Project Management: Tips for Managing Your Team’s Workload Fairly

Managers are responsible for maintaining productivity and staying on track to meet deadlines. To accomplish this objective, the workload must be divided fairly among all the members of the team. However, this is easier said than done. There are many potential issues associated with allocating work. Managers need to strike a balance between dividing the work, ensuring tasks are done without micromanaging, or looking at every minute detail with a fine-tooth comb.

Employees look to their leaders so they will know what to do and when. But at the same time, team members don’t want their bosses continually breathing down their necks while they try to do their work.

Knowing how to plan and manage the workload for your team is not just about completing tasks and projects. With this skill, you can get the job done within the agreed-upon deadline while reducing the chances of errors in the process. Furthermore, it minimizes stress among members and burnout in the long run.

If this is the first time you have heard of workload management, no need to worry as you are not alone. Studies show that few people are aware of or have received training to develop this skill. Let our experts share insights and tips for managing the workloads for your group.

Tips for how to manage team tasks workload

1. Know your team

   Before anything else, learn as much as you can about your group. Knowing what your staff can do, when they function best, and what other resources are available can help you plan your workload accordingly.

   Remember that in order for your business to achieve success, nurturing your employees as much as you nurture your customers is a must. That’s why you have to know your employees, including their skills and expertise, so that they’ll be assigned the right tasks.

   Use a resource management app or a spreadsheet if you are managing a large team. Include information such as availability and hours, among others, to get an overview of your team’s tasks and skills. With this information at your disposal, you can monitor how your staff members are doing, analyze their efficiency, and adjust your plans accordingly in the future to improve productivity while preventing burnout.

2. Assess the current workload

   This particular tip is essential if you are managing an existing team, not when building one from scratch. Seeing how the team is handling the present set of tasks lets you identify areas for improvement. There are many potential scenarios that can prompt you to do this. Perhaps one of your team members is feeling overwhelmed. Alternatively, maybe another manager contacted you to complain that his team has missed a big deadline and doesn’t know what to do.

   Review and analyze your resource management reports to see what each member is doing, their availability, and deadlines. By doing so, you can see if one member is handling too many tasks at one time or if too much is expected of them based on their skills. For instance, a new hire will not be able to handle specialized tasks as efficiently as one who has been working on the same tasks for years, as this will take time and experience.

   It is also possible that the deadlines are too short. Before specifying a deadline, whether to the client or the staff, the manager has to consider the amount of time that can be allocated to that project. Employees may need to juggle several projects at one time, or you may have staff working part-time and can only devote a few minutes or hours to a specific task.

   Ideally, your resource management reports should include an estimate of the number of work hours allocated for each task. This way, you or other managers have a clearer idea if an employee is handling too many tasks for any particular day. With this data, you can add, reduce, or re-assign tasks when necessary.

3. Determine your team’s capacity

   Teams often handle several projects, tasks, and tools in a single day. With so many responsibilities, it may be hard to determine how much work the team can effectively tackle. First, make a list of all tasks, projects, and responsibilities assigned to each member. Some of these projects may require working with other teams, so you need to keep this in mind when making your list. When faced with increase in workload it might be wise to opt for a more dynamic hiring system.

   Once you have a list, determine the amount of time for each item. How many people will you need for each task? With bigger projects, you may need to break them down to smaller tasks and deliverables to create a more concrete plan. After making your list, go through each item and determine which ones are more important, and which ones need to be prioritized or done immediately. Arranging your tasks according to urgency or importance allows you to meet more deadlines.

   Employee tasks may vary, ranging from sales, to marketing, to production, and to quality control. Assigning tasks involve looking into their educational background, work experience, and expertise. However, there are manual tasks that are better handled by software programs or applications to make your employees’ work less stressful, such as SMS marketing platforms and email management software programs.

   Take a look at the advantages of determining your team’s capacity:

   • Avoids employee burnout
   • Increases productivity
   • Better collaboration

4. Review tasks regularly

   Go through each member on your team and look carefully at the assigned tasks. With the estimated number of hours, you should be able to see if you have under- or over-allocated tasks to employees in your team. The generally accepted rule when it comes to assigning tasks is to not go beyond 80 percent for their day. In an eight-hour work shift, this means the time it takes to finish the tasks should not go beyond 6.4 hours. The 20 percent should be set aside for other responsibilities such as attending meetings, training sessions, or answering client queries, among others.

   Experts recommend spreading out the 20 percent evenly over the week. Exceptions to this rule are planned training sessions or large conferences as they often require a large block of time during which people need to concentrate on the topic. By allocating evenly, you give your employees room to create their own schedule for the day, as long as they meet their deadlines.

5. Work Better With Your Team

   Assigning tasks and managing workloads require a lot of time, effort, forethought, and careful planning. Experts advise creating a separate task on delegating and reviewing your strategy so you can focus on it. To discover and master effective workload management methods, sign up for a project management course at your nearest educational institute.

6. Focus On Priorities

   Tasks can be overwhelming, but not everything has the same level of urgency. Focus on your priorities by using a productivity tool. A simple spreadsheet to monitor and tag tasks or software programs or applications can help you assign urgent tasks evenly to your employees.

   Check the following tags you can assign to tasks:

   • Urgent And Important: Do these tasks immediately.
   • Important But Non-urgent: Schedule these tasks later.
   • Urgent But Not Important: Delegate these tasks to someone else.
   • Not Urgent And Not Important: Eliminate these tasks.

   By taking such a course, you will learn how to effectively manage workloads for the entire team and more. If you are a manager, a team leader, or supervising a group of employees in the company, this is the course for you. The lessons learned can help you become the best leader you can be.