Whether you are a florist or work for a big company, one thing remains the same – you will have a lot of responsibilities. Some will be easy to accomplish, but others may be more troublesome. Sometimes, the latter would pile up, leaving you with an endless stream of unfinished work that you will never be able to get back to because other stuff will keep coming at you at supersonic speed.

Well, in that case, it is always great to work on the employees' well-being. Introducing – workload management. This simple trick will allow you to get ahead in terms of productivity and make your employees happier and less stressed in the workplace.

We all know how it goes. You get some additional tasks that seem easy at first but can get pretty tricky after a while. It is best to invest some time and effort into getting a better workload management tool to assign tasks or even give the highest priority tasks to people with fewer responsibilities.

With excellent task management, your workload management efforts will succeed wildly, and your employee workload will drop significantly. Let’s get into some details on the topic then to see what you can improve in your company.

The best workload management strategy is excellent planning. And to do so, you will need some exceptional tools. An effective workload management process will take a lot of effort, but in the end, it will substantially change your company's whole structure.

To combat those issues, we highly recommend using Microsoft Office. It is still, to this day, the single best product to combat most potential workplace problems and challenges. It proved time and time again that it can accomplish more than the competitors while also being accessible to the users.

The other advantage of using Microsoft Office is that you can send it wherever you want, to any device on Earth, and still, people will be able to not only view it but also edit it and suggest some changes. When it comes to combating office situations, there is no other than Microsoft Office.

And nowadays, you can get your edition of Microsoft Office 2021 Professional Plus Key Retail Global for an affordable price. It is not a pricey addition anymore but a budget version of great software. Definitely worth checking out. Let’s get over how to create your own workload management template in Excel.

If you want to create your very own workload management template, you need to take some things into consideration. First of all, any project management solution requires the right software pick. In this case, we recommend using Microsoft Excel.

You can do anything you want there, and if you program it correctly, you can just change the input numbers, and the output will follow; you don’t have to change everything by hand.

Is work not getting done? People are coming up with excuses for not finishing the job, morale is low, and so is productivity. Is project progress not happening? Do you need to talk to team members about every little detail because they are overwhelmed with responsibilities? 

Well, it's something that workload management helps with! Team performance is critical, but what ensures the project's success is completed tasks and the team's overall efficiency.

With so many complex tasks the company has to achieve, you need to refocus some of your energy and channel it to getting the right people to do the right job. That way, they can deliver quality work and complete the tasks.

If you want to know about essential workload management elements and how to create a productive team, keep reading, we will be going over all these points to find the best workload management practices.

To manage multiple projects, you need great workload management tools. And, as a team leader, you want your team to succeed rather than fail miserably. And that is why you need some good workload management. Here are some of the benefits of that system.

Time Management

If you use it correctly, it can save you time by prioritizing the most critical tasks first. It will also help you with delays, showing the most critical and time-sensitive tasks as a high priority. That way, you will be able to not only get the important tasks ready straight ahead, but it will also give you a chance to see which team member is overworked.

Optimization

With great workload management, you can optimize your work by giving the right tasks to the right people. Some tasks are problematic for one person and easy for another. It depends on the person and their qualifications. That way, people will also be more satisfied with their work.

When it comes to workload management, it is important to remember that team productivity and project success depend on how people doing the work feel and behave. That is why you need to take care of…

Employees Wellbeing

This is one of the more critical elements because people are what makes the company. If they are not satisfied with what they are doing or are overworked, it can cause severe health and potential mental problems.

With so many stories about office-related issues, some even tragic, you cannot underestimate the importance of workload management. It can create an excellent team full of potential and possibilities. No one wants to work in a company that does not care about them – that is a given.

Many reasons can cause an overload of work. To keep good work environment vibes, you need to notice those problems immediately and try to solve them as soon as they arise. That way, you can be on the same page with everyone. Here are some of the most notorious issues.

Impossible Tasks

There are many issues with the current work environment, that is for sure. One of the most common ones is giving people tasks they’re unfamiliar with because you are understaffed. It can cause many problems for people incapable of doing them, like becoming stressed and making their work less efficient.

It can happen due to issues with restructuring, maybe some layoffs, and overall – a problematic situation in the company. To combat this problem, you need to distribute work equally among employees and ask them if it is something they can do.

“The Only Expert”

Some workplaces also need help when being the only ones who can do a specific job in high demand. If you are the only IT person, graphic designer, and manager, you will have loads of urgent tasks that only you can do.

