Cross-departmental collaboration is undoubtedly an integral part of a thriving work culture today. In fact, according to goremotely, approximately 75% of employees regard collaboration and teamwork as essential parts of the workplace.

However, team members overlook the importance of communicating critical information amid the pressure of meeting deadlines. Moreover, some departments treat it as a race and compete to reach the finish line.

Competition instead of cross-team collaboration can adversely impact the project’s course.

This article shows you the importance of collaboration and cross-team collaboration best practices.

Let us first define the term interdepartmental collaboration

What is cross-departmental collaboration?

Cross-departmental collaboration, also known as interdepartmental collaboration, is the process of individuals or teams from different departments or areas within an organization working together to achieve a common goal. It involves sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise between various departments to improve overall organizational performance and achieve better outcomes.

What is an example of cross-departmental team collaboration?

An example of cross-functional team collaboration could be a project on new product launch. This project would require input and collaboration from various teams across the organization, including product design, engineering, marketing, sales, and customer service.

The design team would create the physical product and the engineering department would ensure that it’s technically feasible to manufacture and release the product on time. In addition, the marketing team would create campaigns to promote the product and gain more customers. Finally, the sales department would develop pricing strategies and identify target markets, and customer service would ensure that customers have a positive experience after purchase.

Throughout the project, members of each team would work together, sharing information and expertise to ensure that the product is launched successfully. This cross-functional collaboration helps to ensure that the project goals are met, and that the final product meets the needs of both the business and its customers.

Now, let’s understand the key elements of a collaborative team.

Key Elements of Collaborative Team

Collaborative teams are essential in many work environments and can greatly contribute to the success of projects and achieving organizational goals. Here are key elements of collaborative teams:

Autonomy

Autonomy refers to the ability of team members to make decisions and take actions independently, within the scope of their responsibilities. This means trusting team members to work on their tasks without constant micromanagement. It allows individuals to showcase their expertise and take ownership of their work, which can lead to increased motivation and better results.

Cooperation

Cooperation is the foundation of collaborative teams. It involves team members working together towards a common goal. This means sharing information, resources, and ideas, and being willing to help one another. Effective cooperation can lead to a synergy where the collective output is greater than the sum of individual contributions.

Mutual Trust & Respect

Trust and respect are crucial for a collaborative team to function effectively. Team members need to trust that their colleagues will deliver on their commitments and respect each other’s opinions and contributions. This will help create a positive work environment, reduce conflicts, and foster better collaboration.

Accountability

Accountability ensures that team members are responsible for their actions, commitments, and outcomes. When team members are held accountable for their work, it promotes a sense of ownership and ensures that tasks are completed on time and to the required quality standards.

Communication

Effective communication is the glue that holds a collaborative team together. It involves both verbal and non-verbal interactions, as well as active listening. Clear and open communication will ensures that team members are on the same page, understand each other’s needs and concerns, and can coordinate their efforts effectively.

Now, that we know the key elements, lets read why collaborating with cross-functional teams is essential!

Why is cross-departmental collaboration important?

Cross-departmental collaboration, which involves teams or individuals from different departments or areas of an organization working together, is important for several reasons:

Enhances employee performance and productivity

Collaboration across departments can lead to increased knowledge sharing and skill development among employees. When individuals from different areas collaborate, they often learn from each other, gaining insights and expertise that can improve their performance. This exchange of knowledge can also lead to increased efficiency and productivity in completing tasks and projects.

Improves the decision-making process

Collaborating across departments brings different perspectives to the table. This diversity of viewpoints can lead to more well-rounded and informed decision-making. Teams that draw on insights from multiple areas of the organization are better equipped to identify potential risks and opportunities and make strategic decisions that align with the overall goals of the company.

Facilitates effective conflict resolution

Conflicts and disagreements can arise in any organization, but cross-departmental collaboration can provide a platform for resolving them more effectively. When individuals from different departments work together, they are often exposed to different working styles and priorities. This exposure can help team members develop conflict resolution skills and find mutually beneficial solutions.

Boosts creativity and innovation

Innovation often thrives at the intersection of different disciplines and perspectives. When employees from various departments collaborate, they bring diverse ideas, experiences, and approaches to problem-solving. This diversity of thought can spark creativity and lead to innovative solutions and new product/service offerings.

Promotes trust and transparency

Cross-departmental collaboration fosters a culture of trust and transparency within an organization. When employees from different areas work together, they gain a better understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities, which can reduce misunderstandings and foster trust. Additionally, sharing information and insights across departments can lead to a more open and transparent organizational culture.

Knowing the significance of cross-functional team collaboration, let’s investigate some challenges hindering effective collaboration.

Common challenges that hinder cross-departmental collaboration

Successful collaboration in the workplace positively influences the company, business, or project. But there are specific roadblocks that make it difficult for effective collaboration. Listed below are a few:

Improper communication

When organizations cannot foster open communication in the workplace, it poses a challenge for teams collaboration, and they are less likely to be involved in activities. Additionally, this will lead to the failure of the project.

Lack of vision

When firms do not have clear goals, teams work without a purpose, which will not add value and reduces their productivity, efficiency, and motivation. Moreover, a lack of vision makes it difficult for managers or leaders to delegate work effectively to employees.

Difficulty in Building trust

Trust, an essential aspect of collaboration, cannot be developed without adequate collaboration between team members. Trust can be built only when organizations promote a conducive work environment for their employees.

Inadequate Support of Leaders

Leadership plays a pivotal role in promoting and sustaining cross-departmental collaboration. When leaders fail to prioritize or actively support collaborative initiatives, teams may lack the necessary guidance, resources, or motivation to work together effectively.

Conflicting Goals and priorities

Departments often have their own goals and priorities, which may not always align with the goals of other departments or the organization as a whole. When there is a lack of alignment, it can lead to competition for resources and a reluctance to cooperate.

Lack of proper Feedback and appreciation

Organizations that do not encourage their employees with regular feedback and appreciation will see a dip in productivity and performance. In addition, when employees’ efforts and contributions are not recognized, it may lead to demotivation and cause disengagement in work.

Technological deficiency

The rise in work-from-home and remote teams has increased the need to adopt advanced technologies. To promote effective communication and collaboration between the remote units, firms must provide proper tools and technologies to ensure that all the team members are on the same page.

Owing to the challenges mentioned above, managers should strive to improve and maintain cross-departmental collaboration in the workplace. Here are some strategies to promote team collaboration:

11 strategies to improve collaboration between departments

To successfully run a business, firms must ensure effective collaboration between teams and departments. But this involves various things like developing a shared vision, mutual respect, a thorough understanding of each member’s roles and responsibilities, etc. Here are some best practices to improve your team’s collaboration.

Provide executive support

Employees look up to their higher-ups in the organization to lead by example. When the firm’s top executives invest time and effort in building social relationships, it becomes the DNA of the company culture. Therefore, it is essential for executives to demonstrate collaborative and interactive behavior to ensure it is followed throughout the firm.

Foster and model collaborative culture

Not just the executives but also project managers play an essential role in setting a tone for successful collaboration. Resources will follow if project managers initiate meetings with their counterparts to comprehend their progress and challenges. It will foster a sense of collective responsibility amongst everyone and build trust.

Managers can develop their signature practices to keep inter-departmental cooperation interesting. For example, you can organize a joint discussion at a regular cafe or manage a sports match on weekends or more. Initiating and leading by example will help managers embed a sense of community amongst their workforce and facilitate effective collaboration.

Define communication methods and channels

Encouraging effective communication between departments is only half the battle won. The real task is standardizing communication procedures and helping everyone know when and how to communicate. Before the project’s onset, managers must define the communication channels and processes to be followed.

This includes,

• Specifying when to use the synchronous or asynchronous mode of communication.
• Communication etiquette is to be followed by the resources when engaging in cross-functional communication.
• Team collaboration tools or apps to be equipped to allow the smooth exchange of information.
• Concerned authority to be addressed and contacted in case of any pressing matter or escalation.

Convey the ultimate goal and vision with transparency

One of the most critical responsibilities of a decision-maker is to convey the firm’s goals and objectives with the utmost transparency. If you expect your cross-functional team to work cohesively, you must periodically educate them about the goals and vision. When your workforce is aware of how their work adds value, they are more likely to take the initiative. This will gradually increase communication, improve collaboration between departments and maintain the flow of data.

Share and exchange feedback

There is always room for improvement whether you are an executive or working at a junior level. To help your employees improve, project managers can connect with different department heads to hold project closure meetings. These meetings will help everyone share and exchange feedback. Decision-makers will know from employees if the process needs to be improved, and employees will know the areas they need to work on.

This feedback exchange meeting will encourage cross-functional team collaboration and give everyone a fair chance to grow professionally.

Train the staff for the right skillset

You may encounter a situation where you have already established communicative company culture, but some team members still lack those habits that can help them merge. Managers can initiate training programs to fill these skill gaps and make a notable difference in team performance.

A classic example of the firm that initiated such programs is Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Their training modules include teamwork, Emotional Intelligence, and networking. They also train employees to communicate the firm’s strategy and build healthy partnerships.

Including such modules in your training program and honing your workforce’s soft skills will improve collaboration at work and give an added advantage.

Gain an enterprise-wide visibility

Effective inter-departmental coordination can only happen when everyone in the team is on the same page, or it may lead to unnecessary conflicts. To do so, managers can deploy a resource management tool to provide them with a bird’s eye view of the resources and projects.

With this, managers can assign good work to the right person and collaborate better. Moreover, resources will know the project’s progress and can work more efficiently.

Understand the interdependencies

Taking the previous example of website designing, it’s clear that every task, from website content to design, is interdependent. Employees must make an effort to understand these interdependencies. It will facilitate better cross-team collaboration.

For instance, if you are working on the content, you can collaborate better with the design team when you know how your work will affect theirs.

Initiate joint projects between departments

The next step after understanding the interdependencies is to take up more projects that involve cross-functional coordination. More so, when resources collaborate with other departments, it will help them communicate better. They can then readily solve complex issues together.

