In service companies, it is vital to balance customer satisfaction, project profitability and employee work overload. Avoiding "burnout", which is the main reason for the "great resignation" trend, is crucial, especially in sectors with high demand for professionals. 

This balance between satisfaction, profitability and workload can mean the difference between success or survival in a highly competitive market. Synergy between different departments, such as human resources or project management, is key to balancing both the needs of individuals and the company as a whole.

Answering questions such as who will be under-occupied in two months' time, whether outsourcing will be necessary, or determining the real availability of a given profile can help the company achieve this balance and improve people management in projects..

In this article we explain how a powerful tool like SAP can optimize people management in projects and enhance overall business performance.  

Planning and capacity

Effective people management starts with knowing the capabilities of the consultants working in the company. Service companies are characterized by having one of the most important assets —people—so it is essential to balance the workload while striving for maximum productivity.

At this point, it is important to be able to access the assignments of each person and the percentage of workload they have in the various projects of the company, as well as forecasting for the near future. 

It is essential to anticipate and identify individuals with low workloads, enabling us to redistribute tasks accordingly. This proactive approach allows us to address potential issues of overload by either reallocating tasks or considering outsourcing options.

Tools such as project planning allow us to record and plan the different tasks that need to be performed in the system, including estimated effort or necessary dates.

Real-time visibility

Assignments may vary from one moment to another depending on the needs of projects and tasks. This makes it necessary to know the status of projects and assignments in real time. 

SAP S/HANA Cloud offers tools for assignments management, allowing us to see to which project or task each consultant is assigned, with granularity ranging from month to day.

This allows us to know the occupancy status of employees, providing visibility and preventing all the work from falling on the same person.

Real-time visibility helps to identify potential conflicts, bottlenecks and overloads before they become a real problem.

Skills Compatibility

Just as not all keys open the same door, not all employees can performance the same tasks, so it is essential to represent what knowledge the consultants must have to be able to undertake the planned tasks. 

When we have a task pending assignment, the system proposes, according to certain parameters such as knowledge, skills of the employee or previously assigned tasks, the most optimal profile to perform the task. 

Management at this point is fundamental, as we have all the information in the system to efficiently allocate the person who will perform the task by unloading them from any currently assigned tasks.

Technology integration

Modern resource management often relies on different technology solutions. 

SAP has a suite of integrated SaaS solutions, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud for project management, Success Factors for employee management, Concur as a travel expense tracking tool or AI-based analytics platforms that can streamline resource allocation processes and provide valuable insights for decision making.

 SAP's products ecosystem is natively integrated, making the task of master data management easier. 

Thus, an employee can log into SuccessFactors and be automatically replicated in the ERP, where he will record their project work times, or into Concur, where they can enter their travel expenses.

In short, S/4HANA Cloud, along with the rest of SAP's products, offers an ecosystem for resource management in service companies that streamlines and simplifies the work of managers, allowing them to spend more time on employee well-being.