How to Improve Resource Management and Get The Best From Your Team

We know that, you are a project manager and you really need to close your tasks on time and on budget. Recently, increasing company’s culture has become important as well so now, to those two goals you have to add a third one: work with an happy and productive team.

Work in a relaxed environment without any pressure, with shared methodologies and goals, has a positive impact on the entire company, you have experienced that for sure; although this concept is probably clear to everyone, it is not as easy to apply, often projects are overdue, people are overloaded, and the team is divided.

How can you recover your team culture, achieve your goals without delay and, finally improve your resource management?

Share your goals but also doubts:

Being a project manager you have to focus on sharing and communicating to improve your staff management. One of the main causes of delays in taskworks is the lack of communication. The goal of the project must be clear to everyone from the very beginning,  desired end dates, and in general the whole planning.

To improve resource management, it is essential that, in case of doubt, team can discuss together, prompting problems that would otherwise remain hidden until the end. The choices taken should not fall from above as unquestionable, but be proposed and discussed together. Likewise, if someone is in late, they must notify the group immediately, in this way, if the delay has an impact on the work of others, it can be managed immediately.

Increasing communication in your work group will not be easy, you will have to start dedicating more time to your team and for this reason you will need to learn how to organize meeting efficiently, initially you might feel like taking away work’s’ time, but it is not like that!

Start in the morning, get together with your colleagues and make a quick point of the situation: are we on time? Is someone in late and why? Can I help you? Once a month, make a more in-depth meeting, check that the project is getting according to initial requests and that everyone is happy and not overloaded. If a problem occurs, act immediately and do not leave your resources alone. To manage your staff, you often have to take responsibility for others’ mistakes, learn to tackle problems constructively without looking for scapegoats that can divide the team.

Delegate to improve resource productivity

To be a good leader you must instill confidence and trust to encourage your resources to become autonomous. Recent studies show that a resource, if she becomes more responsible for a project (or sub-phase), becomes more focused and increases her productivity, for this reason, it is therefore necessary, to improve your staff management  to start a process of delegation and empowerment which must start from you.

To facilitate this process, you can use a system that allows you to properly manage and plan your work and, at the same time, split projects into phases that you can delegate to individual resources or subgroups. For example, a project management software such as Twproject can help you identify these phases, monitor their real-time performance, and monitor the workload of your collaborators. Twproject, thanks to an interactive Gantt editor, allows you to (1) create your tasks structure within minutes, (2) assign your colleagues on their respective stages, and (3) check the load in real time:

5 tips to improve resource management:

So, to improve your resource management, you need a strategy:

1. Share with the group your goals and the project planning but also delays or difficulties and act immediately where possible: in this way, you will always be aligned and will not regret unexpected delays and bottle necks.
2. Schedule regular meetings to make a point on project progress, closely follow your team: thanks to a tight communication you will always be up-to-date on what’s going on, about the mood of your collaborators over the tasks.
3. Delegate the work that resources can do autonomously and keep them involved: in this way, you will be able to focus more on the management work and their, being responsible for their stage will be more focused.
4. Always check their load and balance as much as possible: try not to overwork the team too much, face the deadlines smoothly will allow them to work better.
5. Use a project management software like Twproject to improve resource management, control the work assigned to your resources, their work-load, and track activities progress. This will give you a valid helper to reduce your load and will allow you to have an always up-to-date picture.