How to Efficiently Allocate Resources to Remote Teams

As a remote team manager, you understand that your business needs to remain profitable and competitive, with quick response to customer demands. You’ll need a different approach to help your number one resource – your support team – to thrive and stay productive.

Allocating resources can help you complete and deliver projects on time. Resource allocation is an area you have to handle strategically.

Effective resource allocation will mean that you provide the necessary tools for remote working. Also, you’ve to match all your team members’ skill sets to the right tasks.

Resource allocation helps you to plan, assign tasks, and manage projects effectively. The key to effective resource allocation is to ensure you provide your support teams with:

• a proper breakdown of tasks
• expected duration of tasks and due deadlines
• transparent allocation of the tasks
• visibility to the performance of each individual
• aligning tasks, tools, and resources to the overarching goal of each project.

Proper resource allocation provides flexibility, increased productivity, time management, staff motivation, strategic planning, workload management, and risk elimination.

With the right resource allocation tools, you can be proactive and identify which team member is overloaded and who’s available to work on the next task. As a result, you’ll be able to complete the project faster and arrange future planning of new projects.

When embracing a remote working environment, you have to ensure that your team has the right tools, such as communication systems, collaboration tools, file sharing, video conferencing, computers or laptops, and more.

But this is not enough; you also need to optimise distributed workflow using asset management software to track and allocate tasks evenly to ensure project success.

Below are ways you can accomplish successful resource allocation:

Understand your resource availability and possible limits.

Before allocating resources, you’ve to determine your team’s availability. Ensure they’re not preoccupied with multiple projects. Manage your team’s overall calendar, including their time off, public holidays, and sick leaves. 

Knowing their availability can make all the difference in getting the project delivered within the set time. Clear communication with your team will increase efficiency by helping you make appropriate decisions on resource allocation.

Allocate your resources smartly to avoid overloading your team. Check their calendar to see who’s available and distribute tasks evenly. 
If you notice a skill gap within the team, you may have to upskill the other members or hire more. You can use a resource allocation tool to plan and schedule your team on multiple projects and make adjustments to prevent overworking and double booking.

Time blocking will help you allocate tasks directly into your team’s schedule and determine your project’s priorities. Prioritising tasks will allow you to estimate the duration taken to complete a task and block out that duration to enable the person to focus on the task at hand. 
It’ll be easier to create schedules according to the deadlines or the urgency of the task. You can also adjust your team’s schedule to give them more time to finish.

Resource allocation software will aid in budget tracking and monitor your support team’s calendars in real-time. It’ll provide a high level of transparency to improve your team’s productivity by keeping the project on track.
Team visibility should come first for your business since you’ll be able to notice if and where your resources are tied up, so you can plan future work.

Post project evaluation will help you know if you’ve allocated your resources effectively. You can host a project evaluation session with your team at the end of the project to point out what worked and what needs adjustment. 
From there, you’ll identify areas that need improvement, predict future projects’ needs, and plan more effectively for them.

The effective allocation of resources will not only keep your team from maxing out but will also ensure the success of your project. Depending on your team’s size, you should be able to identify and utilise their skill sets and allocate assets and tools successfully so you can better manage their availability.

With appropriate tools and resource management capabilities, you can distribute assets on time, keep track of their progress, motivate your support team, and deliver successful projects. Always ensure that you allocate your assets adequately and identify gaps early to avoid delays.
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Heather Redding is a part-time assistant manager, solopreneur and writer based in Aurora, Illinois. She is also an avid reader and a tech enthusiast. When Heather is not working or writing, she enjoys her Kindle library and a hot coffee. Reach out to her on Twitter.