Workload Management Basics: How to Manage Workloads + Redistribute Tasks

What Is Workload Management?

Workload Management is a crucial process within IT Service Management that involves monitoring team workloads and supervising the responsibilities of the workforce to evenly distribute present and future tasks among available agents or teams.

With Workload Management, organizations have the visibility to determine which members of the workforce are overloaded, and then redistribute tasks if needed to achieve effective distribution and balance of tasks, ultimately improving efficiency by ensuring tasks are completed by the right team members and within the desired timeframes.

Balance Tasks to Prevent Overscheduling

This balance of tasks, especially when managing a workforce in multiple locations or in different time zones, helps organizations maximize employee skill and performance by validating that no resources are being underutilized, while managing the assignment of unassigned work and preventing any individual agent or team from being overscheduled.

Key Features - Workload Management in Freshservice

For managing task assignments, balancing workloads, and optimizing resource allocation, the Workload Management module in Freshservice provides an interface with a complete view of teams, workloads, and their comparison to one another.

With a single view of task distribution, whether a ticket or project, teams and managers can use the calendar view to make further adjustments or redistributions easily and quickly as needed. This ensures that each agent or team receives an appropriate number of tasks based on their capacity and expertise, and this level of flexibility is essential for adapting to changing priorities, availability, or any new scheduling conflicts that may arise.

Visibility of your team’s workload can be visualized by calendar view, Gantt chart, or type of work/project, displaying each agent’s:

• Workload Count
• Workload Hours
• Workload Hours by %
• Available Hours
• Available Hours by %

Within Freshservice, the OOTB Workload Management features include:

• Task Assignment
• Task Prioritization
• Agent Workload Visibility
• Task Load Balancing
• SLA Compliance
• Workload Forecasting
• Escalation and Collaboration
• Workload Distribution Rules
• Reporting and Analytics

Common Scenarios to Leverage Workload Management

• High Volume of Incoming Tickets
• Seasonal Peaks
• Skill-based Task Assignment
• Escalation and SLA Management
• Agent Availability and Capacity
• Collaboration and Teamwork
• Multichannel Support Management

Benefits – Workload Management in Freshservice

• Real-time Visibility
• Optimal Resource Utilization
• Proactive Resource Planning
• Improved Productivity
• Enhanced Service Levels
• Efficient Escalation Handling
• Increased Agent Satisfaction
• Effective Task Prioritization
• Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Workload Management Basics – How to Redistribute Tasks

To redistribute tasks to avoid overtime or scheduling issues in Workload Management, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Workload item.
2. Select the appropriate week that you want to view and manage.
3. In the top right corner of the screen, select from the dropdown how you want to view the workload schedule. For example, you have the option to view your team’s workload by count, hours, and availability according to total tasks or to task percentage. When reviewing the calendar, the view you choose will further determine how you identify any tasks that require redistribution or rescheduling.
4. In the calendar view, you will see a visual representation of the tasks scheduled over time.
5. Assess the workload and availability of your team members by viewing their assigned tasks and their availability on the calendar.
6. Consider the skills and expertise required for each task while redistributing them to ensure they are assigned to the most suitable team member.
7. Determine which team members have the capacity to take on additional tasks without causing scheduling conflicts or overtime.
8. To redistribute a task, click on the employee and drag its current assigned time slot to a new available time slot or to another team member's schedule.
9. After reassigning a task, the system automatically messages both the old and new agent with the updated information as well as any rescheduling or date changes related to the task.

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