Labor Hours

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he time it takes to accomplish work is most often measured in "labor hours." One labor hour equals one person times one hour of work. So you get two labor hours when one person works two hours or two people work one hour each.

The total labor hours available to your team in a given calendar period can be increased by adding people or paying for overtime if the benefits outweigh the costs. But other actions can help by reducing the number of labor hours needed for existing work. You can:

• Improve process efficiency.
• Improve meeting efficiency.
• Improve group problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Renegotiate deadlines, SLAs/SOWs, or workloads.
• Outsource routine or specialized tasks that take a lot of time relative to the value they add.
• Ask customers where new requests fit in their priority lists—that is, manage their expectations for what you can accomplish.
• Purchase machines or software that automate work or work management tasks.
• Use formal project management on complex, unique jobs.
• Reduce conflicts, which waste time.
• Create a communications plan, since missing information can cause wasted time.

Most cost-effective is to address all of these and other issues through true team-building. For example, you may want to:

• Bring us in for a SuddenTeams Assessment, a four-hour review of your team's status resulting in a list of recommendations.
• Perform the exercises in our "do-it-yourself" team building book.
• Download our fun, free team building e-book, 2 Weeks 2 Better Teamwork.