Utilisation and availability: Efficient team planning

MuchSkills offers a powerful tool called Team Builder that allows you to create teams based on skills and competence efficiently. And, once you form a team for a particular project, utilisation reports help you analyse how efficiently they are being utilised – a particularly useful feature for consulting companies.

The video guide below is to help you utilise these two tools effectively. You will learn how to create perfectly balanced teams for your projects. You'll see how easy it is to define the skills needed, adjust utilisation levels, and navigate potential overutilisation. Plus, you'll get a glimpse of how our color coding system ensures the right skill levels for each project. 

1. Log in to your MuchSkills account. Go to ‘Team Builder’. Click the green ‘Build team’ button on the top right. Define the project you're working on. For example, if you're building an app, enter the project details including name and any collaborators. Set the project’s details. Specify the project duration by setting start and end dates. Add a brief descriptor and relevant tags to categorise the project. Include any additional information or URLs for reference. Click ‘Save and continue’.
2. Next, add the skills required for the project. Utilise the search bar located at the top right to find specific skills such as JavaScript, data architecture, API design, etc. Additionally, you can specify the number of full-time employees needed for each skill in the ‘Members needed’ column. Once you have added the necessary skills, scroll down. You will notice that MuchSkills has filtered potential team members within your organisation based on their skills and expertise. These individuals possess the most skills that align with your project requirements. You can refine your search by filtering individuals based on departments, location, managerial relationships, skill levels, and more. Take a moment to review the filtered list of individuals who meet the project requirements.
3. Review each potential team member's utilisation level and current project assignments. Adjust the utilisation percentage for each member based on their availability and workload. Add team members to your project by clicking the "+" button next to their name.
4. Once you've selected team members, review the overall distribution of skills and expertise within the team. Ensure a balanced mix of skill levels and expertise for the project. Make any necessary adjustments to optimise the team composition.
5. Click on “Save and Continue” to finalise your team composition. Review the utilisation levels and assignments for each team member. Click on "Done" to save your team configuration.

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How to use MuchSkills' team utilisation report

Now that your team has been created. You can check the past, present and future utilisation levels of team members who are part of the project.

1.    To access team utilisation reports, go to ‘TEAM/ORG’ and click on ‘Utilisation Reports’ in the drop-down menu.

2.    Customise the view before you by applying filters (top right). You can filter the view based on project status, department, location, look for individuals who report to a specific person and so on. You can also choose the time frame for the report to view past, present, and future utilisation levels. This allows you to make informed decisions about resource allocation and project assignments. Do remember, you can click on any individual reports to access deeper insights.