8 Tips & Strategies for Workload Management in Agencies

If you're struggling to manage your agency's growing workload while keeping your team and clients satisfied, you're in the right place. 

Take a minute to put yourself in the shoes of your project manager or team member: 

You have just been handed a new task. The agency owner (or the sales team) has promised the client an ambitious deadline before consulting you. You glance at your existing workload and realize that, once again, you need a miracle to complete the task with limited resources (e.g., time). 

You've been there before—late nights, stressful meetings to understand a brief in detail, asking questions, and juggling priorities that never seem to align. 

The client expects stellar work, but your team, as a project manager, is stretched too thin. You, as a designer or creative in the agency, feel like every day is a battle against time. And despite your efforts, you can't shake the feeling that you're always a step behind. 

Back to you, agency owner (or project manager assigning work): 

It's easy to miss these nuances because you're watching your team members from the outside. But these frustrations, unrealistic expectations, and even anxiety are expected at work. The responsibility is on you to explore actionable strategies for workload management to reduce stress and improve team productivity without compromising the quality of work. 

To get started, let's define workload management. We'll then discuss 8 actionable strategies to manage workload and why workload management is important.

What is Workload Management? 

Workload management is the practice of forecasting, planning, distributing/assigning, and monitoring team members' tasks/projects from start to finish. Let's break this down a bit: 

Workload management involves: 

• Forecasting what expected work looks like based on previous months' workload 
• Planning how the expected work (including recurring ones) will go around your team members 
• Assigning tasks to each member, taking their areas of expertise into account 
• Monitoring progress level from start to finish, and while doing this, you 
• Ensure they understand the brief to achieve targeted outcomes. 

Managing team workload means ensuring your team members' work & life cycle are balanced. You give them enough work to make them feel fulfilled at work without compromising their health or need for rest. 

If you're struggling with it, here are eight strategies to help you manage your workload and potentially keep everyone happy. 

8 Ways to Manage Workload in Your Creative Agency or Company

Managing workload is about creating a better work environment for your team members without compromising client satisfaction. We have worked with multiple project managers and spoken to many agency owners who use our client portal, ManyRequests, to manage their workload. The following eight tips are some of the things they do: 

1. Set Realistic Deadlines with Your Clients, Even for Edit Requests

A realistic deadline is a time frame that considers your team's current workload, the skills required for a project, and any potential challenges that might arise while working on the task. 

It's about being honest with yourself, your team, and your clients about what is achievable within a scheduled time. This way, you’ll meet expectations without overworking your team. 

So, how can you set realistic deadlines? Do these: 

• Have an open conversation with your team before committing to a client. 
• Assess your team's current workload using tools like Trello or Asana to view all ongoing tasks. Our Requests feature on ManyRequests can also help you do this. See screenshot below: 

As you can see, everybody on the team has a bird’s eye view of all active tasks. They can also see the statuses (in progress, pending feedback), the priority level, those to which each task is assigned, and the due date. 

This bird’s eye view helps you gauge how much additional work your team can handle. 

You should also match the project requirements with your available skill sets. For example, if the project requires busy talents in your team (say, 3D designers who are overwhelmed already), factor in the time needed to complete existing work before they can work on the new task. This gives you a more realistic deadline. 

• Consider contingencies because there are no projects without hiccups. What sets your agency apart is how you prepare for them. Hiccups could be unforeseen client requests, technical issues with your tech stack, or last-minute revisions before a round of projects is sent to the client. 

To avoid this, include additional time in your deadline to accommodate last-minute delays, especially editing and revising. 

• Set expectations on deadlines with your clients upfront. Explain the rationale behind the deadline you chose to help them know you're trying to be realistic. This will help them see your perspective and can improve project success rates. 

Sometimes, clients might push for tighter deadlines. You can negotiate—perhaps discuss trade-offs. This could involve prioritizing certain aspects of the project or extending the timeline for final delivery (after edits and revisions) to ensure quality work. 

2. Organize Tasks in Order of Priority for Team Members with Multiple Active Tasks

You typically manage multiple projects at once. Without proper organization, you can miss deadlines, your team members may feel burnt out, and the quality of work can be compromised. 

An effective strategy for managing workload is to organize tasks in order of priority. 

Each task is prioritized and allocated based on urgency and required skill sets. This approach helps your team members stay focused on their work, reduces stress, and ensures deadlines are met without compromising the quality of work. 

Now, how can you organize your workload? 

• Analyze task urgency using the Urgent vs. Non-Urgent Metric. 

Some of our clients love the ManyRequests Priority feature, which lets them indicate how important a task is. Here's a screenshot of the client portal, where you can select which project takes priority over another. 

A team member can also have multiple running projects; as shown below, one task is completed while the other is still in progress. 

