The place of staffing in project planning in service companies

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Who says staffing, says project planning! It is logical that businesses use a planning solution for dedicated project. And while service companies (Consulting firms, SSII, ESN, etc.) are the specialists in this field, not all have yet adopted these two tools. In this article, we decipher the place of staffing, at the heart of project planning, in service businesses.

Staffing, a key step in project planning?

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Staffing and project planning do not go hand in hand. Staffing is based on a simple objective: to position its employees on the company's projects. Project planning involves organizing group work to achieve goals within a defined period of time.

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While the method seems simple on the surface, many service businesses start without suitable staffing software. As a result, the staffing process is becoming time-consuming, with inconsistencies and information that does not go back in time. The consequences of poor staffing are quickly visible. Positioned collaborators are not competent on the subject or not available, and therefore we fall behind schedule in the project. We end up not reaching the goals and deadlines set... Mistakes that slow down any project.

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One project planning software must imperatively make it possible to do quality staffing.

The role of staffing in project planning

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Here are 5 reasons why it is essential to equip yourself with a powerful project planning tool :

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Have a global vision of your project in real time

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Your project is always supervised: but do you have real visibility on all the actors in the project? The budget committed or to be released? Actors present and those to come?

That's where your project planning software comes in. It offers a global vision of skills, market players and current constraints. You know the activities carried out by the actors and you optimize your staffing throughout the project thanks to a perfect vision of the skills and availability of all.

Boosting business productivity

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Reducing manual and time-consuming tasks means increasing productivity! At least, that's what any manager who implements a software solution in their business is looking for. If that's not true enough in the world of work, project planning can't thrive without the right software.

HR managers, operations managers, and staffing managers tend to create Excel spreadsheets for their missions. Along the way, the observation is clear: information is lost, confused, erroneous... Ensuring an impacted project and consequences (more or less) irreversible. By adopting a modern solution, you develop much better project communication. The members of your company communicate quickly with each other, can annotate projects, have reminders, exchange vital information, etc. in a few clicks.

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Find the right collaborator and integrate them into the project easily

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Project planning requires the use of the most relevant collaborators before and during the course of the project. In order to find the right profile, a Staffing software is essential. In this one you will find essential information:

• Skills acquired, in the process of being acquired or that the employee wishes to gain,
• Its certifications and diplomas,
• His professional experiences,
• The missions carried out, in progress, in the future,
• Its availability,
• His aspirations, etc.

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Your project planning becomes simpler, with all of these elements in hand.

Manage your resources and your budget masterfully

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It is possible that your employees are assigned to one or more missions. Some require a high TMR, others do not. You may also need several members of your teams to manage your projects. Or proceed with a recruitment, requiring time from your HR department and the entry of new data into the staffing software, etc.

By combining all this data in a planning software, you optimize your working time. You get all the elements together on time and plan the right budget. In this way, you can more easily establish the allocation of resources, as well as the actual occupancy time of the teams, etc.

Analyze your staffing indicators

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Last key point of a Staffing software : the analysis of its indicators! At the end of the project, taking stock of the budget or the team's feelings is not enough. It is important to understand what the points of high added value have been. You can find other indicators such as the time taken to complete each mission (in advance, on time, late...), the workload of each collaborator, the progress in the skills mobilized, etc.

To remember

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Staffing software does not replace project planning software. On the contrary, these two tools are complementary. They bring added value to the other and boost their performance. A software of scheduling is essential to ensure the performance of the company and that it is essential that the company is in a position to manage the staffing and skills of employees.

Service businesses have every interest in starting up, in order to gain in productivity, performance and communication, at all levels.

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Do you want to go deeper into the subject? We have lots of resources at your disposal to help you go further.

In addition to this subject, find our white paper”The keys to an optimal staffing process”.‍

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Also discover our guides, templates and checklists in the Resources tab.

See you soon at Napta!