While exciting, demanding jobs often overwhelm employees, negating any positives. But finding the right work management system can restore the balance and ensure teammates still enjoy the thrill of fast-paced work with the tools and workflows to handle it effectively.
Implementing a solid work management system offers staff the guardrails they need to do their jobs and maintain momentum, and optimizing management software for added support helps build a strong foundation of productivity. The system you choose can incorporate stand-alone software like Todoist or an application integrated within your project management tool, such as Tempo, Jira, or ClickUp. These platforms offer a wide range of capabilities and features to suit your team’s and specific system’s needs.
Learn more about management systems to select the best framework and tools for your unique team and goals.
What’s work management?
Work management is an approach managers take to support effective workflows and organize employees’ time, resources, and tasks. A strong system streamlines business processes and boosts overall productivity by improving project scheduling, resource management, and group performance. As a result, teams have the means to meet expectations and deliver maximum value.
Work management versus project management
While work and project management both involve overseeing tasks, processes, and resources, the two disciplines differ in their reach. Project management focuses primarily on items involved in a single project. Work management is broader, impacting project management and other organizational areas such as business intelligence and client relationship management.
Here are several more ways the two differ:
| Project management | Work management |
|---|---|
| Involves planning and executing tasks to complete a single project | Managers organize tasks for multiple initiatives and other ad hoc responsibilities |
| Focuses on a project’s short-term goals | Concentrates on long-term goals that drive business efficiency and success |
| Involves a rigid structure with established timescales and budgets | Provides a flexible structure that evolves with each process iteration |
| Includes only project stakeholders | Involves all teams within the organization |
| Ensures the team meets project expectations | Ensures the organization meets business goals |
What’s a work management system?
Work management systems generally consist of a suite of management apps and tools that facilitate organizing teams, tasks, and schedules. Using platforms like Jira, Trello, or Tempo helps automate recurring work and saves planning time. These platforms also provide access to integrated collaborative tools and project management features to support and optimize your team’s performance.
Some practical features to consider when choosing a work management tool include:
- Project visualization: Some applications allow you to toggle between views to help teams visualize project timelines, milestones, and due dates. These different displays include Gantt charts, task lists, and calendars.
- Collaborative tools: Certain platforms offer message boards to facilitate communication, file sharing, and storage. You can use these features to establish centralized access to project documents like a stakeholder management plan and RAID log.
- Time tracking: Timesheets and workload management tools are standard features that let team members prioritize and track time and tasks.
- Integrations: Most work management systems are compatible with other business and project tools, such as Atlassian’s Jira with Tempo’s Timesheets or a digital Kanban board, so you can continue using your preferred applications.
Types of work management systems
Depending on your needs and industry, there are many types of work management systems you can choose from. While it’s common for one platform class to share features with another, each application generally specializes in a primary function.
Here are a few examples of standard work management systems.
Task management
Task management software such as Asana helps teams divide large tasks into smaller, more manageable subtasks. Other functionality includes:
- Task assignment
- Progress tracking
- Scheduling
- Reminder notices
- Status updates
Resource management
Using a resource management system like Planner by Tempo lets you oversee staff availability and other work resources. This can facilitate meeting scheduling, task assignments, and performance assessment.
Accounting
Accounting management systems like Tempo Accounts and Cost Tracker or the Paymo platform help organize your financial records. These platforms also support budget planning, payment processing, and online banking.
Customer relationship management (CRM)
CRMs like ProProfs’ BIGContacts are marketing management tools that help companies build and maintain client relationships by collecting customer data, analyzing trends, and automating business interactions. They also help sales teams follow up on leads by sending reminders and promoting business campaigns.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Sometimes you need a tool to organize your entire organization. Leveraging an ERP like Bitrix24 is a great way to map processes, integrate all departments onto one platform, and simplify IT needs and requirements.
5 benefits of using a work management system
Implementing a work management system comes with many perks like transparent accountability and easy progress monitoring. You’ll also enjoy the following five benefits.
1. Enhanced productivity
A work management system that centralizes project information and communication ensures team members understand their responsibilities. Assignees can share ideas and crowdsource solutions to challenges, boosting efficiency and productivity. Applications like Lattice and Namely also allow managers to supervise performance, helping them identify who’s achieving their goals or needs additional support.
2. Cost savings
Organizing projects with a management tool lets you optimize resource allocation, prevent duplicating effort, and eliminate process waste. You can also track historical data for task hours and resource use, creating more accurate work estimates. By reducing waste and increasing projection accuracy, you save costs and free team members to work on top priorities.
3. Strong customer satisfaction
With an effective management system, staff members can stay on task to properly complete assignments. You can also document and assign task lists and deadlines to individuals so operations run smoothly, which helps your team meet customer needs to build stronger client relationships based on high service standards.
4. Effective collaboration
Using work management software helps team members better understand their roles and dependencies. When you provide straightforward workflows and coordinate tasks with the proper tools, you’ll increase your staff’s efficiency and build unity within the group. Smooth collaboration improves both employee and project performance, ensuring the team achieves its goals.
5. Better morale
Establishing protocols for seamless communication helps coworkers work well with and depend on each other. As a result, employees feel valued, stay motivated, and enjoy greater job satisfaction.
A work management system also serves as a coaching tool, allowing you to review work performance and offer feedback.
Crucial steps in the work management process
Managing work requires a structured, systemic process to ensure you deliver outcomes on time, stay within budget, and meet quality expectations. And a solid system allows you to automate and streamline several of these process steps.
Identification
In this step, you’ll define goals, task completion methods, and due dates. Documenting these details ensures everyone is in sync and agrees on how to best accomplish their work.
Planning
Next, identify the necessary resources to complete tasks and estimate how long they’ll take. Optimize your work management system to log relevant data and create a Gantt chart or project roadmap outlining your plan.
Scheduling
The project manager or team leader reviews the plan and divides tasks into smaller jobs. Using the task management platform, they’ll assign subtasks to the team, including details like requirements, metrics, and deadlines.
Execution
Once leadership has mapped out and subdivided the work, the project manager prioritizes tasks for the team. Then assignees execute their responsibilities according to plan.
Follow-up
The project manager uses the work management system to monitor progress and performance, ensuring team members are on track to meet deadlines. If a roadblock appears, the platform’s communication channel notifies the team and they form a solution to get back on schedule.
Analysis
During the closing phase, reviewing the work process to determine what worked, what didn’t, and the lessons learned is essential. You can document this valuable data within the system, creating an archive of knowledge for future process improvements.
Easily manage projects with Roadmunk by Tempo
Whether you’re overseeing day-to-day tasks for your department or implementing a new strategy, using a work management system in concert with Roadmunk, Tempo’s easy-to-use road-mapping application, streamlines the process. Roadmunk offers audience-friendly roadmaps that help align team objectives. With IT templates, product roadmaps, and project management templates, you’ll prioritize work and monitor issues with ease.
