User Guide: Using The Horizon for Staffing and Resource Planning

What’s the Horizon all about? How do I use Operating to help us run an efficient staffing process?

Written By Matti Parviainen

Last updated 7 months ago

This video is for team leads, staffing managers, resourcing managers, and anyone in charge of staffing the right people on the right projects.

Run your weekly staffing routine with Operating, and let the Horizon view help you with that.

Overview

The Horizon is a real-time planning view designed to help staffing and resource managers connect upcoming sales opportunities with available talent. It gives you an integrated look at:

  • Upcoming Projects

  • Open Positions

  • Available People

This guide walks you through how to use The Horizon in your day-to-day planning and coordination work.

When and Why to Use The Horizon

Use The Horizon when you need to:

  • Get ahead of staffing needs by reviewing upcoming projects.

    • See unnamed roles and people planned for upcoming projects at a glance

  • Identify open positions that need to be filled by skill or availability.

  • Find available consultants who may be a fit for roles.

  • Prepare for or lead weekly planning and alignment meetings.

Understanding the Three Tabs in Horizon

1. (Upcoming) Projects

Use this to understand what work is coming down the pipeline.

  • By default, you’ll see tentative projects.

  • Projects may be pulled in automatically from your CRM or entered manually.

  • Click into any project to add role requirements, rates, and timelines.

Tip: Use this tab in weekly meetings to flag projects that need early attention.

2. (Open) Positions

See all roles that are not yet staffed.

  • Filter by skill, competency, or estimated start date.

  • See:

    • Which project the open position is linked to

    • Role description and requirements

    • Any attached notes from sales or delivery

Tip: Assign a secondary project owner to the project and name it “the staffing owner” to indicate who’s tasked to finding the right person for the open position

3. (Available) People

Quickly see which consultants are currently unassigned or rolling off.

  • Filter by:

    • Skill

    • Availability window

    • Previous project experience

  • Click a profile to view their project history and declared interests.

Tip: Group the data by site, group, role etc. to easily skim through available people across teams and geographies

Taking Action: Moving from Planning to Scheduling

When a project is far enough in the pipeline, you might need start scheduling the work more in detail.

  1. From the Projects tab, locate the project.

  2. Click “Planning” → “Schedule on Timeline”.

  3. This takes you to the scheduling interface where you can:

    • Adjust workload or availability

    • Finalize the delivery schedule

Best Practices for Staffing Teams

  • Review The Horizon at least once a week. Use this view in your resource planning weekly meeting.

  • Align with sales to verify which projects are likely to close.

  • Use filters to stay focused on your region or practice area.

  • Proactively reach out to available people before roles are urgent.

  • Create saved filters (views) to personalize the experience, e.g. only show the staffing needs for your country.

Explain it to me in 6 minutes please!