminish an attack.

Human Error

Data will need to be added to the resource planning system, and this creates an opportunity for human error. A date could be entered incorrectly or an employee’s name. Correcting an employee’s name may not have significant consequences but a date entered incorrectly could affect a project’s timeline impacting a customer’s deliverable.

Bottom line

Using a human resource management system can help you meet your corporate objectives. But with any system, a review and analysis of the advantages and disadvantages will help you determine the best system for your needs.