Improving Productivity through HR/Workforce/People Analytics

Workload Analysis 101

Introduction

Workload is the amount of work assigned to a person or machine in a specified time. Workload analysis is the process of defining or analyzing the work & skill requirements based on historical or ongoing or planned activity to predict the future work plan. The analysis can be done based on 3 methodologies subjective measures, performance-based & time-based.

For a successful workload analysis, one is required to ensure that the workload is properly defined in relation to:

• Measurements; output/input/results/targets
• Process
• Activities
• Job owner

Workload analysis is beneficial to both employee & employer as it seeks to reduce work-related stress, inefficiencies in performance & burnout, hence increasing productivity. Gallup survey in early 2020 revealed that around 67% of workers in the US had experienced burnout symptoms with various frequencies.

A.?????Time-Based Methodology

The analysis focuses more on time spent by the doer relating to the response time, production time & delivery time of a specific task. A team or an individual may be considered for the study. The analyst would consider time & attendance embedded in HR Systems such as HRMates by SysMates Technologies (highly recommended for automated data entry & real-time reporting. compared to the use of manual time trackers for data manipulation).

The HR Metrics that will be most appropriate in this case would be Full-Time Equivalent & Critical Path.

????????i.???????????Full-Time Equivalent

According to ISO 30414:2018, this metric is categorized under workforce availability & is calculated as; Total hours worked divided by the total hours legally accepted. The HR Metrics & Analytics App (available on the play store) by Ace & Doyens Limited (HR Firm C00398) provides a framework for FTE metric calculation.

Example: ABX Limited with an employee headcount of 5 has a time & attendance report with a total of 1745 working hours in September 2022. Assume the legally accepted hours are 221 hours. ?FTE = 1245/221 = 7.90 employees.

Explanation: ABX limited required 7.9 (Approximately 8) employees to complete the work that was done by the 5 employees for 1745 hours in the month of September 2022. This means the management of ABX limited will have to do a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether to pay overtime or hire 3 more employees as owned or contingent employees. Additionally, this can inform the review of employee shifts & working hours policy for the company.

FTE assumes that employees are competent, efficient & effective in result delivery with accurate data on time taken. The FTE doesn’t consider lost productivity & is historical in nature unless we are working with a defined machine/equipment time.

??????ii.???????????Critical Path

A critical path is the longest time of dependent activities and measuring the time required to complete them from start to finish. This is derived from Critical Path Analysis, a project scheduling tool for activities.

From the picture above, there are 2 critical paths BC & ADF both requiring 70 days hence the project life period. Depending on the workload requirement i.e. for A = 1500 man-hours, B = 1200 man-hours, C = 720 man-hours. Considering path BC, we shall require 1920 man-hours (1200+720). Assume 221 working legally accepted hours per employee. The number of employees required for B=1200/221=6 & for C=720/221=3. The total requirement will therefore be 8.7 (appx – 9) employees. When hiring, it is advisable to consider hiring the first 6 employees for activity B & with the competence & skills to handle project C so that we don’t terminate & hire afresh. Another option would be to have 3 employees as owned/full-time & 3 as contingent employees on a contract, terminated after activity B is complete.

Critical Path is more futuristic while FTE is more historical. Additionally, Critical Path Analysis only considers activities whose timelines will jeopardize the project completion time and not activities that would ensure desired results.

In conclusion, the time-based methodology is crucial in workload analysis to define:

• Determine the actual hours required to complete a task.
• Plan employee shifts & scheduling.
• Determine the number of employees required. Further workforce analysis will help define the mode of employee acquisition.

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NEXT article >>>> Performance-Based Methodology

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