Staffing

The Operating Method: Staffing & Resource Planning

Managing complex projects is hard. Managing a large portfolio of projects in a professional services firm is even more challenging. It’s not trivial to balance conflicting schedules, ambiguous client needs, and a consultant roster with skills to utilize optimally and personal preferences to consider. 

That’s staffing – a delicate dance of putting the right people with the necessary skills and expertise on projects to get the job done. 

Staffing is the number one process that a consulting firm COO must master. Proper tooling with automation and AI, can help COOs and resource managers by quickly analyzing skills, availability, and project requirements to suggest potential matches. This turns what used to be hours of manual checking into a few minutes of review, leaving more time for thoughtful discussions about fit, chemistry, and development.

Staffing and Resource Planning are about:

• Matching client needs with the skills and expertise of available consultants
• Maximizing value creation and billable work
• Avoiding employee burnout
• Building optimal teams that work effectively together
• Assigning people challenging projects to foster learning and growth, motivating them to engage in new work
• Prioritizing between many sub-optimal choices
• Providing business insights such as identifying possible skill gaps, capacity forecasts for recruitment and sales, and employee career aspirations.

Staffing is a blend of people and numbers. As the company grows, staffing becomes even more complex.

The Operating Method lays out key principles you need to succeed in resource planning and project staffing in a consulting firm.

Buckle up.