Implement rewards and recognition program

Resources help you meet the project deadlines with all your might and capabilities. It is needless to say that their work and effort deserve acknowledgment. Project managers and executives can integrate rewards and recognition programs into their workplace policies to acknowledge hard work. This step will encourage effective team collaboration with the higher-ups and colleagues.

Organize team-building activities

All work, no play is a recipe for low productivity and disengagement. If your team is only communicating formally during meetings or project discussions, then the human element is missing from the equation. To get this right, department managers can collaborate and cooperate in organizing various team-building activities. This exercise is beneficial to understand everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and act accordingly. It is always healthy to have some fun at the workplace along with work.

You can use these ways to improve interdepartmental collaboration at your firm.

Conclusion

The late American business magnate Steve Jobs once said, ‘One person never does great things in business.’ This adage holds in every sense. One cannot accomplish projects and reach milestones without the help of others.

Cross-functional collaboration is, therefore, a key to a business’s success.

The above tips will help you improve and maintain effective collaboration between departments. In addition, it will help you enhance your profitability and add glory to employees’ productivity and engagement.

What ways do you follow to foster collaboration at your company?

Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM is undoubtedly the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable Enterprise Resource Management Solution. Having more than 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence in over 50 countries. It is also popular with more than 100 customers and helps them to achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software which can be easily customized per business requirements.

“The global management consulting services market is expected to expand from $819.79 billion in 2020 to $1201.06 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 8%.”

With the growth of the sector, the value of its resources/consultants has also increased multifold. As a result, they are one of the most valuable assets in the consulting industry and contribute significantly to organizational success.

As most of the consultants work on an hourly basis, their overall billable time becomes very expensive for the clients. So firms must use them efficiently. However, most firms fall short when it comes to effective resource scheduling. They rely on spreadsheets or homegrown solutions and tools for scheduling resources. These solutions cannot prevent the idle time of these external resources and unnecessarily increase the cost.

This blog discusses how consultancy firms can benefit from a robust resource scheduling solution.

But before digging deep into it, let’s understand everything about consulting firms and what they do.

What are consultancy firms?

Consulting firms are business entities that offer professional advice, ideas, and solutions to companies undergoing crises that their in-house resources cannot solve. Consultancy firms offer specialized knowledge and expertise to help clients solve complex problems, achieve specific goals, and make informed decisions.

In simple words, when a company requires expert advice and guidance to address an immediate problem, it contacts a relevant consulting firm to provide a quick solution. These firms play a crucial role in providing strategic direction to businesses across various departments, such as manufacturing, sales, marketing, or human resources.

Consulting firms provide industry-specific personnel or subject-matter experts, known as consultants, to analyze a specific problem at hand and find multiple options to provide a solution. The following are some of the ways how consultants can help a business:

• Construct business models.
• Assist with problem-solving.
• Provide cost-effective solutions.
• Predict risk and innovate products
• Strengthen talent management processes.

Types of consultancy firms and what they do

Consulting firms are present in more or less every industry. Here are a few examples:

IT consultancy firms

IT Consulting companies help clients’ businesses design and implement information technology (IT) systems and infrastructure. The objective of seeking IT consulting services is to provide guidance in simplifying various business and technology functions by introducing robust software and solutions.

Audit and accounting consultancy firms

Audit and accounting consultancy firms help organize and manage the company’s cash flow to avoid issuing money into unfavorable ventures. They also conduct annual audits to investigate all financial aspects of a company’s business. Also, these firms advise on tax obligations, the implications of new tax legislation, and tax mitigation strategies.

Engineering consultancy firms

Engineering consultancy firms provide engineering services and expertise to companies in need of a specialized skill set. Generally, they have experienced engineers to provide short-term technical advice for a fee. These firms have expertise across many sectors, including civil engineering, rail, telecommunications, energy, automotive, space, and defense.

Construction consultancy firms

Construction firms help companies construct a wide variety of buildings, developments, housing, path, pavement, roads, motorways, and other types of construction projects. They offer extensive analysis of the environmental factors to ensure that the structure is durable, sustainable, and functional.

Law firms

A few experienced lawyers come together and form a law firm to engage in law practice. Law firm consultants advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities. These consultants even represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other matters in which legal advice is sought.

Now that we know the different consultancy types and functions let’s understand how resource scheduling is necessary for consultancy firms.

How is resource scheduling different for consultancy firms?

Resource scheduling for consultancy firms is different from other industries because of their unique business model. Most consultancy projects are of short duration, and clients are billed on an hourly basis. Thus, managers need to keep track of every resource and where they are spending their time. Otherwise, it will result in poor resource utilization.

For example, let’s assume a client hired a lawyer for a specific purpose. As per the agreement, the lawyer would work for 3 hours on the project. Now another client booked the same lawyer for a much larger project with a demand of 6 hours per day.

Now, the lawyer hired for the two projects spends much of his/her time on the larger project and does not provide attention to the smaller project.

Subsequently, it results in low productivity, poor quality of deliverables, and client dissatisfaction, leading to revenue loss and reputation. Therefore, resource managers need to consider consultants’ availability and capacity before booking them for assignments.

A resource scheduling software enables you to track resource utilization and optimize resource schedules as per requirement. It helps to ensure that resources are scheduled to be billable to maximize revenue. It also lets you see all the consultants with clear visibility of their skills, location, availability, cost, and other relevant information for competent resource allocation.

Significance of resource scheduling for consultancy firms

Consulting firms cater to multiple clients at once. Therefore, they need to have transparency on their resource profiles, project demands, and more. This is why resource scheduling is critical.

A resource scheduling tool provides data-driven foresight into various resource metrics like resource availability, capacity vs. demand gap, utilization, and more. Based on this, managers can implement the proper resourcing measures and eliminate potential project challenges. It ensures that the right resources are available at the right time and for the right projects, enabling firms to deliver high-quality services while maximizing profitability.

Besides, it shaves off large amounts of time wasted collecting, analyzing, and presenting the data. It reduces the stress that managers experience in dealing with large amounts of information that can often become confusing. It also improves the overall communication of the company’s consulting staff by presenting resource plans and data in a way that is simple yet powerful to understand.

Benefits of resource scheduling software for consultancy firms

Here is a rundown of the top benefits of a resource scheduling tool for a consultancy firm:

Gain complete visibility across the organization

As mentioned before, a consultancy firm may have competencies spanning numerous countries. Based on that, resources can have multiple reporting lines. For multidimensional scheduling capabilities, firms need overall visibility across the enterprise.

Resource scheduling tool integrates all resource-related information on a centralized system. It keeps one informed of all allocations and availabilities and manages the whole process effortlessly. Also, it captures the updates when employees take a vacation, family leaves, or public holidays.

Moreover, 360-degree visibility helps to identify and leverage cost-effective global resources across boundaries. You can access every data, be it project-related or non-project-related.

Deploy the right resources to the right tasks

As every resource data is available on a single platform, one can assign competent resources to practical tasks. You can find the right resource using advanced filters such as skills, qualifications, experience, location, availability, cost rate, and so on.

Moreover, it maintains real-time competency information to match skill set proficiency with the right task. Employees can even update their competencies themselves, and supervisors can validate the authenticity of the same.

You can distribute resources based on the requirement of the projects. Resource scheduling and allocation software enables you to replace high-cost local resources with low-cost global resources. That way, you can facilitate the best resource allocation for maximum profitability.

Maximize billable and strategic utilization

Consultants charge their rates on an hourly basis. Thus, billable utilization is a critical KPI for a consultancy firm to ensure profitability and sustainability.

A resource scheduler can help track resource utilization. Managers can get a comprehensive view of the actual number of hours logged in by the employees against the planned ones. If there is an anomaly, they can take remedial measures to control the situation.

Furthermore, it can forecast billable and strategic utilization of the workforce ahead of time. You can also compare the actual utilization rates against forecasted ones and take remedial actions, such as mobilizing resources from non-billable to billable work.

Moreover, resources can view their utilization and increase their productivity accordingly. The resource heatmaps provide them with a glimpse of their usage. Also, stakeholders can view utilization rates and make data-driven decisions to improve the organization’s health index.

Deliver projects within the deadline

Assigning the right person with the right skills is crucial for a project to finish within the budgeted time without disrupting the quality. A resource scheduler lets you foresee the project demand. So, with enterprise-wide visibility, you have the chance to allocate a competent resource at the right time, ensuring timely delivery.

A resource booking software negates the chances of allocating under or overqualified resources on tasks. Underqualified resources feel frustrated and often delay delivery timelines. On the other hand, overqualified resources experience boredom and feel deprived. In both cases, employee engagement and, subsequently, productivity are adversely affected, resulting in project overruns.

The centralized solution enables managers to consider the employee’s skills and interests before task allocation. Consequently, it maximizes the chances of successful delivery within the duration.

Optimize resources through leveling and smoothing

In a consultancy firm, you are unlikely to have resources all the time. But it would help if you made adjustments to cater to the numerous client demands. The client requirements also can change suddenly.

A resource allocation software can help you optimize resource schedules based on your needs. For instance, when a project has a specific deadline, you can exercise resource smoothing. By assessing the resources’ workload, you will be able to know if they are overutilized. This way, you can redistribute their workload or pull in additional resources to balance it out.

Otherwise, if the project deadlines are flexible, you have the liberty to move around the timeline to match the resource schedule. That way, you can level the work as per the resources’ schedules and guarantee optimal utilization.

Minimize project costs with real-time reports

A dynamic resource scheduling software can track critical financial indicators for a project, like resourcing cost, revenue, profit margins, and overheads. You can take control of project costs ahead of time with forecasted cost reports, forecast vs. actual utilization reports, and so on. Also, you can assess current financial conditions and take corrective actions.

