In this article we’re going to take a look at what a resource calendar is in project management.
Regardless of the industry you’re in, it’s highly likely that one of your most valuable resources is your team.
Understanding your team’s availability will help you to better manage workloads and ensure that you don’t run the risk of your team experiencing burnout and a lack of engagement.
So, let’s take a look at all things ‘resource calendar’ to see why you need one and how you can get started…
What is a resource calendar? (Definition)
A resource calendar is a scheduling tool that shows team member availability. These calendars are used to track team capacity and workloads so that you can better allocate resources and manage your projects more effectively.
A resource calendar will also account for public holidays and other non-working days (for example, team away days, vacation days, or parental leave). With a resource calendar, you can see who is available and allocate tasks accordingly.
These calendars also help to prevent conflicts that could result in reduced productivity or decreased client satisfaction. When you have everyone’s availability at hand you can better plan your projects, and also make changes on the fly to ensure increased efficiency as a project manager.
Why you need a resource calendar
There are several reasons why you need a resource calendar if you’re managing multiple projects. For starters, it can help you to better understand your team’s availability so that you can effectively plan your projects. This means no more overcommitting to work you can’t fit in, which is better for your employees as it reduces burnout.
Better resource allocation also helps you to manage customer expectations more successfully. A solid and up-to-date resource calendar can give you the information you need to understand whether you can accommodate any scope creep (if project parameters and goals shift slightly after work has started).
If your projects are complicated and run through several departments, a resource calendar can help you to accurately map out your time so that team members are available when you need them to be.
In addition, a resource calendar can give you important information on team capacity. You can find out if your team is stretched and make an informed decision about expanding your team with new hires if needed.
What’s included in a resource calendar?
In simple terms, your resource calendar should ideally include the following:
– Employee job titles
– Employees’ typical work schedules
– Employees’ planned leave
– Project start and end dates
– Employee availability
A project management tool, like Project.co, can help you to build out a dynamic resource calendar that you can use daily to check your team’s availability and easily update on the fly.
For this example, we’ll be using the Project.co Scheduler tool. To begin, you’ll need to create a new project and add the Tasks tool:
If you click on the Scheduler view, you’ll see something like this:
The first step is to add your resources (team). Go back to your project dashboard, and add your team members as creators:
Then you can begin adding tasks for your team members. Be sure to also schedule in any time when they won’t be available. Your scheduler should start to look something like this:
You can also create personalised task statuses, like these:
So that you can check on the progress of your tasks at a glance:
If you want to see the tasks for more than one project at once then you can jump over to the Calendar view:
Remember: Make sure everyone who needs access to your resource calendar has access, and be sure to update and review regularly. An out-of-date resource calendar is useful to no one!
Resource calendar benefits
1. Improved scheduling
When you use a resource calendar you have full visibility into your team’s availability and project timelines, which massively improves your project scheduling!
With a resource calendar you can allocate tasks more efficiently, identify any potential issues (like overlaps or bottlenecks), and prevent scheduling conflicts.
2. Happier teams
Better scheduling of course leads to happier teams. With your resource calendar providing you a clear picture of everyone’s workload, you’re much less likely to overload them and can instead distribute project tasks more evenly.
This results in more manageable workloads, reduced stress, and greater job satisfaction. And this improved engagement isn’t just directly great for your people, it’s great for you too.
3. More satisfied customers
A resource calendar makes it a lot easier to manage customer expectations because it allows you to provide accurate and timely information about your projects.
This leads to more realistic deadlines, regular updates, and an improved level of transparency that can increase trust.
All of this together is a recipe for more satisfied customers!
Final thoughts
A resource calendar can be so valuable for project managers. After all, project management has so many moving parts and this is a key tool that you can use to make things a little easier and more organised.
To set up your own resource calendar right now (literally in minutes!), get started with a free project.co account today.
