Resource Management – Introduction
“Vision without resources is a hallucination.”
Old Pentagon Quote
Organizations are complex creatures comprised of personnel with varying personalities, talents, needs, and aspirations. Increasing this complexity is the wide array of organizational possessions: tools and materials, physical and intellectual properties, and financial instruments. Ordering this complex collection of resources to ensure the efficient, highly engaged use of all of the organization’s assets is the function of the resource management program.
Processes associated with an organization’s resource management program vary between the strategic and the tactical. Within the realm of strategic planning, resource management encompasses the processes and activities of performing annualized projections and monthly/weekly capacity planning. Extended into the tactical arena of business execution, resource management involves scheduling; acquisition; retention; maintenance and development; and termination, retirement, and release/disposal of assets.
Resource management, whether strategic or tactical, focuses on personnel, material, land, intellectual property and financial instruments. In strategic planning, resource management processes group assets into large categories based on common characteristics. As processes narrow their focus from long-range to tactical resource planning, asset focus becomes more specific; even to the point of uniquely identifying the asset to be involved in an activity.
Focus of the Resource Management Topic
Articles in this topic area are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies successfully executing a resource management program in support of strategic planning and tactical business execution. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics foundational to a strong resource management program.
Articles
- Best Practice – Attract the Best with Accountability by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Best Practice – Categorical Activity Prioritization by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Best Practice – Establishing the Foundation for Personnel Resource Sharing by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Best Practice – Ongoing Assessment of the Market Availability of Strategic Resources by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Warning Flag – Frequent, Inaccurate Resource Needs Estimation by StrategyDriven Contributors
- Warning Flag – Parkinson’s Law by StrategyDriven Contributors
Sign up for our Email NewsletterResource Management Best Practice 1 – Attract the Best with Accountability
In today’s competitive environment, it is no longer good enough to offer employees a good place to work. Rather, it is imperative a company creates a work environment where the best want to work. Only when such an environment exists will a company attract and retain the most knowledgeable, skilled, and accomplished employees; who in-turn will effectively execute its activities and make it a viable competitor in an increasingly aggressive marketplace.
Resource Management Best Practice 2 – Categorical Activity Prioritization
An organization’s mission defines its purpose for being. Making the mission measurable and then prioritizing those measures helps create a sense of where the organization should focus its efforts. However, prioritization at this level does not create the clarity needed for individuals making resource allocation choices between their day-to-day activities, especially if the activities all serve the same mission measure.
Resource Management Best Practice 3 – Establishing the Foundation for Personnel Resource Sharing
No longer can personnel resources be underutilized in either skill or capacity. Today’s dynamic business environment demands a degree of responsiveness and cost competitiveness that can only be achieved through heightened personnel flexibility and interchangeability. To achieve this requires the building of a foundation of standardized policies and procedures that align personnel resource management practices across the organization.
Personnel resource sharing requires individual availability and skill matching. Optimally, an individual possessing the needed, not excessive, skill in one workgroup is available to augment the receiving workgroup for the exact period of time necessary to complete the work assignment. This situation is difficult to achieve not only because of the idealistic pairing of skills and availability but because of the challenges associated with identifying well suited, available resources across the organization. While difficult, the optimal pairing of the organization’s personnel resources with its work is enhanced through effective execution of the following programs:
Resource Management Best Practice 4 – Ongoing Assessment of the Market Availability of Strategic Resources
Market changes can make once plentiful resources scarce. The recent retirement eligibility of Baby Boomer generation workers and the relatively small size of the follow-on Generation X workforce represents one example of a market change that is creating a shortage of experienced workers in many industries. While this change could be readily anticipated, others such as government sponsored large scale infrastructure projects which consume significant quantities of materials, heavy equipment, and personnel are less predictable. Thus, it is important for organizations to identify needed strategic resources and assess their market availability on an ongoing basis.
Ongoing assessment of resource availability should be performed for those personnel, material, equipment, and financial resources required to perform operationally significant activities and achieve strategic goals. Some examples include:
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