By implementing a resource scheduling solution, managers can drastically reduce project costs. Here’s how:

• Eliminate under/over-skilled resources on projects and reduce excess cost.
• Utilize cost-effective global resources without compromising quality.
• Reduce unplanned attrition with corrective schedules.
• Improve productivity by multi-skill building through a job rotation strategy
• Minimize last-minute hiring costs with visibility into pipeline project demands

Frequent hiring/firing creates a negative image for the organization. It takes up a lot of money and also affects the existing employees’ morale. Forecasting enables proactive smoothening of project workload and reskilling employees. That way, you are saved from making last-minute hiring/firing decisions.

Best practices for effective resource scheduling in consultancy firms

The advantages of proper resource scheduling are too many to be overlooked by competitive consultancy firms. To reap these benefits, companies should strive to follow and implement the proven best practices mentioned below. Let’s take a look:

Conducting a thorough analysis of current resource management strategies

Before implementing a resource scheduling solution, it is crucial for consultancy firms to conduct a comprehensive assessment of their current resource management practices. This will help them identify existing inefficiencies, gaps, and pain points in their resource allocation process. By analyzing the current workflow, firms can better understand their specific needs and requirements, enabling them to select the most suitable resource scheduling solution.

For example, a consultancy firm may discover that they lack visibility into resource availability, resulting in frequent scheduling conflicts such as double bookings. Therefore, the firm can prioritize finding a resource scheduler that provides real-time visibility into resource calendars, allowing them to make informed scheduling decisions. It will also enable managers to make changes to resource schedules in real-time to align with the changing project requirements and organizational priorities.

Define roles and standardize processes

Successful implementation of a resource scheduling solution requires clear and well-defined roles and processes within the consultancy firm. This involves establishing a clear hierarchy of decision-making authority and assigning specific roles related to resource management. Moreover, it also involves standardizing internal procedures such as resource requesting, conflict resolution, schedule changes, etc.

For instance, the consultancy firm designates a resource manager who is responsible for overseeing the scheduling and allocation process of a specific department. Besides that, the organization also clearly defines the responsibilities of individual consultants within the same department. By doing so, the firm can streamline the scheduling procedure, ensure accountability, and prevent internal conflicts.

Provide training for quick adoption

Providing comprehensive training and ongoing support to the staff is crucial to ensure the successful adoption of resource scheduling software. Training sessions should be conducted to familiarize employees with the new system, including how to input data, navigate the interface, and make scheduling decisions based on the system’s capabilities.

Consultancy firms can conduct workshops, webinars, and hands-on demonstrations to train employees and help them understand the full functionalities and benefits of the resource scheduling solution. Furthermore, regular check-ins and feedback sessions can help address any challenges or questions that arise during the adoption phase. This ongoing support ensures that employees feel supported and confident in utilizing the resource scheduling software.

Regularly monitor and improve resource scheduling strategies

Consultancy firms must foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement to enhance their resource scheduling strategies. They should monitor and track key performance indicators (KPIs) related to critical attributes such as resource utilization, project completion rates, client satisfaction, etc.

Moreover, by tracking these metrics, consultancy organizations can gain insights into the effectiveness of the scheduling solution and identify areas for improvemens. This will enable them to proactively identify and mitigate resource bottlenecks, facilitate competent allocation, and enhance resource efficiency.

By following these best practices, consultancy firms can maximize the benefits of resource scheduling solutions and achieve efficient resource management.

Conclusion

Resource scheduling software can enhance the productivity of the consultancy firm’s resources through effective allocation. It helps improve billable and effective resource utilization for the profitability and sustainability of these firms. Moreover, it helps in the successful delivery of projects, thereby enhancing client satisfaction and market reputation.

The Glossary

SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

This trend was accelerated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic when work from home was mandated worldwide.

As a result, almost every organization switched to virtual hiring to maintain business continuity in the new normal and stay ahead of the competition.

However, with ease and convenience, virtual recruitment puts forth an array of challenges like- communication gaps, time zone differences, difficulty assessing candidates’ credibility, etc.

If not managed effectively, these bottlenecks can jeopardize the firm’s reputation and ruin a candidate’s first experience.

Hence, talent managers must address these issues and implement a smooth and streamlined hiring process.

This blog explains various virtual recruitment challenges in detail and some proven solutions to mitigate them.

Let’s begin with the benefits.

Benefits of virtual hiring in organizations

According to a survey, companies from all different sectors, whether- commerce, IT-ITeS, science & technology, and telecommunications, exhibit a higher readiness (82%) for virtual hiring. Here’s why: –

Provides access to global talent

The virtual recruitment process enables employers to hire the best-fit candidates from across the globe. This access to global talent helps maintain a competitive edge and also procures cost-effective candidates with the right competencies.

Reduces the hiring time

The virtual hiring process helps in minimizing the commute time of the candidates. So employers can schedule the assessments or other interview processes at any time according to their and the candidate’s convenience, lowering the hiring time.

Fosters a fair and inclusive recruitment process

During virtual hiring, the HR professionals use multiple tools to sort and filter the candidate’s application based on the required criteria. The process automation eliminates any bias towards candidates such as race, gender, religion, etc., fostering diversity and inclusion.

Lowers hiring and onboarding overheads

Traditional hiring required firms to spend on the candidate’s commute, meals, etc. On the contrary, virtual interviews helps save money, for example, reimbursement for travel and accommodation expenses, etc., thus lowering hiring and onboarding overheads.

Streamlines multiple processes with the right tools and tech

During virtual recruitment, multiple processes can be streamlined using the right tools and technology. For example- Using ATS, one can keep a record of different applications and filter the best fit resource within seconds. Further, using conferencing apps, the interviewer can record the whole session and later evaluate each candidate and select the best one.

Having learned about the benefits, let us understand some of the challenges an organization faces during virtual hiring.

7 virtual hiring challenges faced by organizations

As easy and seamless virtual hiring seems, it has its own set of bottlenecks such as time zone difference, credibility assessments, and more.

Some of the most prominent ones are enlisted below-

Difficulty in assessing candidate’s soft skills

Soft skills are the interpersonal attributes a candidate must possess to blend in the workplace. One can assess these by body language, communication skills, non-verbal cues, etc. However, these non-verbal cues cannot be seen or evaluated in a virtual setup. Thus, interviewers cannot understand if the candidate is the right fit for the work culture and environment.

Connectivity & technical issues

During virtual interviews, it is commonly observed that either the candidates or the employers face connectivity issues that result in disturbance, lagging, or worse, call drop-outs. This can lead to a bad hiring experience for both parties. As a result, employers can even miss out on a potentially good employee.

Time zone differences hinder interview schedules

During online interviews, if the organization is hiring a candidate across a geographic area belonging to a different time zone, then finding a standard hour of convenience gets difficult. This becomes all the more challenging when there are few overlaps between the time zone, thus leading to interview scheduling issues.

Conflicting priorities of the interviewers

It’s fairly simpler to walk over to the interviewer’s desk and request them for a time slot to conduct the interview. However, when interviewers are dispersed across locations, there can be conflicting priorities or clashing meetings, resulting in delays in interviews and often losing a good candidate.

Inability to provide a seamless orientation process

The traditional orientation process entails a walk-through of the office premises and a one-on-one with teammates, department heads, etc. However, these lines are blurred during virtual orientation. Candidates may even lose a sense of belonging and feel isolated if employers fail to set the stage.

Communication gap between the new employee and existing team

After the interview process has been completed and the new employee has been onboarded, a lack of ice-breaking sessions can create a communication gap between the new employee and the existing team. This may cause them to feel disconnected from the organization, which will also affect their sense of belonging, eventually hampering their work and productivity.

Inability to assess the credibility of the candidate

Sometimes, during the virtual recruitment process, candidates use unfair means to pass the interview rounds. For example- Someone else might help the candidate with the answers or might be solving the test on their behalf, and there are no easy means to find this out, making it one of the difficult challenges during virtual hiring.

Now that we know some of the different virtual hiring challenges let us look at the solutions that will help mitigate them.

Steps to combat virtual hiring challenges

Here are some of the steps HR managers can use to mitigate virtual hiring challenges-

Use the STAR method to assess candidates’ soft skills

The STAR is the acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Results. With this assessment method, interviewers can determine how candidates will react in certain situations related to their roles and responsibilities.

S: Situation

Explain a problem or dilemma and tell the candidates to share their past experiences of a similar kind.

T: Task

The “Task” component explains the candidate’s role in this situation. What was his/her task in that situation?

A: Action

The “Action” in a STAR answer reveals how the candidate actually approached that task, and the steps they took to solve the problem.

R: Results

The “Results” included in a STAR answer should explain the outcome of the candidate’s actions. For example, how did the candidate’s results differ from the expected results?

For example- rather than asking the candidate, “What is your strength?” Instead, you can ask – “Give a situation- where you displayed your strength.”

During online interviews, this method will help employers analyze candidates’ soft skills such as problem-solving or analytical thinking and ensures they are the right candidate for the job.

Ensure that the technical tools are up to date and plan a backup

To minimize technical hiccups and enhance candidate experience during virtual interviews, ensure that all the technical tools are up to date. Begin with a double or triple check and verify that the signal strength is adequate, and precheck the microphone and camera setup before beginning the interview.

Further, the HRs should advise the candidates to do the same prior to the interview and join 10 minutes early to prevent such occurrences. At the same time, unexpected errors or glitches can occur during the interview, so keeping a backup conferencing platform handy is equally necessary.

Create a powerful pitch about the company’s culture

Candidates look beyond reasonable compensation and perks. Several reports suggest they will likely stay longer if the work culture is conducive and supportive. Thus, creating an attractive pitch about the company’s work culture and employer brand before beginning the interview can set the right tone.

This will help the candidate understand what they are signing up for. Additionally, to build the brand, companies should create a commendable online presence. Therefore, they should ascertain that their website, social media channels, etc., portray employee-centricity. For example, one can add employee testimonials, photos of different celebrations of festivals to foster and exhibit inclusion, etc.

