How can you optimize task allocation in WFM?

1 Assess your current situation

Before you can optimize your task allocation, you need to have a clear picture of your current situation. This means analyzing your workload, your resources, your goals, and your performance. You can use tools such as WFM software, spreadsheets, or dashboards to collect and visualize data on your tasks, such as their priority, complexity, duration, dependencies, and status. You also need to evaluate your resources, such as your staff, their skills, their availability, their preferences, and their feedback. Finally, you need to review your goals, such as your quality standards, your customer expectations, your deadlines, and your KPIs.

2 Plan your task allocation strategy

Once you have assessed your current situation, you can plan your task allocation strategy. This means defining your criteria, your methods, and your tools for assigning tasks to your staff. Your criteria should reflect your goals and your priorities, such as matching tasks to skills, balancing workload, maximizing efficiency, or enhancing motivation. Your methods should reflect your approach and your style, such as using rules, algorithms, schedules, or agreements. Your tools should support your methods and your criteria, such as using WFM software, communication platforms, or feedback systems.

3 Implement your task allocation strategy

After you have planned your task allocation strategy, you can implement it. This means communicating your strategy to your staff, assigning tasks to them, and monitoring their progress. You should communicate your strategy clearly and transparently, explaining the rationale, the expectations, and the benefits of your task allocation. You should assign tasks to your staff based on your criteria, your methods, and your tools, ensuring that they understand their roles, their responsibilities, and their deadlines. You should monitor their progress regularly, using data, feedback, and reports to track their performance, their issues, and their achievements.

4 Evaluate your task allocation strategy

Once you have implemented your task allocation strategy, you can evaluate it. This means measuring your results, identifying your gaps, and making adjustments. You should measure your results against your goals and your KPIs, using quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. You should identify your gaps and your areas for improvement, using data, feedback, and analysis to pinpoint the causes, the effects, and the solutions. You should make adjustments to your strategy based on your evaluation, using trial and error, experimentation, or best practices to optimize your task allocation.

5 Involve your staff in task allocation

One of the best ways to optimize your task allocation is to involve your staff in the process. This means soliciting their input, respecting their preferences, and empowering their choices. You should solicit their input on their skills, their availability, their interests, and their feedback, using surveys, interviews, or discussions to collect and consider their opinions. You should respect their preferences and their needs, using flexibility, empathy, or incentives to accommodate and motivate them. You should empower their choices and their autonomy, using delegation, collaboration, or self-management to enable and trust them.

6 Review your task allocation regularly

Another way to optimize your task allocation is to review it regularly. This means updating your data, revising your criteria, and adapting your methods. You should update your data on your tasks and your resources, using WFM software, spreadsheets, or dashboards to capture and display the changes, such as new tasks, new staff, or new situations. You should revise your criteria and your priorities, using goals, standards, or expectations to align and adjust them. You should adapt your methods and your tools, using rules, algorithms, or schedules to optimize and automate them.