Achieve optimal resource utilization by creating a bench report. We'll show you how (spoiler alert: we've made it super easy!)
Keeping tabs on available resources can involve a lot of back and forth as you double-check remaining work hours with employees.
This makes things not only frustrating but also time-consuming. And ultimately, this can lead to poor utilization rates and hiccups operational efficiency.
Thankfully, making a bench report — also known as an availability report — can save you time and make resource planning easy.
As its name suggests, a ‘bench’ report refers to a report featuring your employees’ (contract or full-time) availability during a specific duration (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).
More simply, it’s a report that tells you employee bench time or how many people are on the ‘bench,’ waiting for work to be assigned.
Knowing this detail is critical for efficient resource allocation and optimization, in that you assign work to the right people who have the time to take on new project(s).
The report also ensures you’re optimally using resources — never over- or under-utilizing them. In turn, this helps improve your utilization rate as well.
Bench reports assist in several ways including:
A bench report gives you an easy-to-read snapshot of employee availability.
Instead of reviewing individuals’ capacities one by one, you can simply leverage specific filters (if you’re using a resource management software) to see who is available for work and assign projects accordingly.
By showing you these employees’ total work hours (as specified in their contract), and remaining hours, the report speeds up resource allocation.
An essential aspect of improving employee satisfaction and maximizing business resources is using all employees to their optimal capacity.
Without insights into available work hours, it’s common to assign more work to certain employees while others remain on the bench or are under-used.
For overworked employees, this workload imbalance often contributes to burnout. In contrast, under-utilized individuals become disengaged at work.
When left unaddressed, these concerns breed more challenges for an organization. These include reduced employee engagement and an unhealthy work culture that promotes overwork.
Not to mention, inefficient resource utilization can also contribute to poor employee retention.
As you assign work using bench reports, you can start utilizing employees at an optimal rate.
When using a robust resource management platform like Runn, in particular, the software calculates employees’ total available work hours by subtracting their time off hours from their contracted hours (hours available to work per their contract).
This ensures you improve resource utilization rate without risking employee burnout as you assign work only for actual available hours — not hours when individuals are due time off, or work that exceeds their contracted capacity.
The best part? Availability reports are quick and easy to make in Runn — let’s show you how in the next section.
Further reading ➡️ Resource Optimization Explained for Beginners
Runn makes it simple to make bench reports as you only need to apply a few filters to your People Explorer report to turn it into an availability report.
You’ll find the People Explorer report in the Reports corner in Runn.
Essentially, this report gives you a collection of essential employee KPIs — contract or full-time — for weekly, monthly, and quarterly periods.
Some of the important metrics you’ll find here include:
Where the People Explorer report gives you a full overview of your people metrics, the bench report is a niched version, showing only resource availability.
So to create a bench report from the People Explorer report, start by selecting the period (upper right corner) you want to make the availability report for: Weeks, Months, Quarter:
Next, head to the Metrics tab beside Period and select two main filters: Totals Hours and Remaining Availability.
Since the bench report’s purpose is to show you who is on the bench, your next step is go to the Person Status column and choose Active.
And finally, under Type, select People Only from the short drop-down menu:
This will give your bench time, showing you exactly who is available for work and how many hours of work they can take on.
If you’re looking to search for availability based on employment type — (full-time) employee or contractor, you can change the filter settings under the Current Employment Type column.
Bench reports make resource planning easy. Not only do they boost productivity by saving you time in one too many ways, but they also play a small but impactful role in increasing employee engagement.
Both these upsides to bench reports contribute to streamlining an organization’s resource management — significantly improving operational efficiency.
And with Runn, you can make the best use of your employee data. It’s really one of the reasons why we're trusted by enterprises worldwide.
Want to save time and make reporting easy (not another chore on your plate!)? Take Runn for a free trial today to enjoy the benefits of quick and easy reporting.