Plan and prepare a template for a seamless onboarding process

To ensure smooth virtual onboarding and a great experience, HRs can devise and implement a systematic onboarding template. This template will provide a comprehensive view of all the induction and training stages, thus giving clarity on the new joiner’s onboarding status.

For example, if the candidate has completed training 1 with trainer A, then updating the template will help the other trainers plan their training sessions accordingly. Similarly, if there’s a delay, the concerned authorities will be kept in the loop. Additionally, this streamlined process helps employees navigate through the company’s work process and understand it better.

Proper engagement with the interviewee

One of the typical risks of virtual interviews is losing your candidates’ focus and attention. Thus, during the virtual interview, employers should ensure a constant exchange of dialogue between both parties to maintain engagement. Moreover, the interviewers should ask questions in a non-intimidating tone to keep the interview stress free and make the candidate comfortable.

Once the interviewees feel comfortable answering the question, they will stay engaged during the whole interview and be more objective. This will also enable the interviewers to understand the candidate’s way of conducting themselves and hire the right talent for the organization.

Using the right interview scheduler software

The right tool inventory goes a long way to ensure the virtual hiring process offers a seamless experience to the interviewers and interviewees. Once the assessments are done and it’s time to schedule the interview, HRs can equip an interview scheduler software.

This will help them avoid issues such as conflicting priorities or the unavailability of any interviewer. In addition, the scheduler can automatically capture everyone’s schedules, block the meeting hours and only show available slots, and send timely reminders. These tools also enable recruiters to view a candidate’s time zone and avoid scheduling errors.

Assess candidate’s technical skills through live testing and video mode

To check the credibility of a candidate during virtual hiring, interviewers can ask candidates to demonstrate their aptitude capabilities and assess technical skills in real-time. In other words, they can use the method of live testing by leveraging any conferencing platform, like- Zoom, Skype, etc. In addition, it allows you to stay online throughout the live assessment and ensure they’re not using unfair means.

Additionally, different proctoring software can block web browsers or platforms, preventing candidates from searching for an answer and adopting unfair practices. These practices will help HRs to assess not only the candidates’ technical abilities but also their credibility.

Conclusion: Virtual hiring is here to stay!

With remote work and globalization becoming an ongoing trend, virtual hiring is here to stay. So, organizations must strive to get it right as it sets the first impression for the new candidates and defines their overall experience. The above-mentioned best practices and strategies, paired with the right tool inventory, can help you streamline the process and hire the best candidates.

Do you follow a virtual hiring strategy within your organization?

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM is the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable solutions for managing enterprise resources efficiently and effectively. Having more than 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence in over 50 countries. It is also popular with more than 100 customers and helps them achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software which can be easily customized as per business requirements.

A resource manager ensures the billability of resources across the enterprise, whereas a human resource manager streamlines hiring and nurtures talent based on the organization’s needs.

Resource managers have to coordinate and work closely with HR managers. They first coordinate with project managers and PMOs to understand the resource requirements. Then, if there is a resource crunch, they work alongside the HR managers, explain the resource requirements, and initiate the hiring process.

Thus, resource management and HR management are two sides of the same coin that are established to maintain and enhance the resource health index. This blog distinguishes between resource and HR management and explains the roles and responsibilities of the respective managers.

Addressing the first question,

What differentiates resource management from HR management?

Resource management

Resource management is the process of utilizing several types of business resources effectively and efficiently. In other words, it is a process that allows managers to tap into the maximum potential of their workforce. These resources span from human resources, assets, facilities, equipment, etc. In addition, it aims to fulfill project demands on or before its onset to ensure timely delivery and within budget. This can be done by allocating resources ahead of time, either from the available talent pool or recruiting a new workforce.

The major components of resource management include resource forecasting, capacity planning, scheduling, bench management, and decision-making using real-time business intelligence. When implemented the right way, these functionalities enable managers to optimally utilize the workforce, reduce resourcing costs, improve resource health index, and enhance the business’s profitability and sustainability.

Human resource management

Human resource management is the practice of developing formal systems to hire or recruit and manage an organization’s employees. The process encapsulates the creation, implementation, and supervision of work policies across the enterprise. The main objective of HRM is to manage employees within a workplace and reinforce the work culture to meet the company’s objectives and long-term vision.

Human resource management is carried out by HR professionals who are responsible for executing day-to-day functions. It includes making decisions about employees’ remuneration and benefits, conflict management, ensuring compliance with labor laws, strengthening employee relations, and promoting employee well-being.

In a nutshell, resource management aims to enhance the overall utilization of the workforce and ensure successful project delivery, whereas human resource management deals with the recruitment of the right talent and their adherence to the work policies and culture.

Let’s now understand the roles of resource and HR managers.

Roles of a resource manager

Resource managers have multiple tasks to accomplish, from ensuring competent resource allocation to maximizing productive utilization with constant monitoring and support. It’s easier to fulfill them when resources are present in co-located offices as opposed to being dispersed across geographical boundaries.

Thus, they can leverage resource management software to simplify all these processes and do justice to their roles and responsibilities.

Here is a rundown of some of the most significant tasks.

Implement resource planning and competent allocation

The primary responsibility of a resource manager is to streamline resource planning. It is the process of forecasting, identifying, allocating, and utilizing enterprise-wide resources effectively. To initiate this process, project managers first analyze the project requirements by assessing the project’s scope and then raise resource requests accordingly.

A resource manager analyzes these requests, identify and assigns resources whose skill set is aligned with the demand. Besides skills, managers also have to factor in various attributes like project budget, resource availability, location, band level, etc. In the absence of a particular skill set, resource managers initiate planned hiring well ahead of the curve to bridge the gap.

Bridge the capacity vs. demand gap

Resource managers are responsible for forward-planning pipeline projects by analyzing future resource demands and implementing the right measures to fill vacancies. They first assess the gap between the current capacity against demands and identify resource shortfalls/excess. Accordingly, they take the right resourcing treatments to bridge the capacity vs. demand gap.

If there is an excess of resources, it can be mitigated by bringing future project work ahead, adjusting timelines, redeployment of resource capacity in other projects, etc. On the other hand, in case of a shortfall of resources, a resource manager can implement out rotation and backfill strategy. They can also select any benched resource based on the skills or coordinate with HR managers to hire contingent or permanent employees.

Coordinate with project managers and fulfill resource requests

As mentioned earlier, before a project kicks off, the project manager raises resource requests systematically. Depending on that, the resource manager finds the best-fit resources for the open positions based on project priority. Sometimes, a project manager can also raise resource requests in a staggered manner due to changing client requirements.

In this scenario, the onus is on the resource manager to fulfill these requests on time without hampering the project timeline. Moreover, following project prioritization practices diligently help resource managers to allocate resources while minimizing power conflicts. They can equip a resource management tool to automate the requisition workflow and maintain an audit trail for better transparency.

Maximize billable and strategic utilization of resources

Resource utilization measures how efficiently resources are utilized against their total capacity. Resource scheduler lets managers view the resource’s allocation on billable, non-billable, and strategic work. At the same time, it also gives an overview of over and underutilized resources. Thus, based on the data, resource managers can implement remedial measures and optimize utilization.

For example, let’s say that more than half of a resource’s available capacity is booked on non-billable work. In that case, the resource managers can mobilize them to billable or strategic work and enhance their overall billability. Thus, it facilitates them to enhance productivity and optimize resource health index.

Ensure effective bench management

Bench refers to the section of a company’s employees who are not working on any project but are on the company’s payroll. Thus, the onus is on resource managers to minimize the bench size and protect the company’s revenue. Implementing the right resource management tool can help a resource manager achieve this and prevent the bench size from exceeding the threshold.

For instance, they can foresee a large-scale roll-off from a project using the tool and proactively allocate the employees to other tasks before they hit the bench. They can also consider project vacancies and initiate appropriate upskilling/training sessions to prepare benched resources for future demands. Furthermore, if experienced resources are on the bench, managers can find suitable strategic projects to utilize them for profitable work. They also provide shadowing opportunities for freshers to reduce the bench size after mass campus placements.

Manage resource-related risks

Resource-related risks are unexpected events that can impact projects or businesses negatively. In coordination with project managers, a resource manager assesses and eliminates these risks to avoid derailment of projects.

These risks include resource overallocation, increased employee burnout, lowered productivity, unplanned attrition, etc., all of which can impact the organization’s profitability.

For example, in case of unplanned attrition or prolonged absence of a critical resource, the project’s progress may suffer badly. Therefore, the resource manager can proactively identify any backup resource from the existing resource pool well in advance. In case if there are no resources available, they can also book generic resources for the pipeline projects and eventually coordinate with HR to hire a contingent or full-time replacement.

The following section emphasizes the duties and predominant tasks of an HR manager.

Roles of an HR manager

Facilitate the hiring process

HR managers streamline the entire recruitment process and ensure the selection of suitable candidates. They conduct the HR interview round and coordinate with the concerned department’s head to facilitate technical rounds. Further, their responsibility is to discuss and negotiate salary expectations with the candidates to reach a mutually agreeable figure. Besides, they also ascertain all the document-related work involved in hiring a new candidate is duly completed.

After onboarding, the HR manager organizes an orientation program to familiarize the new employee with the company’s work culture and policies. They also coordinate with the concerned domain leads to explain the employee’s roles and responsibilities. In short, the HR manager regulates the onboarding process right from the first interview round to the final appointment and onboarding.

Frame and implement work policies

Work policies form the foundation of an organization’s work culture. They help maintain the decorum at the workplace and standardize processes to reinforce values and keep everyone on the same page. The formation of these work policies falls under the umbrella of the HR manager’s responsibilities. They collaborate with stakeholders, understand the organizational objectives and needs, and draw out the policy framework accordingly.

They also assess these policies regularly, understand their impact on the work environment, and see whether they have served the intended purpose. Moreover, they also conduct feedback surveys to get an insight into employees‘ experience and any policy impeding their productivity. Based on survey responses, they amend the particular policy on rational grounds to enhance employee satisfaction and retention.