It is hard to keep everyone’s workload in check, so hire enough people to do enough work. The worst thing is to make one person from the company overworked as the rest are having lots of fun watercooler conversations without them. That would be just cruel.

Toxic Office Environment

Unfortunately, it happens more than it should, which is still a big problem in modern society. Toxic work environments happen regularly, with managers calling people after hours, making them work overtime even though they do not have additional money for it, causing an overall mess.

Sometimes people are also playing favorites by giving their pupils less work than other employees, which can cause a dramatic disproportion between their influence in the workplace. Be sure to ask the employees about their well-being, what is going on with them, if they feel bad here, tired, or whatever. There are some signals you can keep an eye out for.

We know the problems and the issues, and we know it’s time to find solutions. With excellent workload management skills comes great workload distribution plans, and we are here to give you tips on how to accomplish that.

Whether it will be creating to-do lists, capacity planning, or just an overall workload management plan - you will be able to keep up with all the tasks at hand and more!

Managing workload can be demanding, but with a great plan – everything is possible! To do that, we have prepared some ways of getting things done correctly.

Create a Schedule

It may seem like an obvious thing to do, but in the corporate world – there are no apparent answers. The most important thing you need to create is a schedule where you can see how much it will take to finish all the tasks and who is responsible for what kind of element in the project.

That way, you can track progress and see all the individual tasks. It is an excellent way of setting realistic goals. Project schedules are also important if you want to estimate tasks and optimize them to make everyone feel happier and safer at the workplace!

Realistic Standards

You need to set realistic goals and deadlines for your employees. It should not be something like – oh, you have 2 hours to finish this potentially 2-day work, and I do not care how you will accomplish that.

If you set unrealistic deadlines, you hurt not only your work, but your employees, clients, and team spirit, and everyone around you will be miserable. It is stated that achievable deadlines can make the workplace culture much more peaceful and productive.

Many Team Leads state that to get the right job done, it has to be done by the right people. And one of the ways to accomplish that is to make sure that people feel free of the pressure of time.

Create a Strategy

The other important element is to think about how you want to use the company’s resources. And yes, we mean human resources as well. It is not a hidden fact that a good resource management strategy can also benefit the company and the team.

To accomplish that, you need to have a strategy for taking care of the issues at hand and some of the problems that may occur in the process.

You will quickly see the strengths and weaknesses of your employees and how much you can put into them in your managing workloads efforts.

In this case, you first need to understand what resources you have access to and how you will utilize them. Then and only then will you be able to see how it all works out in the end.

Optimize!

Suppose you want to keep the workload going smoothly. You need to keep your priorities straight. When every task is urgent, then in the end – none of them is. Keep track of the work and see which part should be completed first and which can wait.

You do not want your employees spending too much time on tasks that can be accomplished a week from now when they have something more important to do for tomorrow.

They probably do it themselves. Well, you would be mistaken. People tend to take on the most straightforward tasks first and those harder later. And there are more optimized ways of accomplishing anything. If you want to be on top of things – you need to set boundaries and give people tasks yourself.

You will only be able to achieve the goals you set for yourself and the team.

Multitasking Is Bad

Speaking of optimization - be sure to avoid multitasking at all! One task at a time, and you will see the difference. People tend to go in and out of focus, which shows their efficiency. If you want to optimize your team to the fullest, don’t give them dozens of tasks simultaneously but a single one. And then another. And another one. And the list goes on.

It will quickly show their efficiency as they will not take breaks between tasks from time to time but will be focused on accomplishing some bigger ones so that they can go on a break.

Create a Resource Calendar

Another critical step to achieving maximum workload management efficiency is to create a resource calendar. There are plenty of reasons to do that.

For once, a well-structured resource calendar can make your office much more productive. Everyone knows that office resources are scarce and not everyone can do everything in the best way possible. There will be quarrels. People will get upset because they thought they wanted to do something, but someone else got to it first, and now they need to wait for them to finish.

The efficiency drops, and everyone is displeased, and it is not the most optimal of situations. So, to combat those issues, create a resource calendar where everyone can book a resource or at least see when it will be available. It will significantly improve your workflow and how you can approach workload planning taking care of multiple tasks.

To get it done the best way possible, you must give the entire team access to the calendar. Only then will they be able to plan their work, especially if it has to be a combined work of multiple people in multiple departments. It will help you with urgent tasks and make the resource allocation process more efficient.

Manage Task Distribution

To make the workload management work for you, you must distribute the tasks at hand intelligently. You do not want some people to feel they have much more work to do than others. It will break the morale of everyone. Any show of favoritism will be judged, so be fair and balanced regarding task distribution.

