Slack in your resource plan is a must
In Strategic Resource Management, having slack in your resource planning is essential. Slack means not allocating all available capacity to change initiatives. It is important to maintain slack in your resource planning for several reasons.
A healthy organization
Unexpected events
You can encounter unexpected events in every project, like technical difficulties, delivery delays or sick team members. By building slack into your planning, you are better equiped to deal with these situations, without jeopardizing the entire project. You have the flexibility to reschedule tasks or allocate additional resources to accommodate any delays.
Fluctuations in demand
Demand for products or services can vary depending on various factors, such as seasonal trends, market conditions or unexpected customer demands. Having room for movement in your resource planning allows you to better respond to changes in demand. You can use staff flexibly or adjust production capacity to meet changed needs.
Growth and expansion
As your business grows or takes on new projects, it’s important to have enough room in your resource planning to handle the extra load. You may need additional staff, equipment or other resources to keep up with growing demand. Having room for maneuver in your planning allows you to identify and plan the resources you need in time so you can scale up smoothly.
Optimization of means
By including room for movement in your planning, you can use your resources more effectively and efficiently. You can better match tasks to the skills and availability of your team members. This can lead to better resource allocation, increased productivity and faster project completion.
Happier and more productive employees
The resultant of slack in your resource planning is that you have happier employees. This lies in four factors:
Work life balance
There is more flexibility to maintain a healthy work life balance. Your team can adjust or reallocate tasks when someone needs time off due to personal circumstances, fatigue or just spontaneous hunches or outside opportunities.
Autonomy and empowerment
Wiggle room in your planning allows your team to make decisions about how best to manage their time and resources to accomplish their tasks. This encourages commitment and a sense of responsibility, which in turn increases productivity.
Creativity and innovation
With slack also comes room for exploring new possibilities and ideas. There is room for innovation. Alternative approaches to solving problems or achieving goals can be more efficient, and the opportunity for self-development contributes to job satisfaction.
Reducing stress
Of course, space in scheduling also gives less workload and therefore less work stress. Preventing excessive stress reduces unnecessary sick leave.
Slack: fewer traffic jams
Specifically, slack in your resource planning allows you to adapt to the dynamics of your projects and your human resources. We often compare this to a highway: If you fill it up completely, a traffic jam quickly forms, in which no one can move forward. By maintaining some wiggle room, everyone can still react to circumstances and your organization moves forward smoothly.
Fortes Change Cloud is software that helps organizations better align the demand for resources from the project portfolio with the availability of people (internal and external). This ensures that people are no longer overloaded and projects can be completed on time. This allows an organization to achieve its strategic goals faster and better.
