How to Manage Your Team's Workload: The First Step

As a manager, do you have a clear picture of your team's workload? Or do you suspect some team members are overwhelmed while others are unchallenged? 

Understanding your team's workload is the first step to managing it effectively. In this article, I’ll show you how to adapt the RACI matrix from project management to gain clarity and make better decisions about workload distribution.

Why Understanding Workload is Crucial

You might think you know everything your team does, but over time, tasks and responsibilities accumulate. Someone asks for a favour, and suddenly it's a weekly task. By fully understanding what your team is working on, you can make better decisions, ensuring your team's efforts align with organisational goals and priorities.

Another key reason is identifying and addressing imbalances. If some team members are under-challenged, rebalancing the workload can give them an opportunity to step up and perform better.

Finally, understanding your team's workload helps identify gaps in coverage. Knowing who can cover for whom during sickness or vacation prevents unnecessary stress and urgency when someone is out. 

This clarity allows for even work distribution, ensures coverage, and helps you decide if certain tasks that have crept in over time should even be part of your team's focus.

Introducing the Modified R-A-S-C-I Matrix

We’ll be using a modified version of the RACI template: R-A-S-C-I. Let’s break down what each letter means:

• R is for Responsible: This is the person doing the work. There can be multiple people responsible for a task.
• A is for Accountable: This is the person responsible for signing off on the work and is ultimately responsible for its delivery. There is always only one person accountable. As a team manager, you might be accountable for much of the work. 
• S is for Supporting: This is an important addition not found in the traditional RACI matrix. 'S' indicates who helps with the task and, importantly, who can cover for the main person if they’re out. If I’m responsible for the work and you support me, you can be my backup when I’m on vacation.
• C is for Consulted: This means you go to the person for feedback, input, or sign-off, requiring a two-way dialogue. For example, if your team member is responsible for a report, they might consult with someone in another department to ensure their figures are correctly represented.
• I is for Informed: This is a one-way communication where you share information. Following the report example, your team member pulls the report, consults with another team, and then informs all relevant teams in the company about the report itself.

A significant benefit of using this template is that it not only identifies who is responsible, accountable, or supporting, but also reveals who your team consults with and informs. This provides a valuable understanding of how your team interacts and collaborates with people outside your immediate team and department.

Getting Started and Maintaining Your Matrix

• To begin, you can download the RASCI template or create your own. List all your team members across the top and all tasks down the side. 
• To save time and uncover tasks you might not be aware of, ask each team member to fill out their own RASCI and then compile them into a single document.
• If you want to take it a step further, review the compiled document for duplication of effort, gaps in coverage, and tasks that your team shouldn’t be doing.

Once you have this single document, it's time to start using it to manage your team’s workload. I love taking a snapshot in time: save a copy of the document with today’s date. This allows you to compare your progress over the coming months.

The Team RASCI should be a living document that you update regularly. If you identify gaps in support, or if one person has too much responsibility and another too little, this matrix helps you form a plan to rebalance the workload. If you’ve taken a snapshot, you can return in six months to see how the workload has shifted and catch any new tasks that have come in.

Beyond Workload: Development and Confidence

Another advantage of this process is its value in demonstrating team member development and growth. By comparing snapshots, you can show team members how they've taken on new responsibilities and progressed. This is fantastic for performance reviews, promotions, or internal role changes.

Finally, this tool helps you feel confident about what’s happening across your team. Even if changes are needed, you know your starting point. When other departments ask your team to take on more work or new projects, you can pause, consult your RACI, and decide if you have the capacity and who is the best person to help. It's an all-around fantastic tool for managing workload and gaining the clarity you need to make confident decisions as a manager.

Key Things NOT to Do

• Don't do this on your own: You might think you know everything, but you don’t. You'll miss informal tasks or favours.
• Don't save it in a folder and forget it: This is a living document that should be used in team meetings and updated as new work comes in.

Next Steps

Understanding the workload of your team not only helps you distribute tasks evenly and identify potential gaps in coverage but also reveals how your team collaborates internally and externally. This living document becomes a powerful tool for confident decision-making, demonstrating team growth, and ensuring your team's efforts align with broader organisational goals.

Your next step is to download the template or create your own, then encourage your team members to fill it out. Even a quick 30-minute exercise will give you an invaluable starting point for understanding and effectively managing your team's workload.