What are Resources?
Resources are all the people, places and things that you need to complete projects. The most important resource? Employees, of course!
Resources:
Definition | Examples | Synonyms
The term “resources” describes everything that is needed to carry out and complete a project. This includes:
- Material objects, such as machines and buildings.
- Intangible things, such as quality standards and employee skills.
- Financial assets, such as liquid funds and loans.
Each employee possesses unique skills, knowledge and experience. That’s why employees are, without a doubt, the most important resource you have. Poorly used or unused working time is lost forever.
A Practical Example
Juliane works as a content creator in the marketing department of a software company. The department’s goal is to win more customers. To achieve this, Juliane and her colleagues have to set up successful advertising campaigns and make the company website easier to find online.
In this case, the resources include everything they need to achieve their goal: office space, laptops, writing programs, appropriate tools, internet connection and, of course, employees. Juliane is one of them.
Synonyms and Abbreviations
Resources may also be referred to as materials, funds, reserves and employees; however, these terms are more specific and are not always interchangeable with resources.
While resource is a broad term, it is sometimes used to refer specifically to people. In resource management, a resource often refers to an employee.
FAQ
In project management and resource management contexts, resources often simply refer to employees. However, there are many other different types of resources beyond the world of portfolio management. Resources can be either tangible or intangible.
Types of resources include:
- Economic (e.g., capital, premises, employees)
- Natural (e.g., raw materials, water)
- Personal (e.g., individual skills, experience, education)
- Environmental (e.g., job quality, company culture)
- Social (e.g., relationships, contacts)
- Physical (e.g., health, fitness, endurance)
In business administration, resources basically include anything that is needed to achieve a business goal. This could include:
Material resources
This covers premises (e.g., office buildings) and physical goods such as equipment, machinery and raw materials.
Intangible resources
Employees and their expertise are your greatest intangible resource, whether they are executives, project managers or team members.
Other intangible resources might be organizational, such as information systems and structures, as well as technological quality standards and know-how.
Financial resources<
Financial resources are crucial for covering costs such as salaries, materials and equipment. This can also include non-liquid assets such as investments and loans.
When we refer to human resources, we’re not just talking about employees; we’re also talking about their talents, knowledge, skills, experiences, and motivations. These human resources, also known as human capital or human assets, are the people that make up your teams. Each individual can bring something different to the table to help in achieving goals for the organization and their individual goals.
Not all resources are the same!
In order to achieve your business goals, it is beneficial to view employees in more than just an economic sense. Every person is unique and has a different combination of abilities and interests . This naturally affects how they work, and what work they should be assigned.
In concrete terms, this means that you often cannot simply replace one employee with another. You must take into account different skill sets, availability and possible training phases. Therefore, you should never overlook the importance of resource management!
Individuals can differ in terms of:
- Psychological components: skills, education, knowledge, experience, proven solutions, recognized roles or positions, etc.
- Physical components: health, fitness, etc.
Additionally, environmental factors also have a great influence on a person and their professional performance.
Environmental factors consist of:
- Social components: (professional) contacts and relationships, opportunities for participation, etc.
- Environmental components: job quality, etc.
Managing resources successfully is very important if you want to achieve your goals. Otherwise, bottlenecks can arise. Knowledge may be missing from the right places, or employees may not be working in the ideal positions. This has negative consequences for the progress and success of your projects as well as for the satisfaction of customers and employees. Successful resource management contributes significantly to the success of a company.
Resources with Meisterplan
Meisterplan is a people-centric software that helps you plan and manage your resources easily and efficiently.
With Meisterplan, you can:
- Always see exactly which resources are available to you and how you can use them.
- Plan your employees’ working hours realistically thanks to capacity data that changes in real time.
- Easily view and edit employee data and record their skills, working hours, etc.
Discover More Here!
Dive even deeper into the topics of project, portfolio and resource management: Each page offers expert knowledge, product insights and a wealth of experience we'd like to share with you.
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