This helps them understand urgent tasks and those that can wait. For example, the work of a client who needs graphic designs for a major marketing campaign—due in two weeks—should be completed before the work of another client who is in the early stages of developing a whitepaper. By evaluating the importance of each task, you can prioritize what is urgent and assign it accordingly. 

• Use a Prioritization Framework like the Eisenhower Matrix

A framework like the Eisenhower Matrix helps you categorize tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance: 

• Do First (urgent and important, for example, client work, responding to feedback, or crisis management), 
• Schedule (important but not urgent, for example, collaborating on ideas for upcoming campaigns or scheduling time for constructive feedback on ongoing work), 
• Delegate (urgent but not important, for example, making minor adjustments to designs or content that don’t require any typical expertise. You can assign this to a junior member of the team) and 
• Don't Do (neither urgent nor important, for example, spending time on social media during work hours or attending unproductive meetings). 

This framework helps you make clear decisions on task priorities. 

You can also organize workload from hardest to easiest or easiest to hardest. 

• Hardest to Easiest: 

Some people prefer to tackle hard tasks while their energy and focus are at peak levels. Help your team understand that they can do this to prevent procrastination on difficult tasks and ensure they are completed without unnecessary stress. 

• Easiest to Hardest: 

Some prefer working on easier tasks to build momentum before moving on to more challenging tasks. This method is effective when quick wins are needed to maintain team morale. You can use this strategy to manage your workload and keep everyone happy. 

You can also hold regular check-ins with your team to review progress and adjust priorities as needed. After all, projects evolve, and so should your team's focus. You can use project management tools like ManyRequests, Asana, or Trello to visualize task priorities and deadlines. Let's talk more about this: 

3. Follow Up on Your Team Members and Ask for Their Bandwidth Bi-Weekly or Monthly

The project manager of an agency I worked with in 2022 always sent emails at the beginning of every month asking for my work bandwidth. She wanted to know what projects I could handle and how much work I could take. 

If you're a design agency, bandwidth could be the volume (or complexity) of design requests your designers can handle. If you're a video editing agency, it could be the volume of optimized hours your editor can pour into editing videos (or the type of work they can take). 

Regularly checking in on your team's bandwidth helps you understand their capacity, allocate tasks more efficiently, and ensure that future projects are planned realistically. Over time, as team members become more skilled and efficient, these check-ins help you adjust your workload (assign more for the same time) without compromising the quality of work or affecting their compensation, especially if they are paid per project. 

How can you do this? 

• Use a bi-weekly or monthly check-in. This is a scheduled meeting via call through Google Meet or email. 

This regular check-in is where you assess their current workload, gauge how they manage their tasks, and discuss any potential changes in their capacity. This allows you to listen to their feedback, understand their challenges, and adjust future assignments accordingly. 

To do this well, follow this process: 

• Set up recurring calendar invites (or reminders to send them messages). 
• Review their current workload using our client portal (or any other project management tool you're using) 
• Let your team know beforehand that they can discuss any challenges they have 
• When you're on the call, assess current capacity by asking questions like:

How are you managing your workload?

Are you finding tasks easier or harder than expected? 

Are you able to complete work faster than before? 

These questions help you understand their current capacity. The people you do this for should be paid on a per-project basis. This way, they don’t feel cheated for completing more tasks within a limited time. 

Also, record what they say after a conversation like this and use it when assigning future projects. 

4. Intentionally Distribute Projects and Tasks Evenly

Even distribution of tasks means that each team member is assigned work that matches their skill level and current capacity. This ensures that no one person is burdened with all the complex or time-consuming tasks while others handle simpler projects. 

It also involves recognizing when a project requires specialized skills you don’t have so you can hire those best equipped to handle them. 

For context, you have a team of professionals. Some are experts in graphic design, others in 3D renderings, and another group specializes in video editing. 

You receive a large project that involves all these skills. An even distribution would mean assigning the 3D rendering tasks to the team members who specialize in 3D and distributing the graphic design and video editing tasks to others. If the 3D expert is overloaded with tasks, consider hiring more experts or redistributing other tasks they're handling to balance the workload. 

However, agencies don’t usually do this. A pressing challenge we found is that agencies rely on a few top performers, a recipe for burnout. It leads to an unequal workload and underutilizes others. To avoid this, regularly: 

• Identify skill gaps to ensure team members aren't overworked. This could include paying for courses that increase specialization in a particular skill or hiring freelancers to manage unexpected workloads. 
• Plan strategic task allocation to ensure tasks are assigned based on who is best suited for a job. This should include rotating tasks among team members to balance workload and provide opportunities for others to gain experience in different areas. 
• Use project management tools to track and monitor task distribution. These tools let you visualize the workload and make necessary adjustments. 
• Set clear expectations to ensure everyone understands why specific tasks are assigned and what an impressive outcome looks like. This will get everyone on the same page and keep them productive. 

