Too many resources? Too few resources? The wrong TYPE of resources?! Here’s how to fix six all-too-common resource allocation problems.
Are you even a resource management professional if you haven’t cursed having too few people, the wrong mix of people, or the right people at the wrong time?
Resource allocation can feel like a jigsaw with pieces that constantly move and change shape.
This article dives into six common resource allocation challenges, from running short on skilled staff to managing unrealistic project expectations.
We’ll explore practical fixes for each problem so you can allocate resources effectively, optimize resource allocation, and deliver outstanding project outcomes.
Plus, you’ll learn how resource management tools pin down the puzzle pieces for easier staff allocation.
You’ve received the project scope, mapped out deliverables, and carefully crafted a schedule. You know exactly who you need to make it all happen. But there’s a problem – you can’t get the people you need.
That could be because the project calls for specialized roles that are in short supply. Or because your organization is short-staffed due to hiring freezes, budget cuts, or poor resource capacity planning.
Whatever the reason, it’s bad news for your project, client, and team members. Projects with resource constraints can incur delays and under-deliver, as well as putting available resources under pressure.
There are several ways you can address this issue in the short term – to get your project over the line without lack of people power becoming a problem. For example:
Longer term, you need to address the root cause of resource constraints. For example, proactive capacity planning, strategic workforce management, staff development strategies, etc.
Resource allocation tools like Runn let you quickly build project and resource schedules. Our powerful search and intuitive drag-and-drop schedule builder let you find the people you need fast… and identify any resource constraints.
From here, you can easily adjust timelines or allocations to optimize the work you can achieve with the resources available, including spotting over- or under-utilization and splitting tasks to allocate them more equitably.
.png)
Long term, Runn is invaluable for monitoring utilization trends, spotting skills and talent gaps, and forecasting future capacity. This lets you know when to recruit or retrain staff, and supports senior managers making strategic workforce decisions.
Your client, sales team, and maybe even senior managers have unrealistic expectations. They’re expecting champagne outcomes on a soda budget. If you don’t push back and manage their expectations, your project is doomed to fail - no matter how hard you try. But how can you convince them?
Historic data is your friend in this scenario. Find similar projects you’ve completed in the past and dig into the detail.
Use this information to create an accurate forecast for the project and share it with stakeholders. You could even do some scenario planning and present them with different options based on different project parameters – such as increased budget or longer timeline.
This can help set more realistic expectations for work allocation, budget, and project outcomes.
Runn puts historical project data at your disposal, so you can access the information you need to assess project feasibility.
It also lets you build project schedules fast and find relevant resources – calculating resource costs and other financial metrics – so you can present your concerns to colleagues.
Plus, simply copy your project plan and change the parameters to present stakeholders with a variety of alternatives – for confident decision-making to solve the problem.
Learn more: How Runn is helping TPG Telecom surface the data that makes difficult stakeholder conversations easier ➡️
Finding the people you need can feel like a game of hide-and-seek. The skills information you need is unavailable or hidden away in individual team silos. And, when you need someone with a specific skill set, you have to go searching.
It’s not just frustrating and time-consuming, it’s also a risk to your project. There might be perfect people out there that you just don’t know about – and your project may suffer because of that blindspot.
This is particularly pernicious now so many businesses work remotely and the whole organization is your oyster.
You need a centralized resource pool. Somewhere that lists everyone available in the organization, alongside their skills, availability, capacity, costs, location… Everything you need to make an informed decision about who’s best for your project.
No more relying on the best people in your immediate network – a centralized resource pool gives you the skills visibility you need to create a dream team from anywhere in the organization.
Runn takes the guesswork out of finding the perfect people for every project. Our centralized resource pool does exactly what we’ve described above – making successful resource allocation easier.
.png)
You can search for people based on their job role or specific skills, even drilling down into their skill level and experience. You can easily view availability and capacity at a glance and – if you want to bring someone onto your project – simply drag and drop them into your schedule.
Runn automatically adjusts their allocations and capacity, ensuring everyone stays informed about changes and preventing overbooking.
Over-allocation is when your resource planning misses the mark.
Don’t beat yourself up about it. Maybe you didn’t have access to historical data for accurate forecasting. Or the scope or schedule has changed. Whatever the reason - you’ve found yourself with too many resources.
Anyone struggling with resource constraints might think ‘That’s a nice problem to have’.
But it’s still a problem.
When resources are warming the bench, they burn through your budget on non-billable work. And idle resources aren’t just a hot mess for your project finances. If they’re bored and pondering a career change, that can burn the wider business too.
This is another resource allocation issue with short- and long-term solutions. Right now, you need to fix your current project problem. You can do this by monitoring resource utilization throughout your project. If you spot that certain resources are underutilized, you have options.
In the long term, consider ways to improve your forecasting accuracy.
Runn provides live insights into resource utilization, so you can quickly spot if anyone is underutilized. It also lets you split tasks and reallocate them to different people, so you can even out people’s workload.
Further reading: How to Create a Bench Report ➡️
Sharing resources is a great way for organizations to optimize resource utilization. But it makes the process of managing resources and projects more complicated. When your project relies on team members who are committed elsewhere, any delay or issue on the other project can quickly become your problem too.
Unfortunately, sharing resources does make life a little unpredictable. You can manage the risk associated with resource sharing by communicating regularly with the manager of the other project.
If there’s an iceberg in the distance, you want to know about it in time to take evasive action. For example, requesting an alternative resource for your project or negotiating a revised schedule to account for the disruption.
Building buffers into your project schedule can help accommodate small slippages too.
Runn lets resource managers quickly and confidently adjust plans when things happen outside your control. With real-time visibility into resource availability and potential scheduling clashes, you can see exactly where shared resources are stretched.
Plus Runn’s centralized view of utilization helps you surface spare capacity, making it easier to find replacements.
Your organization doesn’t have a strategy on how to allocate resources and no one understands the importance of effective resource allocations.
Instead of having clear guidance on how to prioritize resources and allocate them intentionally to strategically valuable projects, your business is more laissez-faire.
There is no clear resource allocation process. Resources are allocated to whoever requests them first – or shouts the loudest – and that causes all kinds of problems.
To avoid these allocation issues, your organization needs a resource allocation strategy. It’s a document that explains how resourcing decisions are made, so they align with the company’s overarching goals. It sets out effective resource allocation practices to keep everyone focused on the big picture.
Resource management tools like Runn help you create a resource allocation strategy and monitor its effectiveness. Senior leaders can use data insights from Runn to understand how successful their current resource management processes are and build from there. At a strategic level, Runn can be used for:
Accurate resource allocation doesn't have to be a process that fulls of hurdles and roadblocks. You just need the right tools.
Runn lets you see your staff, skills, allocations, and capacity easily, in one place. So whether your problem is shared staff, scarce resources, or creeping scope, you can handle it.
