Whether your company is large or small, efficiently managing human capital will mean the difference between success and failure. Key resource management challenges today include project performance, labor costs, talent management, forecasting, regional needs, and specialization just to name a few. We are pulling together helpful articles to connect you with news and information for effective and efficient resource management.
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The professional services industry is constantly evolving, and recent research shows that leadership and the teams they manage aren’t always on the same page about how those changes are manifesting in the field. The widening gap between leadership perception and the actual experiences of team members, particularly regarding workload pressures and client service delivery, poses significant challenges not just to organizational cohesion and effectiveness but also to employee satisfaction and retention. Read full article.
A great team is only as good as their level of engagement. And in the professional services industry, where you are selling the expertise of the people you deploy, employee engagement can mean the difference between a business that thrives and one that never lives up to its potential. And while a business can say they’re committed to better engagement with their employees, a systematic improvement in employee experience is only possible with a real, actionable plan in place. This is where strategic resource management comes into play. Great resource management is about so much more than simply assigning team members to the work your business needs to do day in and day out – when done right, it’s a means of making sure every aspect of a team member’s workday is optimized for the sake of both the company and the employee. Read full article.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, effective resource management has become a cornerstone of organizational success. As companies strive to stay competitive, they must carefully navigate the complexities of resource allocation and optimization. Read full article to learn more about tools and tips that will help you with your journey towards resource management excellence. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Even if you’re using some of today’s best resource management technology, the processes by which you manage your teams can mean the difference between adequate company performance and becoming a leader in the field. What are today’s top trending professional services resource management techniques? Knowing how today’s top performing organizations are using cutting edge software can help you stay up to date with what the market, your workforce, and your clients expect from you. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
The common approach of acquiring and adopting new technology — conducting an exhaustive evaluation process that drags on for months and often costs more money than the technology itself; paralyzes organizations. The status quo becomes “good enough,” and technology investments go on the back burner. It’s a short-term decision that hurts long-term growth. It’s also an unnecessary one. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
The professional services industry is undergoing a radical and permanent transformation, with people demonstrating they want more agency over their workloads and professional development and taking life-changing steps to realize their goals. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
It takes a lot of time and energy to establish and maintain working relationships not just with the full-time employees that are the bedrock of your organization but also with the contract workers and freelancers that can choose to not work for you whenever they want. This is where the creation and maintenance of an extended talent network comes in. By understanding the elements of a talent network, and how you can use it to your advantage, your PS organization can begin making the most of your talent relationships and create a pathway to building even better ones. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Investments in resource and workforce management talent is growing, fueled by the many benefits of improved resource management outcomes. Consequently, the task of finding good resource and workforce managers is also becoming more difficult due to a growing scarcity of these talented people. In this article, the RMI will provide some insights into 3 steps your company can take to retaining the best resource managers. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
No two professional services firms are exactly alike. But, there are many commonalities shared by every business. And today, one thing that every professional services organization has in common is the continual balancing act between internal full-time staff and freelance contract workers. Sure, there are differences in skill, experience, and speed that differentiate your full-time and contract employees, but the choice between these two resourcing options can often be difficult on a task-by-task basis. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Some companies have struggled with where to situate a Resource Management Office (RMO) and who should really own it. Companies have battled between positioning it within Delivery or PMO, Operations, and even HR/Talent and include frequent moves of the RMO because some of its functionality and goals overlap into any one of those listed business units. To try and figure out where we should “sit” on the corporate bus lets investigate the functionality and offerings of today’s RMO world. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
At its core, resource management is all about understanding the pool of talent at your company and making sure they are put to good use. But in practice, it can be much more challenging. Many complicating factors mean that managing your teams effectively takes hard work. It can be easy for managers to fall into a practice of reactive resource management – a tendency to only manage teams in the moment, solving today’s problems, instead of planning out assignments and utilization far enough into the future to prevent major problems from occurring. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Value-driven resource management is integral for ensuring business profitability. It allows managers to unleash the maximum potential of the resource pool and ensure timely delivery of projects. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Project managers need to be responsible for managing the project team as well as scope and schedule. Resource managers, on the other hand, should be managing the careers and work assignments of the individuals who will be part of a specific project team. If you’ve ever seen this done well, it’s pretty impressive. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
In the world of professional services, every moment and every resource counts. And this is where resource management (RM) plays a critical role in ensuring that team members are used to their fullest potential without burning them out. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Public Accounting firms have been wrestling with, seemingly forever, the single biggest impediment to driving a high-performance, client-service centric culture – turnover. Consistently, the profession has experienced turnover rates averaging 20-25%, resulting in challenges in meeting most every firm’s objectives regarding profitability, growth, market acceptance, brand, succession planning and, most importantly, outstanding client service – which is demanded by the marketplace for mere survival as a firm. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Market and business trends are evolving at a faster rate than ever before. These emerging trends have directly resulted in an exponential increase in the rate of change of consumer demands. To keep up with these uncertainties and maintain the competitive edge, businesses must stay ahead of the curve. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
The disruption caused by Covid-19 has effectively pulled back the “rug,” covering some long-standing problems in the workplace. Employees are disengaged, resignations are up, and strategic goals rarely get fully executed. Luckily, this problem will not be as difficult to solve as so many pundits keep suggesting. The solution to the problem requires a little technology and a change in work practices. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Over the years, resource management has evolved from merely allocating resources into a comprehensive and critical function for any business. However, many organizations still rely on legacy tools such as spreadsheets and homegrown solutions for resource management. This article explains how legacy tools lack functionalities in future-proofing these enterprises in the 2020s and why resource management is the need of the hour. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
