Manpower Allocation

Am I over or under allocating manpower?

This is the question many managers and managing executives faced. Here are some tips you can consider;

1) Identify what is the minimum manpower required for your core daily task. Are they affected by season, project and location? Different season of the year may have varying workloads.

2) Have a chart showing a list of names, shifts, availability and schedules to clearly visualize and plan your manpower is important.

3) When you have insufficient manpower to spare, set priorities on which area should best be allocated with more support. This gives you a good reason to explain to management your decision making when other less priortised areas are affected.

4) Speak to different stakeholders who will be needing your manpower. Always understand from them what are the upcoming work, projects or events and if they need people to support. Setting up a group chat is convenient for such, especially for "last-minute" requests.

5) If everything is urgent, you need to question the stakeholder and the situation enough to validate before you are forced to accept allocating your manpower. Seek clarification if they can postpone their request.

6) If the tasks you support require different skillsets, it is important to train more people with various skills to ensure they can be allocated to more areas whenever needed.

7) Have a contingency plan when people are taking urgent and medical leaves. This taps on your ability to judge if the task requires replacement or to get someone to do overtime. Priority is key!

When you question, understand, deconstruct the situation and set priority, you can make better judgment!