5 Mistakes to Avoid When Scheduling Jobs
By Connie Burtcheard
Chief ADvisor - Agency ADvisor
Scheduling is one of the most important functions in advertising and creative agencies. It allows an agency to be more profitable by ensuring that jobs are completed in the amount of time estimated. It ensures that the work completed on a job stays within the scope of work. And, it increases productivity by reducing the amount of stress resulting from the crisis of last minute work. Remember one of my pet peeves - Consistency is Efficiency
Yet, scheduling is what most agencies struggle with. This is understandable since scheduling is complex. It requires linear thinking that is not always found in the creative businesses. And it requires advanced planning for all of the work to be done for every job. Below are the 5 major mistakes I see agencies make when trying to implement job scheduling.
Chief ADvisor - Agency ADvisor
Scheduling is one of the most important functions in advertising and creative agencies. It allows an agency to be more profitable by ensuring that jobs are completed in the amount of time estimated. It ensures that the work completed on a job stays within the scope of work. And, it increases productivity by reducing the amount of stress resulting from the crisis of last minute work. Remember one of my pet peeves - Consistency is Efficiency
Yet, scheduling is what most agencies struggle with. This is understandable since scheduling is complex. It requires linear thinking that is not always found in the creative businesses. And it requires advanced planning for all of the work to be done for every job. Below are the 5 major mistakes I see agencies make when trying to implement job scheduling.
- Getting lost in the details
Most agencies that are not accustomed to scheduling their jobs tend to break down the steps into too much detail in the beginning. The steps in a schedule should be actual physical work that will move the job closer to completion. Having too much detail and too many steps will make your schedules impossible to manage. Each step should be an action item that adds substance to the completed deliverable. For example, ‘Proofreading’ is a viable step that moves the job closer to completion. ‘Running Spell Checker’, while possibly part of ‘Proofreading’ is not a step. It is part of completing the ‘Proofreading’ action item.
- Not getting lost enough in the details
Many times I see schedules that do not have enough detailed steps. ‘Create an Ad’ or ‘Design a Website’ are not steps – they are jobs. The steps should be broken down to the level that anyone who is assigned that step will know what they are supposed to do. This may require a change in how you define your jobs. Typically, each deliverable should be a job in itself. You may have an over-arching campaign that ties all of the jobs together for reporting and perhaps billing purposes. In this case, you would have separate jobs for the ‘Print Ad’ and the ‘Website”. Not one job with the schedule being a listing of the deliverables of ‘Print Ad’ and ‘Website’ as steps.
- Not maintaining accurate schedules in a centrally located system
I often hear from agencies that they haven’t been able to successfully schedule their jobs. The biggest reason given is that it takes too much time. And, I agree with them. Traffic Management is a full time job. Agency Management Systems are evolving so that time tracking ties into the schedule, allowing the staff to indicate that they have completed a step. However, it is still the responsibility of the Traffic Manager to make certain that the schedules are updated. If you stay current with any changes that take place, it is much less onerous than trying to update schedules just before the weekly status meeting.
- Not having a dedicated Traffic Manager
As I mentioned before, Traffic Management is a full time job. Many times I see Account Managers responsible for trafficking their jobs. Or having one person responsible for both Traffic and Production Management. Traffic Management requires 100% of a person’s time and efforts. And, not everybody has the characteristics of a good Traffic Manager. This position requires a person who is very detailed oriented, can multi-task well, and is able to work with everyone in the agency to get the work complete on time.
- Not having a Scope of Work or Creative Brief before scheduling
The biggest reason an agency cannot implement scheduling successfully is because the Scope of Work has not been clearly defined. Most agencies seldom or never use Creative Briefs. Many of the agencies that utilize Creative Briefs only complete them with the most basic information. Leaving a document that doesn’t provide clear direction. Before you can plan how you are going to complete the job, you have to define the job and its parameters. Just as you have to plan a vacation before you go to the airport. The vacation plan may be as simple as the destination location and how you are going to get there, but you have still defined what the vacation entails. Similarly, before you start working on a job, you have to know what it is and how you are going to get there.
Posted by Agency ADvisor at 7/11/2010 1:37 PM 
Categories: efficiency, Efficiency and Profitability, Traffic/Project Management, Agency Management Systems
Tags: Efficiency advertising agency Productivity profitability adding value Business Agency Management Schedules scheduling Advertising Job Traffic Management Project Management Profit
Categories: efficiency, Efficiency and Profitability, Traffic/Project Management, Agency Management Systems
Tags: Efficiency advertising agency Productivity profitability adding value Business Agency Management Schedules scheduling Advertising Job Traffic Management Project Management Profit
I agree with most of this. But what about small jobs. We seem to do a lot of SMALLER job and writing a creative brief would each up the entire fee... We are trying to streamline with a five step process.. setup, copywriting, Design, proofs and production. Otherwise, everything sounds good.
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What a marvelous post! I am just a beginner in community management/marketing media and trying to learn how to do it well - resources like this blog are quite helpful. As our company is based in the US, it's all a bit new to us. The example above is something that I worry about as well, how to show your own real enthusiasm and share the fact that your product is beneficial in that case.
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