We all know times are challenging, but in fairness, it is rare to have decades when times are not tough. The 2007/8/9/10 global economic crisis was followed by the EU, Greece, Portuguese, Cypriot, Russian, Brazilian, Chinese, and Turkey economic crises. And then 2020 coughed up an interesting start to the decade. And that’s why successful business owners and executives are tough nuts to crack. Balancing the toughness with compassion and optimization will leverage your most precious resource ‒ people!

Do More With Less

More than ever, human resource departments need to be empowered to be the leading, strategic resource department that delivers business goals, which is what they were always meant to be but executives stripped them of the power to deliver. Human resources must be a business's highest leveraging priority. 

This is where it is important to understand that just because you use many resources doesn’t indicate fantastic resource management.

Good resource optimization matches people’s skill sets to projects with sufficient bandwidth to deliver business goals. Overly busy people do not have time for innovation at all levels, and without innovation, businesses stagnate. 

Optimization Will Need Tools

Optimizing any business area needs tools, which does not mean a spreadsheet as this is not scalable (amongst a list of other negatives). Ditch anything labor and time intensive and choose agility and automation. Seek out a tool that will empower the COH (Chief HR Officer) to deliver you data or results on:

• Realistic capacity to meet demand
• Prioritization of work needs
• Key stakeholder expectation management
• Accurate resource availability
• Matching resources, skills, work, and timing
• Hiring right the first time
• Onboarding effectively and reducing ramp-up costs
• Agile internal communication between resources
• Early problem detection
• Objective prioritization  of work versus capacity
• Aligning strategy to operations effectively
• Deliver innovation and transformation

Top Resource Optimization Tips

With your optimization tool/s up and running, you can now focus on these best practices:

• Identify human resource blockages: The majority of the profit comes from the minority of the human resources. Plan around their availability. 
• Have a single, commonly-agree, documented resource-sharing policy that respects the resources.
• Monitor what steals capacity.
• Be open to new ways of working.
• Acknowledge resource management must be constant & agile.
• Align resources and work to business goals.
• Manage different resources at different levels of detail.
• Capture the time usage of resources and plan low-pressure periods for them.

Leaving the most important reminder till last ‒ keep your resources happy. They are similar to a client in that they will deliver profits to you if their needs are met.

Want to help to put your crown jewel in a prime position? Call on us to start your transformation! Contact eLaunchers today.