Take care of compensation and benefits

An HR manager also administers compensation, which constitutes planning, organizing, and controlling all direct and non-direct payment forms for the work employees. Direct payment forms include base salary, premium payments for overtime, etc. Non-direct payment forms constitute health insurance, paid leaves, etc.

They also have to stay abreast of the current pay rates of every job role to comply with industry standards, maintain a competitive edge, and attract and retain talent. Additionally, HRs maintain equitable pay rates for similar job roles to ensure payroll consistency in the organization, mitigate pay-related conflicts, and reduce employee turnover.

Formulate appraisal process framework

Performance appraisal is one of the crucial processes to ensure employee engagement, productivity, and overall efficiency. Thus, forming this framework that caters to both employee and organizational needs is imperative. The HR managers accomplish this task as well and develop a customized framework. It includes deciding a suitable appraisal method, standardizing evaluation criteria, fixing rewards for exceptional performance, and more.

They coordinate and check in with the line managers to ensure that the fair practices of the appraisal system are followed uniformly across the organization. At the same time, HR managers ascertain that the appraisal methods align with the modern workplace trends. If not, they review and revisit this framework and revamp it in conformance with the current landscape.

Take disciplinary actions

Organizations define certain workplace norms and regulations to ensure smooth functioning and create necessary boundaries. An HR manager ensures that every employee abides by them. They also keep a tab on any cases of violation of workplace policies and take suitable disciplinary actions.

A disciplinary action is a reprimand against an instance of misconduct or policy violation. It can range from a verbal or written warning, demotion, or termination, to a legal suit in extreme cases, depending on the gravity of the violation. Thus, HR managers in coalition with the upper management take appropriate actions against such misdemeanors. For example, forming an anti-harassment cell to curb workplace misconduct is an HR manager’s responsibility.

Resolve conflicts

An HR manager plays an important role in resolving conflicts between different team members effectively and amicably. They encourage resources to understand and appreciate the differences between them and use them positively. Their role also comprises continuous observation of employees’ behavioral patterns.

If an HR manager notices any tension building up, they act proactively to prevent it from turning into an unmanageable dispute.

Besides, they also encourage employees to communicate their grievances and concerns freely and provide potential solutions to resolve the matter. Managers can take appropriate proactive measures to curb such incidents. For instance, given today’s diverse workforce, certain organizations and HR departments conduct diversity intelligence workshops to motivate employees to be inclusive and respectful.

The takeaway

Resource managers and HR managers are two different job titles with their own sets of roles and responsibilities. However, they both strive to achieve the common goal of enhancing workplace efficiency and sustaining a high-performance culture.

So, these departments must work cohesively and in sync. The better the synergy between them, the higher the overall productivity and profitability.

So, how do you manage the two departments efficiently for your company’s success?

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

The reason behind this change is the myriad setbacks businesses experienced while following the conventional methods. As a result, both companies and employees are no longer willing to accept the old practice.

Gallup also reveals that only 14% of employees strongly agree with their annual performance reviews.

Therefore, companies are set to transition from a traditional appraisal system to a continuous and more inclusive framework.

This blog enumerates the advantages and disadvantages of traditional appraisals and the new methods surfacing today.

But before that, let’s first understand:

What is a performance appraisal?

Employee Performance appraisal is a process by which companies assess how well employees have performed their jobs in a given evaluation period. Companies typically conduct it semi-annually or annually.

It helps an organization evaluate an individual’s skills, achievements, and growth. Telling resources how they have contributed to an enterprise’s growth makes them feel valued and inspired. They then accept the feedback and take initiatives to enhance their performance.

What are the objectives of a performance appraisal?

A performance appraisal aims to help employees understand their progress over a given period and at the same time enhance organizational efficiency. It also helps resources evaluate their shortcomings and form an action plan to overcome them and improve further. Moreover, enterprises use performance evaluation to select competent resources for higher posts and additional responsibilities.

A company implements a performance appraisal to fulfill various objectives as follows.

• Assess an employee’s potential based on pre-defined criteria like quality of work, versatility, leadership ability, etc., and leverage it for future purposes
• Improve the quality of deliverables and overall efficiency by enabling employees to course-correct their setbacks and upskill themselves.
• Set goals and milestones for the following quarter or year based on the performance evaluation
• Garner inputs for decisions regarding salary, incentives, promotions, transfers, and terminations.
• Identify training and development need for individual employees based on skill gaps.
• Enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention by rewarding high-performers, exchanging feedback, and providing fair growth opportunities.

Given the motive of the appraisal framework, let’s understand the various methods adopted by businesses:

Popular methods of traditional appraisals

Companies adopt different appraisal methods to evaluate employees based on the business structure, organization policies, company goals and work culture.

Here is a rundown of the most prominent ones:

Bell curve method

The name of this appraisal method derives itself from the normal distribution curve (also called symmetrical bell curve) used in Statistics. It’s a performance appraisal method that ranks and rates employees in the form of a bell-shaped scale, which looks like:

High Performers – 20%

Average Performers – 70%

Low (or Poor) Performers – 10%

This appraisal system works on the fact that a very limited number of employees can exceed performance expectations. Managers use it to reward the star performers who set high benchmarks. Also, it helps formulate a performance improvement plan or planned attrition strategy for average and poor performers.

360-degree feedback

This appraisal method solicits reviews on employees’ performance from various viewpoints. It is a feedback process that helps managers get an insight into how juniors, peers, and seniors perceive an employee. As this performance evaluation method is not linear in nature and collects reviews from employees at all hierarchical levels, it is called 360-degree feedback.

Client appreciation letter

A letter of appreciation addressed to a particular employee from a client in return for rendering excellent services is called a client appreciation letter. Though not exactly a performance evaluation method, these letters have a significant influence on an employee’s appraisal. They are the tangible proofs of exceptional performance that managers can’t overlook and have to consider while reviewing individuals.

Going an extra mile

Some resources have a myriad of capabilities and skills that they display in different ways and go beyond their call of duty. This assessment method recognizes those who “walk an extra mile” in any way to contribute to the organization’s profit. It makes employees feel valued for their exceptional effort and encourages them to excel further in their performance.

Checklist

It is a performance evaluation method where the company prepares a checklist of an employee’s traits in the form of statements. The line manager then checks either the “Yes” or “No” column against each trait to indicate whether the employee displays it or not. The HR department collects this filled checklist from the manager and evaluates the employee’s performance as per the responses.

Pros and Cons of traditional performance appraisals

The overhaul of the traditional performance assessment systems is the need of the hour. Nevertheless, one can’t deny the popularity that conventional appraisal frameworks have garnered for so long.

So, it is crucial to understand the upsides that kept them in trend so far while also understanding why their large-scale acceptance is gradually fading now.

Pros

Here’s a rundown on the advantages of the traditional appraisal system.

Standardizes rewards and recognition

Detailed one-on-one performance appraisal meetings on yearly performance data help managers compare resources’ progress against the set parameters based on their job roles. Accordingly, they can identify high-performing candidates after a thorough analysis and felicitate them. For instance, for an organization following bell curve method to appraise employees, the rewards for 20% of high-performing resources are standardized across the firm. It adds a layer of uniformity and negates chances of discrepancies.

Evaluates and quantifies performance

Traditional appraisals help evaluate and quantify an employee’s performance. Managers can use a numerical scale to rate and rank employees as per their level of performance. Thus, it facilitates decisions regarding salary increments, promotions, and other benefits based on resources’ rankings. For example, the checklist method allows managers to evaluate and count the number of requisite traits for appraisal. They can then categorize the employees into high, average, or poor performers based on the total percentage of the traits present.

Proven and time-tested

A traditional performance appraisal is a proven and time-tested method. Though various modern performance evaluation methods like continuous assessment, performance-based compensation, etc., have gained popularity recently, many organizations still stick to the traditional appraisal systems. The primary reason is a high level of trust in the traditional approach and skepticism towards the efficiency of modern review methods.

Cons

Below listed are some of the reasons why the traditional appraisal system is slowly becoming obsolete.

Time-consuming, inefficient, and rigid

According to research, an average manager spends around 210 hours (approximately five weeks) doing formalities involved in traditional appraisals.

It is because they involve large amounts of tedious paperwork, given their lower frequency of occurrence. The traditional appraisals are also rigid in nature as they fail to cover any facet or aspect beyond evaluation criteria. For example, the checklist method evaluates an employee only on the basis of the traits in the list.

So, if a resource has an outstanding skill or trait beyond the list, it’s overlooked; thus, making this method rigid. Further, as managers tend to focus on more recent activities and achievements, they may sometimes fail to consider the employee’s exceptional performance in some initial projects. Thus, missing out on important accomplishments can deprive some employees of well-deserved benefits..

Leaves minimum scope for improvement

As traditional appraisals occur once a year, employees don’t get regular feedback. Consequently, they spend a considerable amount of time and effort without knowing whether they are heading in the right direction or not. If there are performance issues, employees don’t get enough leeway to work on their shortcomings.

Therefore, it leaves no scope for continuous improvement, making them feel overwhelmed during the appraisal. They may even feel disappointed and dejected, which in turn reduces their engagement. If the management fails to track it on time, it can eventually result in unplanned attritions as well.

Can lead to biased assessment

Often, line managers tend to favor the resources who have worked closely with them for a long time as compared to others. For example, an employee works on a project for nine months under a given project manager. However, just three months before the appraisal time, they are shifted to a new project under a different manager. In this case, the new manager may overlook the performance of the past nine months and favor the ones working closely with them since the beginning.

It may result in a biased evaluation of a resource’s performance. Moreover, often managers get lenient while rating seniors under their span of control. They, thus, give comparatively poor ratings to juniors under the pretext of not having enough data about them. Thus, it creates a hostile atmosphere at the workplace and leads to unnecessary internal discrepancies and conflicts.

Imbalance between disparate teams’ evaluation

When people work collectively as a team, they often tend to reduce their individual effort when compared to working alone. It results in decreased employee engagement and organizational effectiveness.

