How Work Management Software Benefits Your Business

Abby Gilmore

Writer

December 7, 2022

11 min read

Work management is a process that helps manage both workflow and workload. While in project management you focus on activities related only to ongoing projects, work management includes all activities, even self-management.

Handling all these things is impossible unless you have the superpower of being able to manage multiple things at the same time, keeping everything in your mind. You might try, but believe us, it will lead to total burnout. In that case, work management software will serve as your personal assistant, tying all activities together.

Ready to dive in?

What is Work Management Software

Work management software is a cloud-based tool that helps you manage both project and non-project activities. It includes scheduling, task management, team communication, delegation, time tracking and other organizational duties.

Many people mix up work management software with project management software. Sometimes it also leads to the work management software being counted as another catchword to draw your attention.

Work management software is a more extensive tool than PM software. For example, instead of planning each single project (which is extremely tiring), you can create a one-stop workflow once and forget about planning a new project from scratch. Even if you need to make the new project more unique, you still can add just small additionals to the project without reinventing the wheel.

Key Features of Work Management Software

Work management software mostly focuses on tools that help keep track of resources, tasks, schedules, finances and deadlines. The other important point to notice is that work management software is suitable for each industry in most cases. For example, a project management software usually works only in a specific industry, such as real estate or education. It has tools to match the needs of businesses in exactly this industry. Otherwise, work management software covers the needs of any industry.

A good piece of work management software has the following features:

• Powerful task management — Kanban board, tags, priority, flexible delegation, checklists, deadlines, time management tools and trackers.
• Collaboration tools — built-in messenger, file-sharing tools, comment sections, request a response feature.
• Cloud-based file storage — storage for any types of files, folders and file previews.
• Customizable and personalized reporting system — cash flow reports, employee performance monitoring and time tracking for any activity type.
• Scheduling — team and individual calendars, notification for upcoming events, appointments, tasks, meetings.

These are the most vital features of any work management software. Anyway, there can be many more of them, but it depends on your needs and industry. For example, some software can include invoicing features, customer relationship management tools, automations, or third-party integrations.

Work Management Software vs. Project Management Software

As it was mentioned before, many people are still confusing work management software with project management software. To speak frankly, these people are not really wrong. Project management and work management software primarily serve the same functions. The main difference is that work management software also does non-project activities.

Project management software is not as flexible as tools for work management. PM software is mostly based on project management methodologies, such as Agile, Scrum, Lean and others. It means that such software has its own frames that you can’t break. On the other hand, there is work management software that has no frames or tools linked to methodologies.

Project management requires a strict plan and deadlines and it’s clearly reflected in the PM software, where you need to create a strict plan, define milestones, establish deadlines and clear goals. But when it comes to work management, you can’t predict some events or disruptions and capture yourself into frames.

While project management software covers activities directly related to the current project, it doesn’t help manage personal activities or regular workflow. It can lead to procrastination or poor time management. In that case, work management software helps build your individual workflow and plan your schedule.

Why You Need Work Management Software

We already discussed the most vital feature of work management software, so it’s time to figure out how it can benefit your business.

The main benefit is that you don’t need to spend time and money switching between different management apps. All the tools you need to manage your workflow are in one place: task and project management, scheduling, messenger and other tools. In that case, it’s also important for such software to be cloud-based, so you don’t need to worry about physical data storage as long as all your data is in the cloud.

Here’s how work management software can benefit your business:

• Helps get rid of micromanagement. It’s important not to overcontrol your employees because that leads to a lack of motivation and self-management. More than that, it’s also a waste of your own time. Rather than control each employee, you can track the task workload, schedule employees and observe reports’ metrics. It will help you not only stop pushing your employees too hard but also become a powerful tool for task delegation.

• Life-stream overview. Sometimes you don’t have time for a comprehensive report, but still need to monitor the current situation with cash flow or task workload. In that case, the dashboard is a must-have because it shows key metrics.

• Create more transparent scheduling. A good work management software has to have its own scheduling system, preferably with side integrations to connect other scheduling tools, such as Google Calendar with your work management application.

• Time-tracking. If you want to build a better workflow, it’s important to estimate not only the time spent on each task but also the time spent on regular management activities. It will help better organize a workload for a day and also focus on more important activities.

• Visualized task management. We know how tedious it can be to look at the huge list of to-dos. Why not manage your tasks on the Kanban board or create lists, but in a more detailed and friendly way? You can not only monitor your own workload and the workload of your employees but better delegate tasks as well. If you see that one employee is close to burnout, just delegate some of the tasks to another person.

• Enhance team collaboration. As it was mentioned, work management software has to be a cloud-based data storage. It means that you can communicate with your team and share any files at once, without using other tools or apps to store files. Some work management software has integrations with tools like Google Drive, so you can attach files from your Google account in a few clicks.

How to Choose Work Management Software

You decided that work management software is a must-have and it’s time to start using one, so what’s next? The next step is to find one that matches your needs the most. The best way to do that is to identify your business and find key factors that can be important while choosing a new management software.

Let’s keep an eye on the following points:

• Find your stumbling rocks. It’s better not only to analyze metrics, but also to have eye-to-eye talks with the heads of each department.
• If your team mostly works remotely, you can try work management software with a well-built mobile app. In that case, you can manage your team even if you’re out of the office.
• The larger your team, the larger software you need to manage everything. Look at the size of the storage you need and how many employees you have to manage within the work management software.
• Establish key priorities. Do you need software for better workload management? Or do you need it to increase your sales? If you have a target, you can find a proper tool to hit it.

Quick Summary

Summing up the results, work management software is a digital tool that helps organize both project and non-project activities, as well as build a strong communication within the team. In its ultimate form, it also shows key metrics or helps with reports and can include PM or invoicing tools at the same time.

We hope that this article helped you better understand what work management software is and how it can benefit your business.