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People Leaders

Workload Prioritization Process

Challenges with workload and too much red tape came up consistently in the last three staff surveys. This tool was designed to help managers and direct reports assess work, determine how to align work with organizational goals and make workloads more manageable.

Why focus on managing and prioritizing workloads

  • Helps align work with your department/unit/college priorities & goals
  • Allows you to focus on and accomplish important work even when you aren’t fully staffed
  • Allows you to manage your resources more efficiently & effectively
  • Proactively addresses retention
  • Decreases performance issues
  • Improves capacity planning
  • Reduce team stress, burnout and errors

When to consider using this tool:

  • Annually as part of the Performance Dialogue review and goal setting stage
  • When your team is not fully staffed
  • Before a job is posted
  • When new projects are introduced
  • When you receive requests from others
  • When college/unit priorities change

Before you say yes to new requests, consider these questions:

  • Does this request align with your department goals?
  • Should you be saying yes?
  • Why are you saying yes?
  • Does your team have the time?
  • What are the ramifications of saying no?
  • Are there other resources you could share with requesters to help meet their needs?
  • How will your department benefit from saying yes?
  • How will the requestor benefit from you saying yes?
  • Will saying yes help others learn the skills they need to complete the task in the future, or will they continue to rely on you to help them?

Workload Management & Prioritization Process

1.       Introduce the purpose and process of prioritizing work.

2.       Provide each direct report with a blank template so they can assess their workload.

3.       Schedule 1:1 meetings with each direct report to discuss their grid.

4.       Collectively talk through the grid and consider:

  • What’s missing or needs adjusting?
  • Does this work align with our organizational purpose?
  • How critical is each item to the continued operation of the University/College/Unit?
  • Which responsibilities need to continue, could slow down, could be paused, should be stopped all together?
  • If this work can’t be stopped, can it be modified to reduce effort?
  • What is the impact on other Departments, Colleges, or Units if you make changes?
  • When will we restart the work that is paused?
  • How and when will we re-evaluate work that is slowed down?
  • Do you need to train a backup? 
  • Who else has an interest in learning how to do this work?

6.       If necessary, address any potential staffing, skills gaps & changes that could impact job descriptions, with your HR representative.

7.       Hold an all-team meeting to review department workload moving forward

  • Team talk through work priorities and how everyone would like to contribute
  • Focus on aligning work completion & responsibilities with individual interests and skills
  • Identify areas of misalignment and consider making responsibility changes to improve efficiencies, engagement and performance

8.       Complete a prioritization grid for your department’s work.  

9.       Review the proposed plan with your supervisor to gain support.

  • Do they have any thoughts/concerns about the plan?
  • Does the plan need further approval?

10.   Communicate and launch the plan with all those impacted.

11.   Continue to monitor and assess workloads during 1:1 meetings with direct reports