This natural psychological occurrence is “social loafing”. It makes it challenging to identify the contribution of an individual in the group.

To understand it better, let’s consider two teams working on two different projects. If a team is high-performing in all aspects compared to the other, its individuals will also get a higher rating. On the contrary, a high-performing individual in the other team might still get a relatively lower rating due to being a part of the low-performing team. It, thus, results in an imbalance while evaluating disparate teams.

Now that we know why the traditional performance appraisal is becoming obsolete, let’s look at what their future is.

What’s the way ahead for employee performance appraisals?

It is evident that traditional performance evaluation methods need to be changed to make them more inclusive, fair, and efficient.

Here are a few methods that companies can adopt going forward to make their performance appraisals fair and inclusive.

Continuous performance assessment

Continuous employee performance assessment is replacing traditional appraisals across the globe. Unlike a conventional performance review that takes place once or twice a year, it takes place throughout the year. It is a continual holistic process where the management gives regular feedback to employees. The processes involve establishing short-term goals and objectives, reviewing their progress, timely one-on-ones, and real-time feedback.

It helps the employees get better and regular insights into their performance and provides them with a fair chance to improve.

This appraisal method also facilitates more transparency in dialogue, autonomy, and task ownership. Accenture is one of the MNCs that have replaced annual performance reviews with a continuous performance assessment.

Roles given based on capability instead of seniority

As mentioned earlier, in the traditional appraisal system, the seniority level of an employee primarily determines job roles and promotions. However, the performance assessment culture is witnessing a large-scale change, and companies are switching to a flexible appraisal system. They are now assigning roles based on employees’ competency and performance rather than limiting them to the seniority level.

This method gives all the resources a fair chance to climb the ladder if they have the potential. Out-of-the-turn promotions are a good example of this where an employee gets promoted based on the performance and progress, not the years of experience or the time they spent in the company.

Compensation based on performance

Earlier, the hierarchical level or the designation of employees would determine their salary increments. Companies are, however, now adopting performance-based compensation. As the name suggests, it is based on performance and how effectively an employee fulfills organizational goals, instead of entirely depending on the years of experience.

In other words, the appraisal method is shifting from a quantitative to a more qualitative approach.

Rewarding employees’ efforts and achievements through bonuses, paid leaves, etc., is beneficial. When you look beyond providing annual salary increments based on seniority or designation, it motivates them. They, in turn, push their limits, put more effort, and contribute to the company’s growth in a better way.

Move from relative to past vs. present rating system

Relative reporting is when the management compares the performance of two individuals against each other. However, this method is no longer popular. The reason is that it pits the individuals against each other in terms of rating. In the long run, it causes unhealthy competition among resources to climb the corporate ladder. Resources often become more self-centered and invest their time and energy only in improving their ratings instead of working towards the common goal.

As a result, the collaborative spirit and teamwork fade away, which hampers an organization’s efficiency. So, companies are parting with the traditional relative rating system. Rather, they now focus on an individual’s performance and compare it against their last year’s work rate to consider improvements. It also provides resources with a chance to understand the areas of improvement and take the appropriate measures to hone their skills.

Keep a limited span of control

The span of control, also known as the management ratio, is the number of employees that directly report to a manager. If the span of control for each line manager goes beyond a limit, it becomes challenging to supervise. It leads them to miss out on the individual employee’s details and overlook some important aspects. Further, providing timely feedback and conducting one-on-ones also becomes challenging.

It, thus, results in a disconnect between the manager and their team members. When stretched for long, it leads to a lack of clarity around goals and expectations, dip in engagement and performance. Therefore, the span of control should not exceed a desirable range, ideally for managerial positions. A limited span of control helps give managers better visibility and control over individual resources’ performance, making the assessment more accurate and efficient.

Conclusion

Performance appraisal for today’s workforce-led culture goes beyond yearly reviews and recognition. It has evolved and expanded, and enterprises are now employing an all-inclusive, continuous method to cater to individual development and growth.

Given the current work trends and the upheaval of traditional business culture, it’s time that you start transitioning to a more modern approach. The above-mentioned current appraisal methods can help you customize your framework and provide a conducive, growth-oriented environment for your workforce.

So, are you ready to transform your appraisal framework yet?

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

The answer is a resounding yes! It’s essential.

According to an Employee Benefits News survey, losing an employee can cost the company around 33 percent of that employee’s salary.

The negative impact on the company’s bottom line is only one side of the problem.

Furthermore, many experts speculate that businesses will have an imminent wave of employee turnover in the coming months as companies will soon reopen offices.

That means firms must discover the top reasons why their employees are unsatisfied and strive to fix them rapidly before top talent walks out the door.

But the question is, how can we keep employees at their jobs, happily working?

Here is the detailed blog post that covers everything you need to know about employee retention. From why talent retention matters, the top reasons employees leave jobs, to how you can create effective employee retention strategies

What is employee retention, and why is it important?

Employee retention encapsulates certain practices that organizations carry out by investing in the employee experience to keep talent engaged while limiting turnover.

The success of every firm depends on reducing employee turnover. For one, it requires time and money to embark and train new people. Second, decreased productivity and losing a competitive edge are the main losses caused by employees leaving a company.

Therefore, developing employee retention strategies that can help you build a long-lasting relationship with your employees is essential. In addition, it will boost job satisfaction levels resulting in higher employee productivity, company loyalty, and increased profits.

Information needed to create an employee retention strategy

Employees leave their jobs for various reasons. While some might attribute to personal reasons such as pursuing higher education, career change, retirement, etc., most of the time, the internal work environment can also push people to seek new employment opportunities. These factors can also be impacted by the company culture, unequal compensation, work stress and burnout, lack of growth opportunities, and more.

Therefore, companies must do in-depth qualitative and quantitative research to understand the underlying causes before creating a retention strategy. Here are the details;

Measure employee turnover

Organizations should monitor turnover rate as it is one of the many tangible ways to understand the root cause. There are a few different types of turnover, such as voluntary, involuntary, internal transfers, and new hire turnover, to name a few. However, firms must primarily focus on voluntary turnover or the number of people who willingly left their organization.

You can measure employee turnover by dividing the total number of employees leaving in a month by your average number of employees. The formula is as follows:

Employee Turnover Rate = [(No. of voluntary departures/average of employees) X 100]

Conduct employee retention surveys

Sometimes spikes in employee departures can indicate more significant issues at your organization. Therefore, conducting employee retention surveys and focus groups surveys within the existing workforce can help your HR team understand what underlying organizational problems could be prompting top talent to leave.

Constant employee engagement surveys on all areas of employee experience, such as salary, benefits, management, and work-life balance allow you to collect anonymous feedback. In addition, it can help you identify specific areas of your organization that have scope for improvement.

Employee feedback from exit interviews

Exit interviews can help firms to collect more in-depth qualitative data from their employees. Let’s take a scenario to understand this; Suppose a financial services company hired a manager to oversee an insurance department of 20 employees. Six months later, only ten remained, six had resigned, and four had transferred.

To understand what led to the departure, the upper management looked at the exit interviews of the six resigned employees. They all conveyed that the manager lacked critical leadership and managerial skills, and employees were forced to work for extra hours with no appreciation. Thus, the feedback from exit interviews made the organization understand the root cause of their resignation and help take necessary corrective actions.

Conduct 360-degree feedback

The 360-degree performance evaluation of the employees lets companies leverage the information and identify areas of improvement. For example, they can find out how an employee interacts and works with peers, subordinates, managers, etc. It also provides information on employee’s performance, contributions, behavior, and more. A successful 360 feedback process, includes various roles, such as:

• An evaluation administrator/ an HR employee
• A manager who directly supervises the employee
• Four or five coworkers who work closely with the employee
• Junior employees working under the employee

Once you’ve collected sufficient information from employees, attempt to find trends and patterns in their feedback. For instance, if a certain manager’s behavior receives negative feedback, the upper management can take remedial measures ahead of time. In addition, this data will determine how you can develop a retention strategy down the lane.

Collect salary-related data from the peer organization

If many employees expressed dissatisfaction with pay and compensation during exit interviews or through formal surveys, then it’s time to evaluate your compensation strategy. You can conduct a salary and benefits study to determine if you offer the same as other businesses in your industry and region.

For instance, the average annual pay of a react native developer may be below the median for the skillset in your firm. Thus, the HR team should look at industry benchmark data and adjust salary and benefits to remain competitive and retain employees.

Joining/retention bonus

Today skillful employees are offered attractive job benefits from other companies. Therefore, companies can research which skill set is a hot job market role and collect the data. That way, when employees with that niche skill join the company can be given a joining bonus to build a solid relationship and longer-term loyalty.

Besides, firms can also collect information from the IDP of employees who have recently completed the training program or are upskilled to fulfill future business operations. They can also be offered retention bonuses to ensure that they do not take their talents elsewhere. In a nutshell, joining and retention bonuses can prove beneficial to maintain a liquid labor market and reduce corporate poaching practices significantly.

Employee interest captured from IDP

Employers can conduct a follow-up session with employees to get feedback about the ongoing training or upskilling programs. It will help companies understand how valuable training and development experiences are to the employees and whether it caters to their professional plans.

Companies can use this information to identify the gap and create fool-proof Individual Development Plans (IDP) that ignite workforce potential.

Following the collection of all the data and information where a business needs improvement, it’s time for upper management to develop an efficient retention solution. Let’s look into the details below;

9 employee retention strategies and best practices

If you sense your company is at risk of losing top talent, you need to quickly shore your staff retention policies. Here are nine strategies that can help boost employees’ job satisfaction and enhance your capacity to maintain valued talent:

Align recruitment process with organizational objectives

The first step to employee retention is to align the recruitment process with business objectives. If the employee is not the right job fit or cultural fit, i.e., their skills and traits do not match the long-term business needs, it will lower productivity, engagement, etc., leading to an employee turnover. Therefore, companies should streamline their interview and hiring process to ensure that new hires align with the value blueprint of the organization while possessing the critical skillset.

