Preventing overload and burnout on project teams
Overload shows up in the plan weeks before it shows up in the work. Mosaic, an AI project and resource planning tool, puts every person’s planned hours against their capacity, across all projects, so managers can rebalance before anyone is overloaded.
How do firms keep their most in-demand people from being overloaded?
Firms watch each person’s planned hours against capacity across every project, so overallocation shows up weeks ahead instead of in a missed deadline. When one person is overbooked, they reassign work by role and skill to someone with room, before the week arrives.
Mosaic shows workload by person as a heat map, so the same few names on every deadline are easy to spot.
Capacity planning and utilization · Workload management in Mosaic
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How do firms prevent burnout?
Firms prevent burnout by planning with realistic capacity, with PTO, holidays and non-billable time in the plan, and by spreading work across teams instead of handing it to whoever comes to mind first. Managers also check who is on every deadline, a pattern the plan shows weeks ahead.
Capacity in Mosaic already accounts for PTO and holidays, so a person on leave isn’t counted as free.
“As a PM group, we meet every Thursday and go through each person individually on Mosaic to help when people get overloaded and make sure their workload is balanced.”
Is it easy to roll out?
Firms are integrated, trained and live in 30 to 60 days. After that, Chello, Mosaic’s AI planning assistant, keeps the plan current through Microsoft Teams, asking each manager for updates where they already work, and one reply gets the plan to match reality.
Most firms on Mosaic get most of their people planning. The only thing that gets everyone planning is the Teams integration.
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What changes when workload is planned?
Firms that plan workload ahead see it in utilization and in how much of their capacity has a plan: CetraRuddy went from 77% to 90% utilization and had its best year in 38 years. Vocon went from 49% to 94% of its capacity planned in 12 months.
Source: CetraRuddy and Vocon, Mosaic customers; Mosaic planning data
90%
utilization at CetraRuddy, up from 77%
94%
of capacity planned at Vocon, up from 49%
80%+
of billable staff capacity planned at firms on Mosaic
What else do firms ask about workload?
Can we see who’s overloaded next month?
Yes. Workload views show each person’s planned hours against their capacity for the weeks and months ahead, so next month’s overload is visible now.
Does capacity include PTO and holidays?
Yes. PTO and holidays come out of each person’s capacity, so someone on leave isn’t counted as free.
Can managers rebalance work between people?
Yes. Managers move work between people on the timeline, and project views, people views, budgets and reporting update with it.
Does Mosaic work with our ERP?
Yes. Mosaic plugs into your ERP. Projects, people and time come from the system your finance team already runs.
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See who’s overloaded next month, and who has room, across every project.