What Is Bench Management and How to Utilize the Resources on the Bench?

Bench and IT, on the other hand, are intimately connected. The bench is the most frequently used term in the information technology industry. Generally, the term is presumed to be negative. As soon as we hear someone remark that an employee is on the bench, our senses are triggered and we recognize that this is not for a good reason.

However, have we ever considered the flip side of the coin and what this term truly means?

To clarify, the bench is a reservoir of resources rolled off from projects due to completion or underperformance.

The term “Bench Management” refers to how organizations that keep personnel on the bench manage them successfully and efficiently.

This article will provide you with an in-depth examination of the title and how organizations are addressing it.

Bench Management in IT companies

It is difficult to forecast demand for information technology services accurately.

Capacity management is difficult for large organizations, even more so as their list of new initiatives grows.

This requirement could be met by IT Service Companies that specialize in managing resources that are waiting to be assigned (sitting on a bench) to a commercial project/contract but are still on the payroll and earn regular income.

You might be surprised to learn that many organizations view Bench as a symbol of strength and capability for technology businesses.

They believe it is advantageous to maintain bench strength to attract business.

It is a method of telling clients that the organization possesses the requisite resources to deliver projects.

With a background in HR and a husband who has worked in IT for over a decade, I began to ponder the advantages and disadvantages of the bench system. Here is a couple of them to help you comprehend it better.

Pros and Cons

Pros

1. Ready workforce with adequate capability on board for new projects to be acquired.
2. Bench team members can assist project team members who are on longer or unplanned leaves.
3. There is a chance for bench employees to expand their skillsets by enrolling themselves in several learning courses.
4. An extra workforce can help deliver the internal projects even faster and before time.

Cons

1. Adverse impact on productivity and profitability of the organization.
2. There are more skilled individuals available than required.
3. People on the bench who don’t know what’s coming can quickly grow agitated and irritated.

Effective Bench Resource Management

IT service demand is notoriously difficult to forecast.

Business management may see either high demand and low developer supply, or low sales with too many skilled developers unemployed.

In fact, every developer who isn’t working on a commercial project is a cost. The large economic oscillations of boom and bust affect demand, and hence, Bench Resource Management in the IT industry is one of its most concerned and focused areas.

Let’s see how this Bench Resource Management can be done effectively and the resources can be utilized efficiently.

Involve resources in the R&D team

The most popular and straightforward method of utilizing bench resources is to incorporate them within the research and development team. Supporting innovation and support functions may provide a shift for employees while also maintaining their enthusiasm.

Internal Training

These resources can be sent for training to help them improve their capabilities. Apart from planning e-learning/classroom sessions for their career development, you can also book sessions for experience sharing. This will keep the bench resources well-connected and may even result in cost savings.

Apart from the above, cross-functional or domain-specific training may also be organized.

Cross-Functional assistance and resource sharing

Bench resources may also be beneficial cross-functionally. Experienced resources can lend their experience, advice, and assistance to a novice project while operating projects can utilize middle-level resources to lend an extra hand in deploying the project smoothly.

Employ resources in Process Documentation

Many standards and practices are not documented or updated in many organizations. It’s best to utilize your resources on the bench to document your team’s practices and standards.

We all know certain documentation is vital in software testing and many other fields.

Maintain your project’s Wikipedia

With your most recent team standards, you can update obsolete documents or add more relevant info. It’s always good to have a Wikipedia page with test documentation, templates, spreadsheets, and other resources that any particular team commonly uses.

Create a Knowledge Transfer document

The Knowledge Transfer (KT) materials are documents and study guides that are utilized by new team members and even veteran team members as a reference.

You can employ your bench resources to work on producing these knowledge transfer documents or updating existing ones if they are not precise or lack critical current information.

To note, this knowledge transfer document has gained widespread adoption, and everyone, including seasoned team members, refers to it before testing any new versions of the functionalities.

Organizing Frequent Brainstorming Sessions

Every employee has an unquestionable responsibility to contribute to the organization’s growth. Frequent brainstorming sessions might be established to comprehend and come up with a critical solution to attain a new project.

Bench resources might look at their competitors’ businesses and come up with something significant and unique that can assist them to capture new initiatives and proposals.

Conclusion

At times, resources on the bench may experience extreme frustration, low morale, and depression, which is fairly typical. As an employee and HR, it is our responsibility to make them feel involved and motivated.

I’d like to conclude this article by expressing my hope that my perspective and solutions have been beneficial to you in terms of bench resource management.

How would you describe your experience with the bench? Is it a part of your organization? Do you make use of it? Or perhaps you’re now seated on a bench? Please do not hesitate to provide feedback in the section below!