In addition, new hire needs time to learn and adjust to the workplace culture. Therefore, pairing them with a mentor is a significant addition to your extended onboarding process, especially in a remote work environment.

Foster a supportive and inclusive workplace

A diversity and inclusion strategy can help businesses retain top personnel, and drive optimal results. It is also essential to enhance employee satisfaction, teamwork, and productivity. In addition, a diverse and inclusive work culture enables you to recruit individuals irrespective of their community, religion, country, and sexuality.

Organizations fostering diversity and inclusion acknowledge their employee’s interests, provide them fair opportunities. They create a positive work atmosphere where every voice is welcome, heard, and respected. Implementing more inclusive policies, like childcare stipends, offering parental leave, company holidays, can also make every individual feel supported by the company.

Provide competitive salary and benefits

A study conducted by Glassdoor revealed that the main reason for the 45% of employees who quit their jobs was salary.

Companies need to pay their employees competitive compensation, which means employers need to evaluate and adjust salaries regularly. Even if a business can’t increase pay right now, they should consider providing other forms of compensation, such as bonuses, perks, etc.

One can also provide health care benefits and retirement plans, which can help raise employees’ job satisfaction. In addition, organizations can add lucrative perks like wellness offerings, monthly gym memberships, reimbursement for fitness classes, etc.

Promote a healthy work-life balance

A recent study found that 80% of employees are more likely to be loyal to their current employer if it offers flexible work arrangements.

Today, many companies follow the virtues of work-life balance because continually overworking employees can lead to employee burnout. Thus, companies can set efficient resource schedules or allow their employees to set flexible work hours and get their work done. You can also encourage the staff to take regular time off or use their vacation/leaves yearly.

Implement an effective employee engagement program

According to a Gallup poll, 73% of actively disengaged employees are looking for a different job.

Therefore, creating ways to foster collaboration, including stress management programs, occasional team-building activities, is needed. These activities also help combat feelings of loneliness or isolation in both co-located offices and among remote workers. In addition to face-to-face team building options, there are many virtual team activities like monthly virtual lunch, happy hours, coffee meetings, and virtual games sessions. These practices reinforce workforce morale, strengthen team bonding, and maximize productivity.

Plan employee recognition and reward system

Unfortunately, many employees leave companies because they feel undervalued or unappreciated in their roles. Therefore, employers must ensure that they acknowledge and recognize employees for a job well done. In return, it can help improve engagement and ultimately contribute to employee retention.

Employee recognition can take many forms, like a wall of fame, social media recognition, an internal email with kudos, or a bonus for achieving monthly goals. Even seemingly small gestures like appreciating an employee’s hard work in a meeting can help the team feel acknowledged and appreciated.

Evaluate and encourage feedbacks

Listening to the employees goes a long way towards retaining them. Therefore, companies must organize feedback programs that cover one-on-one, team, or departmental sessions where employees can share their views.

Instead of just formal annual reviews, companies can also check in regularly with the employees to understand their needs and experience in the workplace. Then companies can use this feedback to enhance work practices, processes and bridge the gaps. In addition, it will make every employee feel heard and valued, thereby improving retention.

Create a management development program (MDP)

Employees should be nurtured and given enough opportunities to become productive leaders and managers in the organization. A management development program (MDP) can serve this purpose. It is usually different from a technical training program as it helps to groom entry-level managers and people in middle management.

With an effective management development program in place, a business can enhance its human capital, create a culture of innovation, improve succession planning, and ultimately increase employee retention.

Conduct learning and development programs

According to LinkedIn’s 2021 Workforce Learning Report, when given internal training and learning opportunities, employees at companies stay almost two times longer.

Suppose an individual doesn’t think they can learn and grow at your organization. In that case, odds are these top performers will take their talents elsewhere. Therefore, a company should always strive to follow the three ‘E’s of development;

• Education
• Experience
• Exposure

The sharing of knowledge may be done through professional education or reimbursement programs that enable staff to purchase books, attend conferences, and develop new technical or soft skills. They should also find some internal projects and opportunities that will give exposure to new areas. Further shadowing opportunities, cross-departmental assignments, and more can be provided to junior-level employees that can help them hone new skills and gain experience and exposure.

Over to you

Employee retention programs and strategies come in all forms and therefore, cannot follow a ‘One-size fits all’ policy for all companies. Every organization has its unique areas that need improvement; therefore, it’s essential to keep the aforementioned vital factors in mind to create an effective employee retention strategy.

Of course, there will always be people joining and leaving your organization, but by investing in the right areas, you can ensure your employees have an exceptional experience at your company, from the first day to their last.

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM is the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable solutions for managing enterprise resources efficiently and effectively. Having more than 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence in over 50 countries. It is also popular with more than 100 customers and helps them achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software which can be easily customized as per business requirements.

A recent study estimates that by 2030, 85 million job positions will remain unfulfilled due to the lack of unskilled employees. Talent management helps the organization prepare a future-ready and skilled workforce. It not only improves team productivity and employee satisfaction but also helps in talent retention. Therefore, companies should make an effort to effectively manage their employees to develop their skills and capabilities for the long haul.

This blog covers the essential aspects of talent management. Before delving deep, let us get the basics right and start with the definition.

What is talent management?

Talent management is the process of managing resources to help them accomplish their career objectives. It is an integral part of the HR process that allows an organization to acquire, manage, develop, and retain critical resources.

Talent management systems focus on managing resources by tracking talent acquisition, employee engagement, performance, and development.

Resource management software is instrumental in simplifying talent management processes that mutually benefits the organization and its workforce.

Why is talent management important?

Every organization strives to retain the best and the most talented people to improve business efficiency and boost ROI. Similarly, employees also look for enriching work experience, adequate business exposure, and career developing opportunities. Talent management is a function of the HR division that helps align the organization’s long-term goals with employee aspirations.

Good talent management practice also minimizes unplanned attrition. Many successful organizations systematically invest in employee engagement through meaningful work, goal setting, transparent communication, and timely reward & recognition.

Empowering key resources with additional responsibilities and helping realize their true potential can create wonders for the success of any firm.

Modern resource management helps streamline the talent management process in many ways. It is not just limited to managing team members across projects. It also plays a vital role in improving operational efficiency and revenue by retaining the key resources.

Benefits of Talent Management:

The advantages of talent management are substantial. Let’s look at how resource management supports talent management and the business benefits associated with it

Timely availability of resources for projects

As the project demands change from time to time, resource planning to fulfill ad-hoc requirements can be daunting. Resource management tool provides complete visibility into resource profiles and captures details like experience, skills, qualifications, cost, and availability.

Employees can validate skills and competencies from time to time by their supervisor before updating them on the system. In this manner, organizations can maintain a skill inventory equipped for current and future projects. It helps the organization identify the right person for suitable project vacancies at the right time and cost. Also, allocating resources considering their skills and interests motivates them to stay productive and ensures timely delivery of projects.

Improve employee engagement and productivity

One of the fundamentals of the talent management process is to identify and nurture employee skills. Allocating over/underskilled resources to projects can lead to employee burnout, disengagement, and schedule overruns. So, enterprises can use workforce planning tools to schedule team members to activities based on their abilities and interests. It has a significant impact on employee motivation and productivity.

According to Gallup, “utilizing the skills and strengths of employees regularly improves their engagement by six times.”

Providing adequate training opportunities for reskilling or building new skills helps maintain their Individual Development Plan or IDP. Training new skills also ensures that resources ending up on the bench are billable as soon as they are rolled off from projects.

Enable succession planning for critical positions

Succession planning is a critical process of talent management that helps create a skilled workforce capable of filling leadership and other critical roles as the business grows, changes, or develops. During business expansion or management turnover, succession planning ensures that productivity and employee morale isn’t affected.

Training and upskilling measures are a part of the regular succession plan. However, when it comes to succession planning for multi-skilled resources, these measures are not enough.

Since the multi-skilled team member’s role will need distribution among several employees, it could substantially spike resourcing costs. A workforce planning and management tool provides complete visibility of resources across geographical barriers. It helps distribute work among multiple people from low-cost locations. Thus, organizations can avoid a single point of failure if a critical resource leaves the organization without a budget overrun.

Allow multi skill-building through job rotation

Limited and monotonous repetitive work can cause boredom and a feeling of career stagnation for most employees. Not exposing them to various roles and activities hinders employees’ career objectives resulting in lower morale, productivity, and unplanned attrition.

According to Gartner,” lack of career development opportunities leads to 40% attrition in organizations worldwide.”

Skill building and developing is one of the significant outcomes of talent management. Managers can implement a job rotation strategy that helps team members diversify their skillsets. Workforce management solutions capture their competencies and enable the timely allocation of resources to the right job. Encouraging employees to build multiple secondary skills improves employee motivation and also helps enhance their billability.

Enable strategic hiring

Strategic hiring is a critical initiative of talent management that aligns hiring and onboarding with your company’s future vision. It focuses on long-term goals and considers future skills that your employees will need to perform at a high level. Hence, one cannot take on the spur decisions to fulfill strategic business goals as it can compromise quality and prove to be very costly.

Enterprises must have visibility into the future and pipeline projects to make informed hiring decisions. Resource capacity planning helps you identify the skill gap in advance. It helps avoid last-minute scuffle for a competent workforce and hire appropriate skill sets to meet future work demands. Depending on the scope and duration of the projects, you can hire a permanent or contingent workforce.

Enhance Employee Retention

In a highly competitive and volatile market, developing and maintaining a skilled resource pool is one of their primary business objectives for sustainability. Employee turnover costs are high that adversely affects the bottom line.

A study by SHRM reveals that “the average hiring cost and lead-time are $4129 and 42 days, respectively“.

The price of employee turnover also includes soft costs such as decreased productivity, reduced engagement, training costs, and cultural impact. Employee retention is a vital component of talent management and includes hiring the right candidates, employee benefits, training, and development opportunities. If turnover is inevitable, it also includes succession planning for business continuity.

