December is driving you crazy. You need to chase new strategies to grow next year, but you will only be able to justify the 2015 planning if you have the results of 2014. Know that we’re all in this together and, as I know you don’t have much time, I’m going straight to my advice: using a project manager solves most of what we need. From generating reports and providing team performance numbers to indicating bottlenecks to be eliminated and showing the costs of the projects:
Have all the results organized
With a good project manager, the whole team shares the work on the system and the flow is organized: each client has projects and each project, many tasks. Thus, in time to verify the results, you will be able to view the data in an organized way, knowing how much time has been invested in each step of the task, and if there was some kind of accident. In addition, all decisions are recorded in the system. So, your action plan will be based on accurate information. Not to mention the costs control.
Know the actual costs of the projects
If you ever get the feeling that everyone is working very hard, but your never see your profit, that’s because you didn’t stop yet to do the math of the real costs of the project. With a project manager, this task is automatic: just compare budgeted hours with worked hours. Both the board and your customers expect for transparency if you need to request additional funds. In addition, your company must have an overview of which projects demand more and less expenses, since these values will certainly be used as a basis for the 2015 planning.
Eliminate bottlenecks and irregular demands
In the rush to complete the planning, you can’t pass by how much your employees actually worked. Who worked more worked actually too much more? Are the demands balanced or there are people accumulating roles, or even receiving indiscriminately demands of other areas? Using a project manager, you can monitor in real-time the availability of the team and set permissions on the system to receive and open tasks.
Remember to advice and to reward
My last reminder: before concluding the 2015 planning, you need to look at what went right in 2014, and this includes assessing the performance and commitment of your employees. To start the new year without feedbacks means perpetuating the duds and neglecting the successes. Use your project manager to find who the team talents in are. You may offer financial benefits, improvement training or even a promotion.
To adopt a project manager also seems to be the most effective solution for 2015? Meet Runrun.it, a software with repository of all shared content and 10 management reports available. It’s able to increase by 25% the productivity of your company. Try it for free: http://runrun.it
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