A workload no one sees in full
Each project manager sees what they ask for; no one sees what the same person accumulates. Overload is discovered when it has already produced a delay, or a departure.
Solutions Team steering: a visible workload, a voice that is heard
Team steering starts on the side of those who produce. Each team member sees their workload for the coming weeks, enters their time weekly, and says every Friday what moved forward and what got stuck, to whom they choose. Their manager then steers on what comes up, not on a feeling, and the commitments made to clients rest on real capacity. This is the Management feature of the core: management and team steering.
The observation
A project often slips because a team dropped off before it did.
Overload, fatigue and conflicting priorities show in those who produce long before they show in a schedule.
A voice that does not come up
What is stuck is said at the coffee machine, rarely where someone can act. The weekly check-in exists, but it leaves no trace, and it depends on the mood of the day.
Time entered too late
Time is reconstructed at month end, from memory. What feeds margin and billing is then the least reliable data in the whole organization.
On the team side
What everyone finds there.
A team member's week, in one place, on the web as on the phone.
The coming weeks, project by project
The workload plan tells everyone where they are expected, week by week. An intervention or a new project that would be added goes through their manager and the project managers concerned, instead of landing without warning.
Weekly, from the workload plan
Time is entered weekly, starting from what was planned: you correct the gap instead of re-entering everything. The finalized week goes to the manager for approval, who approves it or sends it back.
The Friday report
A few minutes: what moved forward, what got stuck, and alerts attached to a project if needed. The draft stays private until it is sent. The week's working conditions are optional, and if the team member chooses not to share them, their manager sees only a team aggregate.
An alert goes where its author directs it
An alert can concern the project, the organization, the hierarchy, or be sent to the next level up without going through the direct manager, or to the HR function only. The person who raises the alert chooses who reads it, and that protects them.
On the manager side
Steer on what comes up.
The manager collects nothing more: they read, they decide, they respond.
- The weekly review Their team's reports, read and marked as read. What was said has been heard, and the author knows it.
- The workload plan and staffing Everyone's planned workload, project by project, week by week, and what remains to be assigned.
- The time review The finalized weeks to approve or send back, before the month-end close that feeds margin and billing.
- Requests Leave, checked against the projects where the person is expected, and the interventions that require freeing a workload already planned.
- The management review The two readings of the same week, the manager's of their team and the team's of itself, brought together so that the gap is dealt with.
The second pillar
You cannot keep commitments without teams that hold.
Operational commitment management says what was promised to the client. Team steering says whether it is tenable. The two live in the same tool because they talk about the same week: an alert attached to a project is read next to that project, and an overload is seen before it becomes a missed milestone.
No one is rated, nothing is scored. Each person's voice stays attached to its author, and it serves first of all to be heard.
The limits
What it is not.
Not an HRIS
No payroll, no annual reviews, no administrative staff management. Leave is kept there because it weighs on projects; the day an HRIS carries it, it is meant to come from there.
Not an appraisal tool
No rating, no ranking, no prediction. What comes up is a work fact, dated, attached to a project or a week, and read by those the author has chosen.
Not a mood survey
There is no questionnaire to fill in for management. There is a weekly report, written by the person who works, about their work.
Frequently asked questions
What we are asked about team steering.
Does the manager see everything their team says?
They read their team's weekly reports. An alert goes where its author addresses it: to the project, to the hierarchy, to the next level up without going through them, or to the HR function only. And the detailed working conditions reach them only if the team member chooses to share them.
Can time be entered on mobile?
Yes. Time is entered weekly from the mobile app as from the web, starting from the workload plan. The weekly report and leave are there too.
How long does it take each week?
A few minutes for the team member, on Friday, because the week starts from what was planned. For the manager, the review is done on what was written, with no extra meeting.
What happens to the working conditions data?
It is optional, aggregated for the manager if the team member does not wish to share it, and anonymized after twelve months.
Next
Going further.
- The weekly team report: its outline, and why it is read at two levels.
- Team engagement: two accounts of the same week.
- The project workload plan: real capacity, not estimated.
- The mobile app: the week on the phone.
- The product tour and the pricing.