Improve client satisfaction

Studies have shown that companies with superior customer experience have 1.5 times more engaged employees compared to others. Talent management improves employee experience that has a direct impact on client satisfaction and higher ROI. It prepares them to achieve the business’s strategic goals, which increases client satisfaction and business performance.

Retaining and developing talent helps them realize the business values of how to manage their clients effectively. Talent management also facilitates business acumen and knowledge management that substantially improves client relationships. Throughout the project life cycle, a consistent client approach establishes a robust client management process that aligns with the sales and delivery team.

Helps Build Teams as per Personalities

Understanding how people work and what motivates them can make project deliveries successful. If the management takes aggressive risks, one can get many projects started, but the delivery team will struggle to complete them on time. At the same time, if the leadership team is detail-oriented, there will be no innovation culture.

One needs a combination of different types of employees as per their role. Talent management processes can make use of established personality tests during hiring or job rotation of employees. One of such personal assessment tools is DISC which helps improve communication, teamwork, and productivity at the workplace.

DISC is an acronym and the letters D, I, S and C stand for the four DISC styles: D – Dominance; I- Influence; S – Steadiness C- Conscientiousness. It helps assign roles based on the personality of the resources.

If the job content is interesting as per your interest and personality, you are likely to succeed in your role. A good talent management process can ensure this kind of best practice as a part of ongoing HR activities.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, talent management is essential to build a stable workforce for any business. It looks into the development of the organization as a whole. With new job opportunities coming up, developing staff potential within the company is essential for business profitability and sustainability.

Employees leave an organization if their job becomes monotonous or the learning activities stop over time. Talent management focuses on job rotation and encourages the workforce to pick up new skills as per market demand. It keeps them engaged, motivated and enhances employee loyalty.

The Saviom Solution

SAVIOM without a doubt has become the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable Enterprise Resource Management Solution. Having more than 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across more than 50 countries and an esteemed client list of over 100 customers, helping them achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software which can be easily customized as per business requirements.

Please get in touch with us to discuss your business challenges and significantly reduce project resource costs, increase billable utilization, and more!

Gamification techniques are in place today to tap into our need for instant gratification. , with tools that score the workforce based on their problem solving ability. When you gamify work, you not only get creative solutions from diverse channels but also reward exceptional performers for the results produced.

Whats’ more, gamification techniques let your employees take on new challenges with enthusiasm.

Gamification was previously considered counterproductive to workforce productivity. In other words, a workplace distraction that risked pulling your staff’s focus from urgent tasks. MordorIntelligence, however, predicted that by 2024, the gamification market’s valuation will be up by 30%

While the learning curve and associated costs to retrain your people are shortened considerably, gamifying work also makes picking up a new skill fun. After all, the trigger to improve rests on having something to look forward to in the future, as well as looking back to see progress made along the curve.

Before stacking up the building blocks of a future-ready workforce, let’s do a quick fact-check on what gamification involves!

1. What is gamification in business?

Quite simply, gamification in project management introduces game-oriented thinking into non-game areas. Interestingly, initiatives like Employee of the Month and the Wall of Fame are gamification techniques employers rely on to reward track, monitor and reward increased employee engagement.

It serves the dual purpose of recognizing true potential and inspiring mediocre performers to to scale in the right direction. After all, when participants see that model employees are rewarded, they too, are motivated to emulate a similarly favorable behavior.

At the end of the day, gamification is a 75-25 mix of psychology and technology. And when it comes to managing your resource pool scientifically, the following 3 gamification strategies should hold you in good stead-

A. Scalable resource planning

Your projects are as good as the people on it. And the first step in resource planning is to know which projects your resources are assigned to, and how workloads look like at any given point in time. A visual resource calendar feature within a tool like Saviom’s Enterprise Gantt chart scheduler, for example, visibly depicts resource and project workflows. It lets you allot work on the basis of availability and billable utilization on project hours.

The more visible work and resources are, the better informed you are of the contributions your resources make toward a project, and their ability to reach the finish line while delivering quality work.

For example, if a certain activity ended before proposed timelines, you can not only get your employees started on the next project sooner but can also verify which competencies were leveraged that enabled the previous work to finish in the shortest time. Consequently, you can record your staff’s participation and enthusiasm determine the appropriate incentivization programs. More on that in the next point!

B. Level-based Reporting

Ever taken an online personality quiz before? You’d have definitely noticed a pattern to the questions being asked. Your final score is generated at the end based on the input provided. In some cases, the difficulty of the questions increase according to your previous responses. This is yet another example of gamification that runs on an algorithm, instantly informing you of how you fared.

The booked versus actuals report works on the same principle. It is a handy feature in smart resource management that lets you plan resource assignments for current and future work. Booked hours refer to the hours planned for upcoming work in order to notify competent staff in advance. The actual hours are pulled from employee timesheets and record the time spent by your resources across tasks.

The first step to doing so it to break work down to bite-size chunks. Not only does it orient you around a task’s complexity scale and interlinked dependencies but also points out if skills and expertise are shared optimally amongst your staff.

You can then set up levels for every milestone reached and award your staff points that enable them to move to the next level. This way, project workflows sync the time cost and effort estimates per resource utilized.

Booked versus actual hours let you plan out future project effort estimates. If a certain type of work’s actual hours overshot the originally booked hours, it lets you devise a gaming strategy to get your employees to complete work with the shortest turnaround time.

C. Gamify skilling measures

Points -based gamification techniques acts as the catalyst for staff wishing to upskill and expand their expertise for future relevance. It highlights shifts in demand for skills for work.

Put simply, staff on the bench can use the time between projects to retrain and ready themselves for newly created roles and responsibilities. They are then sufficiently work-ready when more, and new opportunities are explored.

A critical step in resource capacity planning is to size up your resource pool by strength and ensure you have the right hands in line with the quantity and quality of work. This lets you gamify existing work such that your employees can work as a cohesive unit. Participating ‘gamers’ can strategically employ their knowledge and skills towards hitting a learning objective faster.

Based on a comparison of your existing resource availability and utilization levels, you can fit gaming events in optimally so that the time in solving challenges is put to good use. Creating a scorecard for job-based learning lets your staff self-gauge their progress. Including a time component to complete courses by a certain date ensures your staff make upskilling a priority without rushing through the course material.

This way, when you test how ready your workforce is, you will be able to ascertain how invested your resources were in the learning journey.

2. Will You Play Along?

Gamification lets your employees deal with workplace stress while encouraging them to bring their A-game to work. After all, wouldn’t you want to be part of a work ecosystem that functions on collaborative competition?

Post unravelling Saviom’s core reports, you’ll gain resource-centric insights that aid project decisions. Better still, your firm will benefit from a workforce that works towards the common goal of getting more done, efficiently and effectively.

Overwork has been mistaken as a means or measure of productivity despite its converse effect on real productivity. And, in the context of the Consulting and Auditing industry, it has intertwined with work culture so much so that it has long been accepted as the industry norm.  Naturally, when the industry seeks to reform its ways and reduce the stress levels that are experienced by professionals, work culture solutions become the way out even if they are not very effective.

What organizations have failed to note is how proper resource allocation can provide real, actionable solutions to mitigating the need to overwork, which is not only easy to measure but also easy to replicate in numbers. Resource allocation simply makes room for a direct cause-effect relationship between workforces and project success thus measuring productivity on terms other than mere long hours. Consulting and Auditing firms which have so far, struggled trying to fix these issues with work culture solutions can potentially find far more sustainable and action-oriented solutions in scientific allocation and management.

Besides, resource mismanagement is tied in with poor output statuses of a lot of organizations. 50% of businesses had a project failure during the last year and according to 74% of respondents, lack of resources to meet project demands was one of the primary reasons. In another study, 50% respondents reported that their top risk is lost productivity because resources are not optimized, followed by remaining in crisis mode.

Workforce Woes

Let’s first see an overview of the hazards that overwork causes which range from fatigue and sleep-deprivation to lower output levels which make it hard to perform at a high cognitive level.

• Alexandra Michel, a former Goldman Sachs associate published a nine-year study of two big investment banks. The bankers Michel studied started to break down in their fourth year on the job. They suffered from depression, anxiety, and immune-system problems, and performance reviews showed that their creativity and judgment declined.
• In another similar study, by the sixth year of their employment, the participants, now in their mid-30s, had split into two camps: the 60% who remained “at war” with their bodies, and the remaining 40% who decided to prioritize their health, meaning they paid more attention to sleep, exercise and diet and set limits on how much they allowed work to consume them.
• This is not limited to financial institutions as about 73% of county public defender offices reported to have exceeded the maximum recommended limit of cases.
• Also, levels of depression, anxiety and stress among attorneys are significant, with 28%, 19% and 23% experiencing mild or higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress, respectively.

It is not as if Consulting and Auditing firms haven’t really tried to make amends to this. From mandatory time off to maximum weekly work hours,  a lot of measures have been enforced. But as stated before, most of these changes remain in fixing things from the ‘work culture’ realm of  things, which does not change unless their nature of work itself does.

Resource Management though, is a pragmatic solution that deals with making sure that every project begins with enough resources on them. Every resource’s predetermined optimal output is measured and the aim is to only make sure that the level is reached. Further, output is measured in terms of project’s impact and success. Managers can also correlate output levels and project quality directly and thus measure optimal utilization on terms other than just long hours.

Resource Rethink

A robust Resource Management tool can do all this and more. Simply put, Resource Management can really help such organizations gain perspective on quality of productivity and output delivered. They can be leaner, earn better ROI and retain their best employees.

In addition, when you choose Saviom, you can not only visualise your entire resource pool and work, but also optimise the output of your workforces.  Its intuitive multifaceted features are designed to tackle all your planning and scheduling woes irrespective of the magnitude or the level of detailing involved. All in all, enough has been spoken about work culture problems across industries. It is time that you armed yourselves with real-data to solve them.