According to Forbes, in 2023, 12.7% of full-time employees worked from home, whereas 28.2% of employees worked in a hybrid model. The paradigm of conventional workspaces has experienced a seismic shift in the past few years and the global pandemic has immensely helped in creating this change. As more and more people are working from home, project managers have to pivot faster than ever. The same old cluttered communication channels, traditional workload distribution spreadsheets, and HRM technology aren’t enough to make the most out of human resources, which is why resource planning software has become the need of the hour.
Why is Resource Planning Crucial?
Imagine having a global team of some of the most talented employees that any company can afford. You have projects rushing in from the industry giants and your employees are capable enough to complete them within the destined deadline. Yet, somewhere along the cracks, the project quality suffers, you cannot deliver the project within the specified timeline, and your employee satisfaction levels plummet. There might be many reasons for this, but improper resource planning tops the list.
When you have a resource planning blueprint, it can help to bolster employee productivity, project efficiency, and performance intelligently. By using techniques such as resource leveling with flexible timelines, even workload distribution, and a centralized repository of employee data, organizations can reduce the risk of employee burnout, prevent overallocation, and complete high-priority projects on time.
Benefits of Resource Planning Software for Remote Workflow
Resource planning software can be immensely helpful in gaining clear insights into resource availability and forecasting future resource needs in high-octane remote work landscapes. Project managers and team leads can use the software to identify potential bottlenecks, improve employee productivity, and meet client expectations as well as company objectives. How? Well, to make the advantages more evident, here’s a breakdown of the benefits of resource planning software for remote work culture:
- Display Current Resource Distribution and Allocation: One of the most enormous issues in remote work culture is tracking what’s assigned to whom. However, with resource planning software, you can successfully avert this issue in your organization. Before you allot resources for a new project or client, it’s essential to analyze whether you have the available resources and whether the software does just that for you. With a centralized resource library, it displays what resources you have, who’s working on what and whether your company has the capacity to take on more. In a nutshell, resource planning software allows project managers to accurately estimate if they can meet demands, and they can let their higher-ups know that key team members are engaged elsewhere, so they don’t overpromise the deliverables.
- Improve Employee Productivity: When someone’s working in front of you, you can barely say if they are being productive enough. Imagine your entire workforce working remotely. How are you supposed to evaluate if everyone’s contributing their level best to your company? That’s where a resource planning software steps in. It lets you calculate the number of hours each employee is investing in a project. This in turn, also helps you to understand employee potential, so you can keep a buffer, and reduce unnecessary downtime.
- Streamline workload distribution: Suppose, you have four employees in your team. Two of them complete projects before their deadline, so you keep assigning them more work. Whereas, the other two struggle down to the wire to deliver work. What does this lead to? When you keep allocating work to employees without giving them a break, it can lead to burnout. However, with resource planning software, you can plan who can do what and hire additional resources if your current employees are unable to manage the workload. By doing so, you improve employee satisfaction and prevent the chance of burnout.
- Simplify Invoicing: Instead of the complex spreadsheets you manually create for tracking project hours, you can use resource planning software to determine the exact number of hours your team spends on a project. This can make invoicing easy for you, so you don’t scramble between the minutes every time you have to raise your billable project hours.
Wrap Up!
In today’s tech-driven ecosystem, where everything is possible in a single click, many companies have moved their operations online. They have gone fully remote, and you can too. Undoubtedly, there are some industries and job roles needing an office environment, but as long as your industry doesn’t involve the need for a cubicle culture, remote work can be an excellent way to save more and ensure employee satisfaction in the long run. However, ensure to have the right resource planning software by your side if you want to make your remote working culture feasible. From project management to accounting and finance, the technology leveraged by these software solutions can make remote work a sustainable option that brings successful results!
