Turning the Lights On: �Tackling Workload Management & Metrics

Agenda

• About the Speaker
• What is workload management?
• Why is workload management critical?
• Ways to turn the lights on
• Using the data to develop metrics & goals
• Moving from metrics to the story
• A Metric Development Example

About the Speaker

Dr. Carol Egele has over 17 years of State of Texas government experience and currently serves as the Deputy Executive Director of Administration at the Texas Historical Commission.  In this role, she is in the capacity of a chief operating officer, leading human resources, information technology, procurement and contract services, communications, and project management divisions.  Her academic credentials are vast; she has five college degrees, including a Master of Science in Management and Leadership from Western Governor's University and a Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership from Abilene Christian University. 

What is workload management?

• Staff receive assignments from various sources: email, meetings, telephone conversations, systems, etc.
• Workload Management assigns work to an entire team and optimally distributes the load among the available resources.
• It considers team members’ skill sets, availability, capacity, throughput, and anything else that affects how much and what kind of work a team member should get.

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Source: (York, 2023)

Why is workload management critical?

• The organization is successful when resources are maximized.
• It is a control system to ensure that all tasks are identified and completed.
• It can improve employee morale and job satisfaction. Studies show that 46% of work-related stress in the US is caused by an overwhelming workload.
• The data is a source of staff feedback and performance metrics for the team.

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Sources: (York, 2023; Editorial Team, 2022)

Ways to Turn the Lights On

Other Tools

• Salesforce
• Asana

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Microsoft Tools

• MS SharePoint
• MS Project
• MS Excel

Ways to Turn the Lights On

MS SharePoint

Ways to Turn the Lights On

MS Project

Ways to Turn the Lights On

MS Excel

Ways to Turn the Lights On

Salesforce

Ways to Turn the Lights On

Asana

Questions

Using the Data to Develop Metrics

Once you have a system, below are basic data points to collect:

• Assignee
• Task Description
• Request/Start Date
• Completion/End Date
• Task Due Date

Basic metrics can be developed:

• Unit A processed X number of tasks in 30 days.
• Unit A processed X number of tasks timely (by the task due date).
• Employee A processed X number of tasks in 30 days.
• Employee B processed X number of tasks timely/outside the due date.

Using the Data to Develop Metrics

• Turning the Metrics into Performance Goals
• Unit A will process X number of tasks in 30 days.
• Unit A will process X number of tasks timely.
• Employee A will complete X number of tasks in 30 days.
• Employee B will process X number of tasks timely/outside the due date.

Moving from Metrics to the Story

• Metrics and performance goals are for managing a team/division
• Select meaningful metrics that align with team, division, and company goals
• Collect an adequate amount of data (at least three months) to help create achievable goals and realistic targets
• Get buy-in from staff, leadership, and other relevant stakeholders
• Determine what data is needed to develop the measure
• Revisit and refresh metrics as needed

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Sources: (Lastiri, 2023)

A Metric Development Example

The Accounts Payable Team is responsible for paying all invoices within 30 days so that the State does not have to incur interest fees.

Our Goal –

• Collect 2 Metrics
• Create 2 Performance Goals

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A Metric Development Example

Remember the five basic data points to collect:

• Assignee
• Accounts payable team member
• Task Description
• Invoice
• Request/Start Date
• Date the invoice was received
• Date the invoice was started
• Completion/End Date
• Date the invoice was processed
• Task Due Date
• The 30^th day

A Metric Development Example

A. The number of invoices processed within 30 days.

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B. The number of invoices processed for each staff member.

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C. The number of invoices processed outside of the 30-day window.

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D. The number of invoices processed for each staff member within 30 days.

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Potential Metrics

Potential Performance Goals

A. The team will process 100% of invoices within 30 days.

C. The team will have 0% of invoices processed outside the 30-day window.

B. Each team member will process X number of invoices per month.

D. Each team member will process 100% of invoices within 30 days.

A Metric Development Example

The Metric Story – Executive Leadership

The Accounts Payable team processed 95% of their assigned invoices within 30 days, which resulted in $2,000 of interest charges. The team recently adopted an invoice-tracking system to help reach the goal of processing 100% of invoices within the next three months. With this new system, we should see a 1-2% improvement in timely invoice processing each month. This should reduce or eliminate any incurred interest within 90 days.

Questions

Key Takeaways

Workload management is essential to using resources effectively and achieving organizational goals.

Workload management data can be used to create metrics and set performance goals for the team/division

The result should be a meaningful story for leadership on your team/division progress

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Sources

Editorial Team. (2022). Workload management: Definition, Importance, Process & Tools. BIT.AI Blog. https://blog.bit.ai/workload-management/

Lastiri. (2023). 7 steps to develop effective performance metrics. Kippy. https://www.kippy.cloud/post/key-steps-to-develop-effective-performance-metrics

York, A., (2023). Workload management: 10 ways to increase your team’s efficiency. Teamwork.com. https://www.teamwork.com/blog/workload-management/

Questions & Contact

Dr. Carol Egele�Email: carolegele2023@gmail.com