Managing Your Team's Workload

• Change
  Change is a constant in the workplace. The need for organizations to continually adapt and/or transform themselves is driven by a number of things, including the threat from competitors, the economy, and society's needs in general. The effect is that your team will often be expected to do things differently, more quickly, and in a way that they may not be familiar with.
• New management / Team members
  New people bring new ideas. It is often the case with new management working practices, roles and responsibilities are overhauled. Getting used to new working methods and styles can be challenging. Inducting new members into your team can also be time-consuming and mentally demanding for existing team members.
• Deadlines
  Most tasks have deadlines and sometimes they move with or without your input or consent. However, deadlines are important: they are designed to ensure that things get done.
• Clients / Customers
  Your team will always have a customer, whether they are colleagues in another department or external (paying) clients. As they are the reason why your team exists, the need to satisfy their (often unpredictable) demands is a priority.
• Absence
  Your team members can often be required to take on aspects of other people's workload due to them being e.g. on holiday, off sick, on secondment, on maternity/paternity leave, or they may have left and their post is currently vacant.
• Self-generated
  Your team members may often volunteer to take on additional work, to develop their skills and experience, or to help others out. Be aware of this: while it may be tempting to take up their offers of help, monitor their workload regularly to ensure that they are not taking on too much and that their own work will not suffer as a consequence.

Moving the Mountain

So, your team already has a mountain of work and you are wondering how on earth you are going to make sure it all gets done, when someone moves a deadline or asks your team to do something else as a matter of priority. What do you do? You need to make sure that your team:

• Adopts a positive attitude. Demands and challenges are opportunities for your team to demonstrate their skills and abilities. Get them to see additional tasks as a compliment: they are asked for help because they are clearly thought of as able to deliver.
• Focuses and prioritizes. Ensure you and your team take some time to understand the requirements and implications of the additional task(s). Before they start, help them to re-prioritize their existing workload and re-negotiate any personal deadlines (where possible).
• Manages their time. Time is the key ally in getting things done. You should assess how long things will take and create a schedule for your team to work to. Can the extra time needed be found by working smarter, or will you ask team members to put in some more hours by starting earlier or staying late? If you do need to ask them to work extra hours, make sure you are able to reward them appropriately.
• Gets help from others. Could you delegate some of your team's workload to another team in order to create capacity for the additional work? Could you bring in someone else to work with your team (e.g. a temporary worker) in order to get the job done more quickly?

Saying No

Of course, there may be times when you simply have to say 'no' to requests, particularly when your team is already working at capacity on high priority tasks. If you don't, your team is likely to feel under increased pressure, which can lead to stress, burnout and lower levels of motivation. The steps below provide some guidance on how to say no effectively:

• Define your team's goals, objectives and responsibilities so you can make them clear to other people. Not only will this help you prioritize and manage your team's workload, it allows others to see what your team is working on and judge if/when they will be available to help with their requests.
• Understand what is involved. If someone asks your team, or one of your team members, for help and you think they may have the time to take on extra responsibilities, make sure you fully understand the finer points of what is involved before accepting or declining the request. It could be more time-consuming or complicated than initially thought.
• It can be hard to say no to your own manager. If they are giving you too much work for your team, make them aware of the implications of this before saying an outright no. Discuss your team's current workload with your manager, and the consequences of taking on extra work to the detriment of existing work, e.g. 'If you want us to work on project A immediately, that means stopping all work on project B, which will not be completed by the deadline you issued'. If the new work is urgent, ask your manager to decide which of your team's existing duties could be passed to other teams so your team can take on the new responsibilities, or ask for extra resources to cope with the increased demand.
• Share the reasons for saying no. This is more likely to help the other person accept your decision without thinking badly of you, e.g. 'We can't help you produce a new website for client X today, as we have to finish the site for client Y by the end of the week.' Suggesting alternative solutions to their request can also help soften the blow of your refusal, e.g. 'We can't help you produce a new website for client X today, as we have to finish the site for client Y by the end of the week. However, two of my team members will be finished working on their part of client Y's site tomorrow, so they will be free to work with you on the planning and structure stages then.'

The Benefit Buzz

Being able and willing to deal with a heavy workload is not only a valuable skill to have, but the outcomes can be highly motivational and rewarding for your team members. They can bring about:

• A sense of achievement that they have delivered against the odds and made an outcome possible for someone else.
• An enhanced profile in that others will see your team as conscientious, committed, professional and reliable. Your team's talents will not go unnoticed and other rewards, such as increased responsibility, promotion and pay may well follow. The example your team sets may help promote a 'can do, will do' attitude, and motivate others to add value in the same way.
• New skills and experience from the aspects of the task your team were previously unfamiliar with. Also the subject matter, the other people involved and the results of the task can expose your team to new sources of knowledge and development opportunities, for example, working with another department to organize an event for clients from different countries.

It is important to acknowledge that when you ask for more, you have to be ready to give more. This does not necessarily mean giving team members more money: often non-monetary rewards such as taking your team out to lunch, giving them an unexpected half-day, or even a simple 'thank you' can make all the difference. Your team members will feel appreciated and will be more engaged, energized and motivated as a result.

A Health Warning!

Remember that you have a responsibility to look after your team properly to avoid burnout. Most of us have busy times during our working lives, and with this comes a certain amount of pressure. However, if your team feels constantly under pressure and overworked, this can lead to emotional exhaustion and results in neither the work getting done nor the rewards being enjoyed. It is important, therefore, to find a balance between work commitments and personal wellbeing. If the balance in your team starts to feel uneven, think about what practical steps you could take to redress this, and talk to your own manager about how they might be able to help.