By focusing on the power of belonging to a team with a shared goal, giving people autonomy, encouraging employees to up-level their skills and competencies, providing certainty about the future through honesty and transparency, and championing a culture of safety, we can continue to pull employees back from burnout, increase engagement, and improve the productivity of organizations. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
No matter what industry you’re in, the individual and collective skills of your team directly impact your effectiveness. But the rapid pace of change today and constantly evolving company strategies and client demands make keeping those skills aligned and up to date a real challenge. And when you’re dealing with slim margins and unpredictable markets, filling the gaps with new hires isn’t always an option. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Resource management is the long pole in the tent when it comes to overall project performance and efficient utilization of human capital. And where the typical project-based service team spends three-quarters of their budget on people, being good at resource management should be job #1! A proven method for making steady and important progress in building your RM maturity should start with assessing where you are today – your baseline. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
A tumultuous 2020 added even more complexity to resource management and without the clarity and control a modern resource management tool provides, even the most experienced resource managers will find 2021 just as challenging as 2020. This article provides three areas that resource managers should look for technology improvements in 2021. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Burnout has reached crisis proportions across all professions and all industries. This article highlights the unique issues in the areas of IT and NPD resource management. Research has shown that it isn’t just excess work-hours that causes burnout. It is also the perception of an unending workload. There is a solution and luckily it solves the burnout problem at the same time it improves productivity, saves money, and executes strategy more quickly. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
No question about it – digital transformation is real, growing fast, and should be garnering your attention for many reasons. Making technology work for your company is an important investment and people are a big part of any IT strategy. An important question every CFO should be asking of IT is, how many people do you need to execute our digital transformation strategy and support our IT needs? Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Resource management just got more complicated. The days of depending on building a stable, employee-based workforce appear to be on the decline. A key driver of this phenomenon is what the industry calls the gig economy, driven by a younger generation more willing to work a ‘gig’ vs. seeking a more permanent full-time employer. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Whether you’re new to Project Management, or have been in the business for years, and whether you manage a small team of resources, or a large and geographically dispersed team, there is always something to be gained by hearing how others manage their operations. We all have our ways of doing, but in a business, that requires structure and consistency, nothing should be set in stone. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Resource (and Workforce) Management (RM) across many industries is receiving increased attention as more companies realize the many benefits of better managing supply and demand of human capital. Since services are the lynchpin for successful IT solutions, the strategic value of RM is becoming increasingly clear, but industry adoption of what is needed to extract real value from RM is lagging. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Managing the resources needs of the business, planning availability, and tracking utilization is so important that many companies are now investing in a Resource Management Office capability to work alongside their existing Project Management Office. The function of the RMO is to tackle the challenges related to forecasting, employee engagement, talent management, staff deployment, and more. But how do you measure the work of the RMO? Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Resource managers need detailed insights into their team’s performance to make smart, effective decisions, but there are countless potential metrics for a manager to track. While resource management solutions today can track any and all metrics that a manager wants, some of these metrics are more critical to management than others. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Companies around the world are relying on remote work to keep their businesses running through unprecedented time. Resource managers across all industries are facing new challenges in how to keep their teams productive and their projects on track. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
In the services industry, success relies on getting resources with the right capabilities on the right assignments and at the right margins. Effectively managing this process is critical for client satisfaction and successful project delivery. It is also extremely valuable, but difficult to maintain. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Employee engagement and proactive workforce transformation are key to surviving the digital disruption era – the Resource Management discipline will be leading the way to address these emerging industry needs. Read the full article. Article entitles you to obtain .25 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Because of the very nature of operating with an agile methodology, the churn of sprints can take a toll on productivity. Supporting agile usually requires more resource managers who have to focus on tracking productivity and utilization in a highly iterative environment. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain .25 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
The existence of Resource Management as a standalone function has been steadily increasing over the past decade, especially across the Professional Services Industry. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
Effective resource management requires continual iteration and optimization for companies to make the most of their workforce. Using a strategy known as Full-Cycle Resource Management, businesses are able to better understand and improve resource utilization, no matter the industry they operate in. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
It is possible to make sure teams have everything they need at their fingertips, without expecting them to spend their time searching for documents. Let’s look at three touch points where it’s easy to positively engage your customer throughout their experience with your PS firm. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
PMO leaders report that in the new adaptive marketplace, resource capacity planning remains a major challenge. When working with several different kinds of planning methodologies, it becomes even more crucial to gain a single version of the truth. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
In the services industry, your product is your people. Profitability, project success, and client satisfaction all rely on effective planning and staffing of projects. It may sound easy, but resource managers will tell you otherwise. Resource management processes have improved in recent years, but the technology needed to support and automate them have had limitations. However, there is a solution. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
95% of companies report finding talent is a challenge with 35% of companies reporting finding talent was difficult to very difficult. To be fair finding good people has never been easy. To adapt to these challenges, most companies have responded by adopting an ‘all in’ approach when it comes to methods used for locating talent. This article reviews four important best practices for sourcing talent. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain 1 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.
This time of year, enterprise IT and professional services teams are crafting their staffing plans for their 2019 budgets. We might have a relatively firm idea of currently known projects and priorities. However, while we work to develop a reliable forecast, our expectations are often clouded by unforeseen changes in demand and resource status and/or availability. Read full article. Article entitles you to obtain .25 RMCP® PCU credit for reading.