5. Minimize Multitasking to Increase Concentration Levels

Multitasking is beginning to seem necessary. In a 2017 UK-based study, 64% of Gen Z and 60% of millennials believed multitasking is a life skill. 

In reality, multitasking can reduce productivity and quality of work. 

According to psychologists, the "brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks" affect productivity by 40%. 

Minimizing multitasking can help you structure work so team members can focus on one task at a time rather than juggle multiple projects simultaneously. Here are some of the things you can do: 

• Encourage time blocking: 

This means encouraging your team members to block out specific periods in their day for focused work. For example, a UX designer might allocate the mornings to work solely on a rebranding project and the afternoons to focus on existing client revisions. 

This approach helps them concentrate and reduce the urge to multitask. To prevent interruptions, you can schedule these blocks of time using Google Calendar or Outlook. 

• Set priorities: 

This means helping your team prioritize tasks so they know what to focus on first. Use the Eisenhower Matrix strategy in point no. 2 above. If a project has a tighter deadline, let them sort it before switching to another task with a relatively flexible deadline. 

Also, communicate deadlines so they understand what to prioritize. If you use ManyRequests, the deadline of every task is always in the task details, and they can remember it. Our software also sends automated reminders when deadlines are approaching. 

• Minimize Meetings: 

Limit unnecessary meetings or schedule them when they won't interrupt focused work. For example, schedule meetings in the late afternoon when energy levels naturally dip to preserve the more productive parts of the day for deep work. 

• Avoid Notifications 

Encourage your team to turn off non-essential notifications during their focused work periods. This might mean muting Slack channels or putting phones on "Do Not Disturb" mode to avoid distractions. 

• Encourage Single Tasking: 

Develop a culture where people complete one task before moving to the next. This can improve the quality of work and make them feel accomplished. There's usually a feeling of fatigue when people pause a task, switch/work on something else, and then return to the original task. Single-tasking is much more fulfilling, and people can get more done faster. 

6. Predict Needed Skill Set and Hire Accordingly

As your creative agency scales, you need specialized skills. You need to predict and hire the right talent at the right time to avoid overworking your team or miss deadlines. 

This means anticipating the skills required for future projects to hire talent before workloads become unmanageable. This doesn't always mean hiring full-time employees; you can hire freelancers or contractors on a project or hourly basis to meet specific needs. 

For example, you're a 3D rendering and architectural firm that secured a contract to create different 3D animations for a high-profile real estate client. 

Your team excels at 3D animation, but their expertise is limited to SketchUp and Lumion (beginner tools for 3D modeling and quick visualizations). Your project needs experts in 3ds Max (because of the complex interface and advanced features for detailed modeling and rendering) and V-Ray (because the designer must know different rendering techniques and be able to integrate other software while designing). 

Rather than prompting your designers to urgently skill up, hire freelancers with the specialty you're looking for. 

This is even better if the need for specialized skills isn't consistent. Your team can handle your consistent projects while you hire talents to provide top-quality work that requires specialized skills. 

But how can you correctly predict this? 

• Review the nature of past projects: You'd ordinarily discuss project scope before a client assigns a task to your agency. This is an easy way to know what to expect before they assign the task. 

However, you can regularly review your past projects to anticipate upcoming needs. Look at the types of projects you have lined up and identify any skill gaps. For instance, if you have several video production projects but only one video editor, consider hiring additional help. 

• Consider Flexible Hirings: This includes having retainer agreements with freelancers with specialized skills but temporary needs. You can hire top talents by using job boards, LinkedIn, or tapping into your network for referrals. With a retainer agreement, you have reliable help readily available when needed without making them a full-time hire. 
• Build a talent pool: In 2023, Jakub Rudnik, now head of content at Rudnik, built a list of freelance content writers for companies. He has easy access to these writers for prompt needs. 

You can also do this with freelancers or part-time workers with specific skill sets you don’t have in-house. This allows you to scale up your team when project demands increase without the delays of a lengthy hiring process. 

• Assess your team's capacity regularly. If you notice that some of them consistently work at full capacity or struggle with tasks outside their expertise, it may be time to get additional help. 

Also, consider incentivizing team members who acquire additional skills to improve their toolset and efficiency at work. This can inspire others to do the same. 

7. Consider Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is about creating an environment where your team can manage their work responsibilities without sacrificing their personal lives. It involves setting boundaries around work hours, encouraging regular breaks, and ensuring they take annual leave. 

