If you want to scale your organization, put resource planning at the heart of your strategy. Discover the powerful benefits of resource planning for your teams, customers, and business.
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Whether you're kicking off a project, starting a new business, or scaling an existing venture, it can be hard to know what you'll need to succeed.
Ever been confident about a project plan, only to realize halfway through that the right people weren’t actually available? This is where resource planning comes in.
Resource planning is the art of understanding the kind of time and expertise needed for a project or initiative to be successful.
It includes assessing when certain resources will be needed, as well as comparing this with what's currently available, all so you can build a picture of what’s plausible with the workforce that you have on board, now and in the months to come.
A lot of moving parts go into projects, which means that resource planning is by no means simple. But it’s worth the time and effort.
As you roll out your resource planning carpet, a lot of things will become clearer, and you’ll start to feel the benefits of resource planning.
And once that happens, you’ll start to wonder how you ever managed without it.
Resource planning is all about how work gets assigned to people - and the practice of doing it effectively.
Put plainly, if project planning is more about “What needs to be done?”, resource planning answers the deceptively simple question: “Do we actually have the people, skills, and time to deliver what we’re promising?”
Successful resource planning helps ensure that projects stay on schedule (by obtaining and allocating the appropriate resources) and within budget (by preventing staffing costs from ballooning). In practice, this means forecasting future demand and capacity, not just reacting to today’s assignments.
After all, work can only progress at a pace appropriate to the people allocated to a project, which means that resource planning has a huge impact on timelines and budgets.
The work hours of skilled professionals are an expensive and limited resource. You need to use them in the most effective way possible to meet your deadlines and deliver great work.
👉 Get started: The Beginner's Guide to Resource Planning
The top line is that resource planning brings better results, happier people, and higher profits. But let’s get a little more detailed than that. Here are the primary ways that organizations benefit from resource planning:
This is the big one. Resource planning saves you money because the best way to save money on a project is to have a lean plan and execute it efficiently.
By eliminatingsome of the risks associated with mismanaging human resources, such as wasted time, money, and effort, resource planning helps you optimize project costs. This, in turn, increases project profitability.
When companies don’t carry out effective resource planning, they can find themselves in a situation where there aren’t enough people to complete the work they’ve already committed to.
Resource planning reveals any gaps between what is needed and what is available early in a project, so that corrective action can be taken.
It answers questions like: Do we have enough people with the right skills to finish this project? Can we take on this new initiative without endangering our other work? What’s the impact of adjusting our project timelines?
This is often where teams realize the risk isn’t the work itself – it’s committing to it before understanding capacity.
For example, if one week into a three-month project you discover that you don't have enough team members, then you can take action (such as adjusting schedules and/or bringing in more people) to ensure that the project is successful.
💡 Go deeper: Resource Planning for Multiple Projects
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Conventional business wisdom tells us that you should under-promise and over-deliver if you want to wow your clients. Resource planning gives you the tools to do just that.
With resource planning, you are able to better estimate how long projects will take, which means you are able to give customers a more accurate lead time - and even build in a sensible amount of buffer time into the plan in case anything goes a bit wrong.
And let’s be honest: most delivery issues don’t come from bad intentions. They come from optimistic plans built without a clear view of capacity.
Indeed, things are less likely to go wrong in the first place if you undertake resource planning. It’s easier to avoid overcommitting your team when you have a reasonable view of what their capacity looks like for the next few months.
This all adds up to more confident project proposals, accurate timescales, and - crucially - far happier customers.
In the same way that resource planning can help ensure you don’t overcommit your team, it can also surface if you have any additional capacity that’s currently flying under the radar.
It goes without saying that underutilized resources represent a missed opportunity to generate more revenue.
Resource planning shows you ahead of time if you are going to have underutilized resources. This forward-looking visibility makes it easier to take corrective action – such as bidding for additional work, so that these resources can spend more of their time on billable work, rather than sitting on the bench.
A tool like Runn makes this visible by showing future availability in real time, instead of relying on manual updates or gut feel.
Here’s an example: when Emily Lykins, Managing Director of Anatta Design, started doing resource planning with Runn, she discovered that she could identify where her team had some additional capacity - and turn this potential financial loss into a commercial opportunity.
Runn has decreased the time we spend in meetings, decreased confusion, decreased incidents of selling a project that we weren't able to staff appropriately. It also means that Sales can prioritize selling projects where we have bandwidth. So if they see that, for instance, we’re going to have two people on the bench in a month, Sales notes that they should sell into this role.”
Keep reading the full case study with Anatta Design ➡️
This benefit is very clear and simple. Would you rather work for an organization that has clear visibility over people’s workloads and makes reasonable project plans based on accurate capacity forecasts or a company that takes a more slapdash approach to planning?
Resource planning supports employee retention because it allows organizations to determine the amount of work employees can handle at a given time.
Rather than a “feast or famine” approach, where employees are either twiddling their thumbs on the bench or so overutilized that they are staying late every evening, resource planning helps you reach a happy medium - where everyone has an appropriate workload, working on assignments that are a good fit for their skills.
Further reading: The Ultimate Guide to Employee Retention Strategies ➡️
Need to convince decision-makers or budget controllers that you need new hires, some outside expertise, or a training program for your team? You’re far more likely to convince them if you have a resource plan that shows the clear rationale for this investment.
When stakeholders are presented with resource management plans that outline the needs of their projects, they will likely approve them more readily. This is because they can clearly see the costs associated, where existing resource is being expended, and how project delivery will be impacted if they say “No” to your requests.
When trying to convince stakeholders to loosen the purse strings, the deciding factor is so often the actual strength of your business case. Resource planning gives you the data required to deliver a pitch that is much, much harder to ignore.
There’s a sweet spot when it comes to growing a company. Simply getting bigger (i.e. going on a hiring spree) isn’t always the right tactic. But resource planning can help you find the balance, right-sizing your workforce, and setting your organization up for manageable, sustainable long-term growth.
By having a clear understanding of available resources and their allocations – and how those allocations will change as demand evolves – you can also prioritize projects and initiatives that yield the highest value.
This strategic focus not only maximizes returns but also helps in identifying and mitigating potential risks, such as resource shortages or overextending your people.
Start thinking strategically: Operational vs. Strategic Resource Management: What’s the Difference? ➡️
Growing sustainably also requires balancing short-term performance with long-term objectives - and resource planning plays a critical role in achieving this balance.
For instance, investing in employee development may initially seem costly but can lead to significant savings and competitive advantages over time. Proper planning ensures these investments are made at the right time and within budget - leading to an organization that is more resilient and prepared to meet challenges head-on in the future.
We’ve focused on just a few of the major benefits of resource planning here. But in truth, this is a topic we could write about for days. At Runn, we are big advocates for doing resource planning - really taking the time to do it in an orderly, well-governed fashion - because we believe that all businesses could stand to benefit.
And the reality is that you’ll discover more and more benefits of resource planning that relate specifically to your context, and the kind of organization that you work for, as you get stuck into the process.
We’re excited for you to get started on this journey. And we have a ton of materials to help you on the way:
