In order to prevent anyone from feeling overburdened or underworked, leaders must effectively manage their teams’ workloads. Tools for managing the workload assist in distributing the workload among team members so that each person has a significant but manageable amount of work. Learning about task management techniques might help you increase productivity and stave off tiredness if you wish to lead a team. We describe workload management tools, talk about who uses them, explain why they are helpful, and list some of the most widely used tools in this post.
What Are Workload Management Tools?
Workload management tools are software applications that allow managers or team leaders to distribute tasks among team members. Workload management applications typically combine skill and productivity analysis with scheduling to assign work based on an employee’s ability and availability. This helps ensure a fair division of work and keeps projects within timelines. Workload management software can also identify potential issues early in a project’s lifecycle, such as insufficient time or employees, and allow managers to correct them before they cause significant delays.
Some workload management applications can also help manage personal workload. For example, they may monitor your meeting schedules and productivity and provide suggestions to streamline your work routines. They can also help organise tasks, highlight priorities to keep you on schedule and estimate how long a project might take or whether it is feasible to accept additional work.
Who Uses Workload Management Tools?
Workload management can be important in a variety of situations, including office environments, construction projects and manufacturing operations. While managers or team leaders are typically the primary users of these tools, all team members can interact with these applications. Workload management software is relatively intuitive, so almost anyone can use it.
Why Is Workload Management Important?
Workload management is important because it addresses several common issues affecting productivity and contributing to employee dissatisfaction and turnover. Managing team and individual workloads effectively can significantly impact overall operations and employee morale. Here are some of the reasons why workload management is important:
Preventing exhaustion
Exhaustion is a significant concern across a wide range of professions and demographics. It occurs when an employee has worked too hard for an extended period and feels overwhelmed. It may cause stress, leading to difficulty concentrating or a negative mood that can contribute to conflict within the workplace. Employees experiencing exhaustion for a prolonged period may become less productive, take time off to recuperate mentally and physically or resign altogether.
By monitoring workloads and adjusting as necessary, workload management strategies and systems can mitigate the risk of an employee feeling chronically overworked. Workload management software can help identify when a workload is too large or emerging efficiency opportunities.
Ensuring fairness
When a team works on a project together, the team leader can use workload management to ensure that the expectations for each team member’s contributions are proportionate. While the number of tasks assigned to each team member for a particular project may not always be equal because of their unique skills, workload management can help a team leader identify this and assign other work or projects accordingly.
Even distribution of work among team members can improve productivity by ensuring efficient scheduling and can help contribute to team morale. Typically, if one or more team members feel that they are working harder or contributing more than others, they may become frustrated. Conversely, the team members with very light workloads may think that management does not value their skills or knowledge. In both cases, these feelings may lead to disengagement, conflict or higher levels of employee turnover.
Helping estimate project timelines
By analysing efficiency and tracking schedules and availability, workload management applications can help determine how much time a project might require. These tools can help identify which employees to allocate to each task based on their skill level and then compare this to their availability. The team leader or manager can use this information to estimate how long a given project might take.
If a project has a set timeline, this strategy can help identify insufficient resourcing, so that the manager or team leader can decide whether to remove employees from other teams or hire new employees.
8 Examples of Workload Management Tools
There are a variety of workload management software applications available. While some applications share similar features, each can provide a slightly different user experience. The best tool for your workplace typically depends on factors such as the size of your team, the technical capabilities of your IT systems and the comfort level and experience of team members with using workload management software. Here are some popular tools for workload management:
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is a good option for managing individual or team workloads. It is a cloud-based platform that can assign tasks to various team members, track projects and facilitate collaboration on documents. It features customisable alerts and reminders, time-capturing ability, task prioritisation and backlog management. ClickUp is also available in a free version with limited storage.
2. monday.com
monday.com is a team-focused workload management platform. It features a variety of tools, including email updates, motivational reminders and due date tracking. It uses a dashboard format that can coordinate across departments or teams to track progress. The dashboard features user-friendly visual cues to help identify a task status at a glance.
3. Wrike
Wrike is a highly customisable portfolio management platform. It can work well for teams and is scalable for use on large projects and across multiple departments. It features time tracking and advanced performance analytics and can integrate with a wide range of software applications. Wrike uses encryption and access assignment to ensure security.
4. Teamwork
Teamwork is a multi-function platform that is useful for both teams and individuals. You can use it to assign work among team members, manage projects, track budgets and organise your priorities. Its dashboard interface provides visual cues to track task assignments and statuses. Teamwork features collaboration tools, time tracking and customisable templates. It offers a tiered pricing structure with a free trial.
5. Toggl Plan
Toggl Plan is a workload planning tool that typically works well for smaller or medium-sized teams. It is easy to use and features workflow configuration, workflow editing, backlog management, team availability tracking and timeline viewing. It can integrate with Slack and is sharable using public links. Toggl Plan can be a good option when ease of use is a priority.
6. ProofHub
While ProofHub is a workload management platform ideal for larger teams and organisations, it can also be useful for individuals and smaller teams. It features assignment and content management, customisable templates, collaboration tools and timeline viewing. It is a relatively simple-to-use platform that incorporates advanced features to facilitate communication and collaboration.
7. Slack
Slack is a centralised platform that focuses on communication and collaboration. It incorporates audio and video conferencing and chat features, allowing all team communication to occur on a single platform. While Slack has tools for workflow prioritisation and collaboration on documents, it offers fewer project and team management features than typical workload management applications.
8. Trello
Trello offers a wide range of tools and options within one platform. It features calendar management, customer relationship management, data import and export, inventory management and forums for group discussions. It offers functionality for a range of team sizes across multiple sectors, including sales, marketing and operations management. Trello is a popular option for its ease of use and advanced features, which allow users to manage complex projects and workflows.