RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
• MEANING
Resource management is the process by which businesses manage their various resources effectively. Those resources can be intangible – people and time – and tangible – equipment, materials, and finances.
It involves planning so that the right resources are assigned to the right tasks. Managing resources involves schedules and budgets for people, projects, equipment, and supplies.
While it is often used in reference to project management, it applies to many other areas of business management. A small business, in particular, will pay attention to resource management in a number of areas, including:
- Finances – Can it meet current expenses or afford to invest in new equipment or staff training?
- Staffing – Does it have the right people for the work at hand? Will it need to hire if it gets that new client and if so, what skills will those people need to have?
- Physical space – Is the company’s office or manufacturing space configured so that other resources can be managed for maximum efficiency?
- Equipment – Does it have the tools needed to do what’s required?
- Technology – What does the business need to succeed and should financial resources be reallocated to fund what’s missing?
- Insights: Resource management relies on granular insights into what your team is working on and how long it takes them to complete each task.
- Priorities: Priorities management for the project and expectations must be articulated clearly and shared to the relevant stakeholders and team members.
- Tracking: Status updates need to be tracked throughout the project life cycle.
Resource management gives your team the ability to work on the right work at the right time. In project management, the resource management process happens in two stages: resource planning and resource scheduling.
DEFINE OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
‘The efficient and effective development of an organization’s resources, including financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT) and natural resources when they are needed.’
This is the definition used they use during organizational studies to define what resource management is.
However, in layman terms resource management can be defined as the process used by a business to manage the resources in the most effective possible manner.
BASIC OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Resource management is critical for organizations to ensure they are optimizing and allocating resources to the right initiatives – the initiatives that are aligned to corporate strategy and bring the most value. By minimizing waste and duplication, streamlining and automating processes, and maximizing and speeding throughput, the enterprise is in a better position to respond quickly to customer demands and be nimble to change. Program and project delivery demand better resource management.
Regardless of work methodology, leaders seeking to practice effective resource management must balance demand with capacity while also understanding the needs of the business to prioritize, plan, and schedule work with the right teams, people, and skill sets. Gartner says that the opportunity and challenge for leaders is to “respond and move from a static to an agile planning approach, one that can continually reshape the workforce to incorporate changes in business and skill needs.”
With increasing demand and change, continuously delivering value with resources is not easy, even for the most mature organizations. It is a common and constant challenge for the enterprise: Making sure there are enough of the right resources and funding on hand to complete work well and on time. And that is where evolved resource management can help.
IMPORTANT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT &ORGANIZATION
Resource Management stems from the need for optimization and efficiency. In simple words, Resource Management is an aspect of project management that is focused on doing more with less. Wastage of resources can be fatal in business; therefore, every project needs effective Resource Management.
Here’s why Resource Management is vital for the success of a project –
A Resource capacity plan is a roadmap for a project. The resource plan is prepared according to the project’s delivery timelines and helps keep the project on track.
Experienced project managers know that effective Resource Management lays the foundation of a successful project.
Resource Management helps the project managers set realistic expectations for the project deliverables among clients and other stakeholders.
Resource Management helps the project manager accurately estimate project costs and profit margins.
Resource Management offers improved insight into actual project costs and overall profitability of the project.
Project managers can prevent over-working or under-utilizing their human resources with the help of effective Resource Management. This leads to increased employee satisfaction.
Optimal utilization of resources to prevent over-burdening and at the same time ensuring that the company makes the most of the resources they have – is an essential aspect of Resource Management.
Hiring decisions taken based on Resource Management analysis are usually in the benefit of the project.
A successful Resource Management plan can be treated as a fool-proof formula for future
BENEFIT OF RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Resource Management plays an essential role in helping project managers improve profitability levels, streamline costs and eliminate waste.
The benefits of Resource Management are listed below –
1. Optimal Utilization of Resources
Resource Management aims to find a balance between maximizing the productivity of your available resources while avoiding over-utilization. Resource Management ensures high productivity and at the same time, prevents overworking for any employee.
2. Avoid Unforeseen Challenges & Conflicts
Developing an understanding of the available resources beforehand helps avoid unforeseen challenges. Project managers can identify problems ahead of time. Resource conflicts can also be avoided with the help of Resource Management.
3. Improve Project Delivery
Research has shown that projects with clear Resource Management plans are more likely to be successful. It reduces costs and increases margins while fulfilling stakeholder expectations.
4. Enhanced ROI
Project managers always strive to enhance a project’s ROI. Resource Management has a cumulative effect on the lifecycle of the project to increase overall profits. Management resources can improve ROI by reducing costs, increasing product quality, or through repeat business from a satisfied client.
5. Transparency
Effective Resource Management gives management visibility into your team’s bandwidth. Resource Managers ensure maximum utilization of human resources while communicating any extra capacity they may have to the project manager.
1. Resources are usually people:
Project resources are managed with the help of resource assignment matrix such as RACI chart and capacity utilization calculation for different resources. But we can’t ignore the fact that resources are people too, who can’t only be measured by hard data set for their efficiency and effectiveness.
They require some soft skills to manage them efficiently. Skills include communication, leadership, and guidance to be motivated and inspired while working. The data can only tell about resource utilization and resource availability, but cannot increase resource productivity. Hence, a metric can be used to identify the areas of concern. But they can be well addressed by the people themselves. Talk to the relevant resources or team regarding concerns and help them to resolve the same.
2. Key people management:
Involve the resources to achieve common project objectives. Ensure to align all the resources and set expectations. Resources should be clear about, what is expected out of them. They should understand the priority & importance of assigned tasks. They should be involved in project risk identification by encouraging them for open discussion. They should be given the liberty to set and estimate task schedules depending on their priorities. This will increase the resource commitment towards schedules.
3. Principles of team management:
Bring the sense of collaboration among team members. So that all the resources come to the common platform of understanding. This will foster productivity & creativity and eventually decreases the chances of errors. Real time feedback to the team will enhance their confidence and commitment.
4. Principle of allocation:
Always try to allocate the right resources for right tasks. Don’t just assign the tasks to the resources. Always match the resource capability and interest with the task and then do an assignment. Know your resource and his or her interest, Then figure out which task motivates him or her the most. Assign that task only to him or her to keep your resource production.
5. Rewards & recognition:
Also, the efforts of your resources should not go unrewarded. Ensure to make your resources knew about, how important their contribution to assigned tasks was. Recognize their effort and time.
FINAL TAKEAWAY
In a nutshell, resources indeed are indispensable components of any project and they require to be managed effectively and efficiently. This is done to justify the resource - return on investment for any project. Resources, if not managed well, can result in counterproductive outcomes that leads to project failures. There are some program management principles and practices to follow while managing resources. Also, resource allocation best practices are used to allocate project resources for their best possible outcomes.
The best way is to identify Project portfolio maturity of your organization and take the help of explained Resource Management Maturity model to assign resources properly to different projects in hand. Effective resource management in organizations is a key to successful project orientation.
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