Customer Case Study:
MHA improves consistency of utilization rates with a firm-wide implementation of Dayshape
MHA puts trust in Dayshape to support a radical resource management transformation project to drive their plans for growth.
One year after the implementation of Dayshape, Leanne Wilkins, Head of Talent Acquisition and Resourcing at MHA, highlights the key impacts and benefits made across the firm from a resource management process, strategy, and people perspective.
The project: Replace spreadsheet planning with a fully centralized, scalable resourcing model
Before Dayshape, MHA was using a combination of tools, including spreadsheets, to support resource management. This approach led to inconsistencies in resource plans and lacked real-time data to drive informed decision making. Having rapidly grown over the last five years, MHA wanted to improve resource management at the firm by introducing a more robust and strategic resourcing function to reflect their size, complexity, and ambition for growth.
Key goals:
Centralized resourcing model for firm-wide visibility of resource capacity and availability
Resource management team empowered to make more strategic decisions
More efficient and robust resource management and budgeting processes
Quality improvements and tracking measures to deliver the best possible client service
Greater inclusion and career development via a people-focused resource allocation strategy
The solution: Dayshape as a catalyst for resource management transformation
MHA’s forward-thinking approach required an innovative solution that could scale and adapt alongside their business. After a thorough tendering process and a peer-to-peer recommendation from an existing Dayshape customer, Dayshape was selected as the software partner of choice.
“We did look at other large platforms within the resource management space, but these alternatives were not on par with what Dayshape had to offer.”
The impact: Dayshape empowers the resource management team with firm-wide visibility of resources and work in a unified, strategic resourcing solution
Firm-wide visibility of resources
Share resources regionally and nationally
Proactively allocate unassigned future work
Gain strategic insights for data-led decision making
“In one month, the central resource team filled 2,500 hours by assessing jobs that weren’t currently staffed, which is a huge number to find. Would we have been able to do that so effectively had we been without Dayshape and working from spreadsheets? I think that would be highly unlikely.”
Intuitive, easy-to-use reporting system
Firm-wide accessibility to in-depth reporting insights
Bottlenecks and labor-intensive reporting removed
No BI specialist required
“On seeing the reporting system in Dayshape, I knew that the wider team could easily build, analyze, and share reports with no BI specialist required. It was very refreshing to see how easy that was.”
Accurately track and course correct engagements in flight
“Engagement economics is another part of the system that really sets Dayshape apart from competitors. I could see how dynamic it was and how quickly we’d be able to see which jobs are tracking to be profitable and which aren’t. Having that visibility to inform strategic resourcing decisions will have a huge impact.”
People-focused resource management initiatives
Visualize and assess staff availability and utilization with utilization filters and heatmaps
Prevent burnout and keep utilization rates consistent by identifying and resolving capacity issues sooner
Invest in future career growth with skills-based scheduling
“Increasing utilization targets across the firm was not our sole aim, what we wanted was consistency of utilization.“
“Retrospective utilization data is not enough. We needed the ability to forecast future utilization to actively predict and address pockets where there is known capacity and over utilization. This information is powerful as it helps us protect our people. We have better visibility and control over this with Dayshape.”
Would MHA recommend Dayshape?
“As much as I want to keep Dayshape to ourselves, I’ve already recommended Dayshape to a couple of non-UK firms.”
Supported by firm-wide visibility, insights, and robust tracking measures in Dayshape, MHA can provide balanced workloads and better career development opportunities for their people, deliver the best possible client service, and empower the resourcing team to make quicker, more strategic, and data-driven resourcing decisions.