Most project tasks should be part of intelligent workload management so that no one will feel left out, and most people working on the project will see that their input is being taken seriously.

As a project manager, see which of your employees are taking care of most tasks. Try to take some of those off their backs. You will quickly notice that assigning tasks the right way will provide great comfort and reduce your employees' stress.

Be Involved

As you can imagine, the best way to manage the workload is to be inside it and understand its process. It is of utmost importance that you know what the employees do and what issues they are currently dealing with.

If you are not involved, the team workload management does not have a leg to stand on. You need to know if something takes too long. Suppose something is being delayed because the employee is waiting for other tasks to be completed. As a manager, your job is to know the team’s capacity and learn how to allocate tasks efficiently.

To do that, you need to talk with your employees, see if they need help, or ask them directly if they are overwhelmed with responsibilities.

The team’s workload depends on how you approach these topics. Good workload management requires good management and an understanding of your team's capacity. An overwhelming workload is a two-way street, so time tracking is of essential importance. You need to know how much power there is to utilize.

Think Ahead

Another essential element is to not only see what is going on currently but to think about the results of those actions. If there are some layoffs in plans, think ahead about who you will need. See what is going on and be ahead of the curve. Talk to your HR managers and find out what are some of the possibilities you can utilize. There are multiple ways you can see what is about to happen.

Be on with the times. See if the industry you are working in needs some adjustments for new projects or changes in your company’s priorities. Multiple things can happen, and it is your job to see them beforehand. 

How to combat those? Well, you can start by getting your interns trained for the new role, start the recreation project before something happens, and just overall – be prepared! 

Cut The Formalities

One of the reasons people hate the office environment is that everything you want to do has to go through thousands of approvals and acceptance. And that is why, if you want to lay off your time, you should improve the administrative tasks they need to do.

Those are some of the most tedious and monotonous things in the company. Everyone knows that repetitive tasks, such as administrative work, can take the life out of everyone. To get the job done efficiently, give some people executive authority. Don’t make them go through the same old stuff repeatedly.

On the other hand, if it is a problem for most employees, they may direct one of them, an intern or even someone new, to help with the administrative elements. You will quickly see the joy in your employees' eyes for sure.

Work-Life Balance

We are not advising you to go the “Severence” route for sure, but keeping the work-life balance in check will provide you with some great benefits in the long run. And it is not only about not calling your team after work. That is a given.

It also keeps the team’s schedule the right way to encourage your team to take breaks. Go on vacations. Work from home from time to time if it is possible. Provide them with hot and cold beverages and places they can decompress.

All those little elements can influence the whole workflow of the company. Many workload management techniques can help you set some boundaries between work and life.

With proper workload management, your team members will not be scared of taking the day off for their mental health. They will not be stressing over the work in their free time but rather use it to their advantage. 

Be sure to talk to the team, learn how they work, see if they are more or less satisfied with their job, what are some issues they are tackling, and what are some elements in which you, as a manager, can improve at when it comes to communication and workload management. You will quickly see that their feedback could be essential in creating a great work environment.

Team Utilization

Team utilization measurements are a great and modern tool for checking the team’s engagement and overall performance. Using this tool, you can tell which employees are having better or worse performance and what are some of the reasons behind it.

Adding this element to your template will show you the team’s capacity and how to combat some problems that may arise from it.

It shows you the pressure put on each team member by the project managers and team leaders. If the utilization rate comes close to 100%, by which we mean – the employee completed all the tasks, worked overtime, did not have any vacation, and was always ready for work – they should probably have some time off.

It can be interpreted in many ways, but if you know your team, you will quickly see which one of your employees is close to reaching 100%. Be sure to talk to them about it and see if you can find a joint resolution to this issue. You want your team to be safe in any capacity. It will lead to many problems, as we have stated before.

We hope that we have helped you out with your workload management. It can be a lot for starters, but we are sure you can manage those issues efficiently and make your team happy to have you.

The most important takeaway is that you do not have to work overtime to keep the company running. If you plan everything and are ready for everything, you will notice that you can accomplish tasks more straightforwardly than you imagine.

The times when the angry manager will not stop calling you without additional pay are long gone. These days, office managers try to use carrots rather than sticks. Mainly because a good employee is extremely hard to find. If you manage to recruit one of those, try everything possible to keep them in check.

To learn more about office/software/gaming-related issues, check out our rich catalog of articles on various topics. You will be surprised by how many things you did not know in those categories.