What is Work Management? Definition & Examples

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Understanding Work Management:

According to clockify.me, 46% of stress reported amongst employees in the US is caused by an overwhelming workload. Overwhelming and disorganized workloads lead to a lack of productivity and overall dissatisfaction. However, an overwhelming workload and a stressful life do not have to be the norm. By utilizing work management, you can better organize both yourself and your company, ultimately leading to the successful achievement of your business goals while eliminating stress.

Work management is a term that has been thrown around since 2021. Whether you’ve heard this term once or too many times to count, you may be wondering what it means and how it can help your team become more productive and efficient. The truth is, work management is crucial for achieving an organization’s objectives because it facilitates productivity and alignment across teams and stakeholders.

What is Work Management?

Work management encompasses a broader scope of work activities that teams use to organize processes. It is ongoing work that ladders up to larger business objectives so teams can achieve their goals. Work management might entail forming a process structure, allowing stakeholders to seamlessly coordinate their responsibilities and ensure the successful completion of a project.

Think of work management as the conductor of an orchestra, harmonizing various instruments to create a beautiful symphony. Just as the conductor ensures each musician plays their part at the right time and in harmony with others, work management guides teams in coordinating their responsibilities seamlessly. Work management orchestrates processes to align with overall company objectives, empowering teams to achieve their goals like a masterfully conducted musical performance that captivates the audience.

Some applications of work management:

• Supervising employee onboarding processes

• Monitoring real-time progress of marketing campaigns

• Organizing Agile project sprints

• Managing multiple cross-team projects

• Coordinating content calendars

• Assigning and automating tasks using work management software

• Heading program and project management efforts

• Managing a construction project

• Overseeing a product development process

• Leading a team by setting objectives and establishing communication channels.

 

What is Work Management vs Project Management?

Work management enables you to achieve a larger objective, while project management is a subset of work management that deals with the planning, execution, and monitoring of individual projects. Projects are temporary whereas work management processes are ongoing. If work management is the conductor, project management is each individual musician who has their own mission and their own goals to contribute to the orchestra.

Project management is the practice of coordinating processes, tools, team members, and skills to deliver projects that meet goals. A good project plan rallies teams around a clear goal, scope, and timeline while involving stakeholders for increased visibility and defining a cadence for communication during the project. Project management involves deciding if this project is even worth tackling before you invest too much elbow grease, asking yourself relevant guiding questions, execution, and monitoring.

Some applications of project management:

• Defining a product roadmap

• Evaluating pricing strategies

• Creating and monitoring sales pipeline

• Completing a growth plan

• Coordinating a product launch project

• Managing timelines and budgets

• Event planning, such as organizing meetings, conferences, and award ceremonies

• Running a marketing campaign

• Managing a recruitment project

• Organizing logistics for a company-wide virtual event

What is Task Management?

Task management is the most granular level of work management and involves tracking individual tasks within projects until completion. Tasks can vary in complexity, ranging from quick, to complex. Effective task management can help individuals accomplish tasks quickly and collaborate with others to achieve collective goals. Task management is tuning the instrument, perfecting a difficult section, or replacing a broken string.

Some applications of task management:

• Looking into performance metrics

• Drafting content

• Syncing with a stakeholder

• Assigning a ticket

• Posting on social

• Monitoring progress

• Reviewing contracts

Recap

Work management addresses the overall management of work within a business; project management focuses on managing individual projects from start to finish, and task management deals with the organization of individual tasks within projects or processes. Each concept has its own level of granularity and all are an integral and interconnected part of what is the newer concept of work management.

In short: work management is the conductor of a harmonious orchestra, project management looks at the individual musicians and instruments, and task management looks at granular tasks of the musicians.

By fine-tuning your work management system, that 46% of work-induced stress may fade into the background noise of a beautiful orchestra created by your work management, project management and task management processes coming together.

[Summer_Hogan]

These are great examples @Hannah Fischbein! Thanks for all the info! 

[Mary Agueros]

Thank you for the concise breakdown. I am definitely interested in learning how to implement the points listed under Work Management.

[Andy Gladstone]

The orchestra comparison is such a perfect way to express this! Thanks for taking the time to publish this article @Hannah Fischbein, it certainly gives me greater context about the tools I am using to Work, Project and Task Management and how I can better utilize them for their intended goals.