It also means being mindful of their workloads and ensuring no one is consistently overworked or stressed. This helps prevent burnout, improve job satisfaction (happier team, happier clients), and enhance creativity & productivity. To achieve this, do these: 

• Encourage your team to take regular breaks to rest and recharge during the day. This could be as simple as a short walk or a coffee break to maintain energy levels and improve concentration. 
• Encourage them to use their annual leave. This helps them spend time with their family, time away from work, and return to work refreshed. 
• Plan work schedules in advance to anticipate upcoming vacations. If someone is about to go on vacation, avoid assigning new projects to them just before they leave. Instead, redistribute their tasks to ensure continuity without needing to contact them during their time off. 
• Set boundaries by discouraging working overtime, although it may be occasionally necessary. Let them schedule their working hours well and avoid working late or on weekends unless necessary. 

8. Automate Repetitive Tasks

These routine activities must be performed regularly but often involve a set process or sequence. They typically don’t require a lot of creative input but are necessary for the smooth running of the agency. 

These could include data entry, tracking invoices, sending reminders, managing client communications, and creating project status reports. Automating what is automable saves time, reduces human error, and ensures you or your team members spend time on work that matters. 

The first step in automating tasks is to audit your agency's processes to identify repetitive and time-consuming tasks. Then, choose the ones that take the most time, are important, and can be automated. Then, use a client onboarding software to automate them. 

An example of such software is our client onboarding platform, ManyRequests. We offer several automation features to streamline repetitive tasks. For instance: 

• Client Onboarding: Instead of manually entering client information into spreadsheets, ManyRequests can automatically populate client databases when they sign up through your portal. 

• Invoice Tracking and Reminders: You can automatically track unpaid invoices and send reminders to ensure you never miss a payment deadline.

• Project Status Updates: Instead of sending status updates via email, ManyRequests allows you to manage active projects, track progress, and communicate updates through the portal. This reduces the need for manual follow-ups. 

• Proposal Creation: ManyRequests automates the creation of service-specific proposals. This lets you quickly generate (and edit) client proposals without starting from scratch each time. 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial now—no credit card required. You can use the free trial to explore the features and optimize your agency operations. 

You can also use free automation tools like 

• Zapier to connect different apps and automate workflows. For example, you can set up a Zap to automatically add new client details from an email to a CRM or spreadsheet. 
• Use Trello and Asana to automate task assignments, set due date reminders, and track progress. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks. 
• Invoice Ninja to automate invoice creation, tracking, and reminders to simplify the financial management process. 

Why is Workload Management Important? 

Workload management helps you prevent some of the things we have already explored. Others include: 

• To optimize people's time and help them finish projects in the most efficient and realistic way 
• To reduce individual stress levels without compromising quality output 
• To ensure everyone is working and they're doing meaningful work 
• To support high productivity while maximizing existing resources (time and people) 
• To support talent retention and individual fulfillment at work. 

FAQs on Workload Management for Creative Agencies

1. How can I help my team manage deadlines and priorities? 

Start by setting clear priorities and communicating them effectively. As we suggested, use a prioritization framework like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks based on urgency and importance. 

You can also encourage your team to focus on high-priority tasks and break down larger projects into smaller tasks. Use project management tools like ManyRequests, Trello, or Asana to visualize deadlines and task progress and adjust workload when needed. 

2. How do I know when my team is overworked?

It's hard to know, but common signs include increased errors, missed deadlines, declining work quality, or a noticeable drop in morale. 

If they physically show up at work, you may also observe physical or mental exhaustion, especially with team members working longer hours or expressing stress and burnout. 

3. What causes poor workload management?

Poor workload management is often caused by a lack of clear priorities, inadequate resources/talents, and ineffective communication. It also happens when you fail to set realistic deadlines with your clients or team members. 

4. How do you bring up workload issues to a manager?

As a team member bringing up workload issues to a manager, be clear, concise, and solution-oriented. 

Start by explaining the specific challenge (conflicting deadlines, overwhelming number of tasks, or difficulty maintaining work-life balance). Provide examples to illustrate how the workload affects your performance or well-being. 

Then, suggest possible solutions (e.g., redistributing tasks, adjusting deadlines, or bringing in additional help). Your manager will be more attentive if you frame the conversation as a collaborative effort to find a solution that benefits you and the team. 

Conclusion

Effective workload management is essential for growth, especially if you want to acquire more clients and take on bigger projects. We've discussed strategies like setting realistic deadlines, regularly checking in on your team's bandwidth, and evenly distributing tasks to prevent burnout. 

To implement these strategies, start by reviewing your current practices, use automation and project management tools like ManyRequests, and build a culture that values work-life balance. 

Sign up for a 14-day free trial at ManyRequests to quickly manage operations, workload, and communication with clients and members.