What is resource allocation? Importance, benefits & optimization - Dayshape (2024)

In the delivery of any project, poor allocation will knock on overall performance. Without the right skills or knowledge on a project, efficiency, time, confidence, and motivation can be lost along the way.

An optimal resource allocation process in accounting is critical to empower teams, prevent burnout, and ensure engagement performance. In this context, allocation is not only an essential process, but it is also a critical lever for growth and success. Consistently allocating the right resources to the right tasks at the right time is crucial for successful and profitable client engagements. When a firm allocates its resources, it matches the resources that will be dedicated to achieving client and business objectives.

Poor allocation can contribute to a burned-out workforce. A survey of 1,222 UK accountants and ACA students from the accountancy well-being charity CABA found that two in five accountants feel too emotionally drained from working. When asked about the cause of the stress, 33% reported their work, career, or studies as the root cause.

A firm can use the proper resource allocation process to drive better resource utilization, employee satisfaction, and retention. An effective allocation system will optimize utilization rates without overburdening your people. Effective allocation methods will also prevent other capable and available resources from being overlooked, ensuring tasks are assigned fairly and strategically. In addition, by taking into account individual preferences, interests, and career aspirations when allocating work, your firm can better support professional development and retention.

Resource managers’ key focus is ensuring that their clients are provided with the best teams possible, combining industry experience with the right skills and accreditations to ensure maximum quality and efficiency.

Best is subjective, but clients will expect to see individuals with the right qualifications and experience assigned to deliver their engagements. That means those with appropriate skills, insight, and knowledge relevant to the client’s specific business and industry. This could include a combination of technical skills or sector experience, particularly the ‘soft skills required. But these skills do not all have to reside in one person, location, or timezone. An optimal resource allocation system considers these details and identifies a team with the most suitable skills for each project stage. A resource management system that can utilize your people in the best way will benefit staff and client satisfaction alike.

Allocating the right resource combinations for complex engagements demands thorough, up-to-date knowledge of your resources’ skills, capacity, and availability. It also requires the ability to accurately predict resourcing decisions’ impact on engagement performance.

In the long term, an effective allocation strategy can help your firm to strike the right balance betweenover and under utilizationof resources. Maintaining this balance reduces the risks of overburdening your team or overspending on resources that are not required. Allocating the right resources to the right engagement at the right time boosts efficiency and cuts the risk of overruns. The combination of greater visibility across all resources andengagement financialshelps to ensure projects remain profitable and on schedule.

One major opportunity for optimizing allocation is to assess resources across a wider pool of staff by centralizing them in scheduling software. This enables consideration of skills, expertise, and availability at a national and global level, supporting more agile decision-making.

Unexpected changes or the sudden need for additional resources can occur. Intelligent resource management software enables firms to explore staffing options and adapt to changing demands without disrupting existing schedules. Enhanced visibility over available resources makes it easier to consider alternative resourcing decisions when needed. Filters andautomated alertshelp resource managers identify clashes within schedules, enabling them to prevent or resolve conflicts in real time.

Resource allocation software can help your firm to support career development and staff retention efforts by allowing resource managers to consider skills and individual preferences when allocating work in the system. In addition to attracting and retaining talent, the ability to match skills and preferences to the work assigned will contribute to higher-quality engagements and provide greater visibility of skill shortages.

Resource management software can empower teams by granting them greater autonomy in their work. During allocation, individuals can indicate their preferences for task types, engagements, or industries from available unassigned work that aligns with their grade, location, and business unit.

The business benefits of a more diverse and inclusive workplace are far-reaching. They have positively impacted overall performance and productivity, staff engagement and retention, client relationships, and firm culture.

We’ve previously written about thediversity problemin accounting and questioned how technology can play its part in redressing the balance. An automated allocation system reduces the chance of human bias or favouritism by emphasizing capacity and best skills-experience match. With proper tools and governance, staff see that work is assigned based on set criteria rather than connections, preference or recency bias. Offering this transparency within the resource allocation process is increasingly important for creating a fairer and more inclusive workplace.