Guide to Utilization in Workforce

Getting the most out of the Utilization tool in Workforce

Hannah Weidman avatar
Written by Hannah Weidman
Updated over a week ago

Buildr Workforce is a powerful and convenient tool that allows you to optimize shift assignments and get the most value out of your workforce.

Utilization Screen Overview

Workforce Utilization has several features that allow you to quickly find employees, view shift assignments, and see where you're over or under utilized. To get the most out of Utilization, you will want to make use of:

Each of these features are accessed in the menu that is shown below:

UTILIZATION ONLY VERSUS UTILIZATION WITH SHIFT ASSIGNMENT

One powerful feature in the Utilization section is the ability to change your display.

Utilization Only View

The "Utilization Only" view is a broader view that emphasizes employees' total allocation. The view shows the Employees on the left with a view of their utilization on the right.

Green means that they have availability; their utilization is less than 100%.

Gray means that the employee is unavailable and at 100% utilization.

Red means that the employee is unavailable and over-utilized; their utilization exceeds 100%. This indicates the need for reassignment during that time period.

The breaks in between the bars signify a change in utilization and/or a change in shift assignment.

For example, let's look at the employee highlighted below, Julie Kshlerin:

You will notice that over the 5 year timeline, there are 5 segments for her. In chronological order, the first time segment is at 0% utilization, the next two are at 50% utilization (the break signifies a change in the Opportunity she's assigned to), the next is at 150% utilization, and the last is at 100% utilization.

The first three are green, signifying that Julie is not completely utilized. Additional shifts can be assigned to her in this time so long as they do not put her over 100% utilization. If you assign a shift during those times that results in her utilization exceeding 100%, that segment will turn red. You will want to edit the shift assignments for anyone that is over-allocated. Check out this article for a guide to resolving over-allocation issues.

If you hover over any section, you can see which projects they are assigned to and click through to those opportunities if you need to change a shift assignment.

Utilization with Shift Assignment View:

The "Utilization with Shift Assignment" view is a more focused employee view that shows an employees utilization with the specific projects to which they are assigned.

This is particularly useful when you are examining a specific employee's utilization as opposed to the broader allocation of your entire workforce.

In this view, you will see the utilization bars like you do in the "Utilization only" view. However, the specific shift assignments will be shown below with the utilization on each shift:

This is especially useful when deciding which shift to move and reassign in cases of over-allocation, among other uses.

FILTERS

Filters allow you customize your views. For example, if you have 100 employees and you only want to see your project managers, you can add a filter to view all Project Manager shifts:

When applied, you'll narrow down your employees/shifts to see that role only:

You can also filter by Employee Name, Shift Start Date, Shift End Date, Location, Opportunity, Opportunity Assignee, etc. Here are some other use cases:

  • See who is working on all Opportunities assigned to you

  • See who is working on all Opportunities associated with a specific company

  • See who is working during specific date ranges

  • See what shifts are filled on Opportunities that have been Won or that are in Pursuit

CHANGING DATE RANGES

Changing the date range on your Utilization display is easy. Simply click the time range above the employees and select the desired time increment:

SAVING VIEWS

Depending on the size of your company and number of Opportunities in your pipeline, you may want to save specific views for quick and easy access.

For example, maybe you consistently review the allocation of your project managers on a 1 year timeline. Rather than adding your filters every time you want to look at the this view, you can just create it once and save it for future viewing:

Simply add your filters and update the timeline and display. Then click the Utilization drop down and select "Duplicate View." Give the view a name and select the viewing permissions - Personal or Shared, and you will see it show up under the Utilization drop down:

Create as many views as you would like!

Did this answer your question?