Challenges of human resources forecasting and how to respond to them
There are multiple factors to consider when it comes to planning resource demand at agencies. Things change fast here, both in terms of new projects in the production pipeline and new skills needed to deliver them. You have to make a decision whether you’re looking for people to join your team or contribute to projects as freelancers. Then, of course, there’s the cost of the actual recruitment process.
What about the consequences of poorly timed hiring processes? Overstaffed agencies can easily lose their financial liquidity but not having enough resources may jeopardize the upcoming projects or damage carefully crafted client relations. Clearly, there’s a lot at stake here.
Fortunately, reliable data about:
- confirmed (or basically-confirmed-waiting-for-the-final-go) projects, their estimated duration and roles needed to deliver them,
- future availability of your teammates,
- past records: timesheets, utilization, estimates vs actuals,
will help you tremendously. Data-driven human resources forecasting starts with collecting the appropriate insights, preferably in real time. Analytics presented in this article have been captured by Teamdeck, software, that has been tailor-made to support agencies, software houses and startups in resource management.
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