5 Common Workload Distribution Mistakes for Managers

When you're working on a team, subtle differences between your employees' work styles may become highly apparent. While one team member may be volunteering for the hardest projects and overdelivering, one of your other workers may be struggling to meet basic expectations.

Although it may feel more natural to dump all your most important work on your hardest worker, that strategy will not advance your business.

How Can You Manage Workload Distribution?

Teams work most efficiently when the workload is evenly distributed among all members. However, even distribution does not mean that everyone should be taking on the same projects. What takes your top performer three hours might take another team member the whole day.

As manager, it is your responsibility to do some proper workload planning and delegate so that there's a more equal distribution of workload and your employees' skills complement each other. Do not underestimate this task. Optimizing team performance and productivity through workload management is one of the most challenging jobs that a manager has to do.

If a star player feels burnt out and under-appreciated, they may even look elsewhere for somewhere with better workload planning, stronger workload management strategies, and a structure that’s more supportive.

So, how do you avoid creating an unbalanced workload? Here are five of the most common mistakes managers make when they are distributing work across a team.

1. Effective Workload Management: Avoid Overburdening Your Top Performers.

Almost every team has a star player who is willing to put in extra hours or take on particularly tricky projects. This person tends to be highly reliable, consistently turning out the best work and meeting deadlines, so it's natural is to want to lean on them for any projects that come up.

What Should Managers Avoid?

Unfortunately, if you repeatedly take advantage of your highest performer's penchant for saying yes, their productivity may eventually drop. Not only can they begin to feel overworked and exhausted, but this team member may come to resent other team members for what they perceive is them not pulling their own weight.

If a star player feels burnt out and under-appreciated, they may even look elsewhere for somewhere with better workload planning, stronger workload management strategies, and a structure that’s more supportive. This can create a high turnover within your business, and the loss of your top talent.

Be fair and resist playing favorites when assigning projects as much as possible. Try to have an unbiased workload distribution system when it comes to types of projects you assign, vacation requests, and scheduling. At the same time, you can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, so keep this in mind in order to prevent burnout on your end too.

2. Managing Team Performance: Avoid Excessive Pressure on Less Productive Members.

Pay attention to your employees: if you see team members becoming frenetic, reaching mental blocks, or feeling frozen when facing a challenge, their stress level might be too high.

You may be tempted to solve workload distribution by increasing pressure on your lower producers t, but that tactic can be counterproductive. Learn where these employees excel, whether it's social media management or client communications, and try shift their workload accordingly 

Try Workload Tracking.

Workload tracking can help you get a better sense of how much each team member should be doing and who has the ability to take on more at any given time. Before you begin tracking, step back and figure out how much work there is to tackle.

Get your plans in order by: 

• Creating a list of projects your team is responsible for
• Figuring out the timing of work and scope for each project 
• Organizing projects into categories and dividing them into digestible chunks
• Prioritizing projects based on urgency and importance 

Be sure to take into account meetings, recurring tasks, and any paid time off that could be coming up for your team.

3. Effective Workload Planning: Avoid Ad Hoc Decisions on Workload Balance.

Figuring out how to manage your team members' skills to create better outcomes for your clients is one of the most critical parts of your job as a manager. For that reason you should avoid making too many ad hoc decisions, only planning for the slivers of time between larger tasks, or worse, doing no planning at all.

How Long Should I Spend on Planning?

You should expect to spend an hour or two a week planning out projects for your team throughout the week. This time will allow you to design a strategy that focuses on long-term productivity and capacity-building on your team, rather than thinking about day-to-day tasks. Just make sure your plan is flexible enough to handle unforeseen circumstances that can arise during the workweek.

Within your planning, set clear workflows and approval processes that everyone on the team is aware of and understands. For example, once content for Client X has a first draft – who edits, who approves, and who sends it to the client? Keep a balance between mental stimulation and workload distribution too by making sure the same person doesn't handle all editing, approvals, and client emailing (plus client editing) for every account; since this is likely too heavy a workload for one person.

4. Confronting Low-Performing Team Members: Don't Shy Away from Difficult Conversations.

Set clear expectations regularly with your team to help with workload management. When you have clearly communicated your expectations for workload distribution, it can become much easier to have conversations about why someone is not achieving what you have asked of them.

Make Yourself Available For One-On-One Discussions.

Let you team know that you're there and open to discuss their professional goals and team dynamics with them. These meetings are also a moment where you can dig deeper into why a low performer might not be reaching your expectations. Ask them how you could support them better so they can complete their projects more efficiently.

5.Not Addressing Ambiguity in Roles: Eliminate Uncertainty.

Employees are more productive when they feel that their work matters to the success of the team, or even the business as a whole. However, it can be easy to feel lost and lose steam, particularly if working for a large organization. That's where you and your workload management strategies can help.

Instead of allowing a few people to cover all the bases, try to define roles as much as possible. Having clear communication and defining functions for each team member will help make each person feel accountable for their area, which can can bolster commitment. This exercise also allows you to evaluate any gaps in your current workflow and shift your employees' projects to better fit with their unique talents.

Don't Underestimate the Challenge of Managing People's Time and Productivity.

Managing the talents, schedules, and interests of a group to achieve the best results will always be a challenge. It requires time, patience, and constant communication with your team. However, if you continue to invest in balancing your employees' workloads, the dividends can be rich.

More on Workload Management

Another key part of good workload management and distribution is finding ways to engage your employees. Read our article on how to motivate your team.

Photo: Getty Images

A version of this article was originally published on August 22, 2018.