Table of Contents
Introduction
Most teams aren’t short of effort – they’re just drowning in admin. When everything feels ‘urgent’ (Slack notifications, overrun meetings), staff spread themselves too thin, and important work slips through the cracks.
Ultimately, the fix is a lighter-weight way to see capacity at a glance. You need to know what’s in progress, who’s at risk of overload, and where small changes could buy back time. But how can you create that kind of visibility?
A few simple building blocks are all you need: a shared schedule, clear leave planning, and time and attendance tracking software that surfaces patterns you’d otherwise miss. By using attendance data, managers can identify recurring overtime early without extra admin.
Even a simple, automated hours report helps you spot outliers, and the stakes for workforces are real.
The World Health Organisation and International Labour Organisation link regularly working 55+ hours a week with a 35% higher risk of stroke and 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease compared with a 35–40-hour week.
At this point, basic load management is a matter of health safeguarding.
Set a weekly WIP limit (team, not individual)
Pick a clear cap on how many things the team can work on at once, then stick to it.
Start by reviewing the last 2–3 weeks of throughput (i.e., the number of items you actually finished per week).
Set your work-in-progress (WIP) limit close to that number, write the limit on your board, and only pull new work when a task is completed. Park everything else in a simple ‘later’ list, so priorities stay visible without clogging today’s work.
Watch overtime patterns with time and attendance tracking software
Turn on a weekly hours/overtime report and review it at the same time each week. As an HR manager, you should be looking for recurring outliers – individuals or roles that exceed the norm for two or more weeks.
As a starter yardstick in the UK, keep an eye on anyone trending near or above the 48-hour weekly average cap under the Working Time Regulations (unless they’ve opted out), and make sure you’re keeping the required working-time records.
When you spot patterns, fix the system by moving deadlines or reassigning tasks. A good attendance system helps here: most will automatically flag overtime, which can make compliance checks less stressful for everyone.
Shorter meetings by default
A breather in between calls is the bare minimum. Set your calendar to 25-minute and 50-minute slots: Google Calendar’s Speedy meetings and Outlook’s End early/Start late settings automatically do this, trimming 5–10 minutes off to create buffer time.
These brief gaps cut ‘attention residue’ (the mental carry-over when you jump straight from one task to another), which is linked to slower, lower-quality work. Shorter, focused meetings plus small buffers help thinking reset before the next task.
Swap status meetings for a 3-line update
Cut the standing ‘status’ meeting and replace it with a single post by 10:00am in one shared channel or board. Here’s a simple template you can use:
- Done: what I finished since the last update
- Next: what I’m focusing on today/tomorrow
- Blockers: anything slowing me down
These kinds of synchronous updates keep everyone in the loop without burning time in a room.
One simple intake form for all new requests
To stop work arriving via DMs and stray emails, create one standard request form and point everyone to it (bookmark it, add it to email signatures, pin it in Slack/Teams).
What to include (keep it short):
- Request title & description
- Urgency (today/this week/this month)
- Effort (S/M/L)
- Due date (if any) and stakeholder
These fields can make prioritisation faster and more consistent.
Plan for peaks with a fair rota
Always start with the data. Pull the last 4–8 weeks of tickets/calls and chart volumes by day and hour to spot your busy windows; then staff more people in the peaks and fewer in the troughs.
Evidence-led rota planning is an effective way to prevent overstaffing. It’s the HR representative’s responsibility to make the rota fair, so rotate cover, publish it in advance, and give people a clear way to swap shifts.
The 10-minute Friday review
Set a recurring 10-minute slot each Friday to keep this week tidy and next week realistic. It’s not a full retrospective – just a quick, lightweight check that nudges continuous improvement.
Look at three signals (in this order):
- WIP (work in progress): Is the team at or under its limit? If items are piling up, reduce next week’s intake or swarm the slowest column.
- Overtime outliers: From your weekly hours/overtime report, flag anyone trending high for two or more weeks. Use this to rebalance work or adjust rotas.
- Carry-over: What rolled from this week to next? Cut or renegotiate low-value work so that the plan aligns with capacity.
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