Staffing

Request people for projects, fill requests from available capacity, organise pools and try staffing scenarios.

The Staffing page answers “who do we still need?”. Projects record requests for people before anyone has been named, you fill those requests from people with capacity, you group people into pools you staff from, and you can try a staffing plan as a scenario before committing to it.

Who can use it#

Permissions

resource.viewresource.manage

resource.view lets you open the Staffing page and read requests, pools and scenarios. resource.manage lets you create, submit, fill and reject requests, create pools and change their members, and create, apply and discard scenarios.

Open the Staffing page#

Go to Resources and select Staffing at the top of the page. Select ← Workload to go back to the heatmap. Filling requests and applying scenarios create allocations, which then appear in the heatmap described in Resources and capacity.

Resource requests#

A request records what a project needs while the answer is still unknown. It stays open until someone is actually assigned, so unmet needs stay visible instead of disappearing.

Select Request people
A form opens at the top of the Requests section.
Choose the Project
Describe the Role
For example, “Backend engineer”. This is optional.
Set How many people and Needed from
Choose a Priority
low, medium, high or urgent.
Select Create request
The request is saved as a Draft. Select Cancel to close the form without creating anything.
Select Submit when the request is ready
The request becomes Open.

Each request is listed as, for example, “2 × Backend engineer for Fund III Launch”, with its start date, priority and status.

Draft: Created but not yet submitted. Select Submit to open it.
Open: Submitted and waiting for someone to be assigned.
Partly filled: Some, but not all, of the people asked for have been assigned.
Filled: As many people have been assigned as the request asked for.
Rejected: Turned down. Nobody will be assigned.
Cancelled: Withdrawn.

Fill a request#

Select Fill it on an Open or Partly filled request
An Assign menu appears under the request.
Choose someone
As soon as you pick a resource profile, UnitX creates a real allocation for that person against the project, starting on the date the request asked for. Each assignment counts towards the number of people requested. The request shows Partly filled until enough people have been assigned, then Filled.

Filling books the requested hours, or full capacity

The allocation books the hours a week the request asked for. If the request didn’t state hours, it books 100% of the person’s capacity. Check the person’s profile afterwards and adjust if they were only needed part-time.

To turn a request down, select Reject on an Open or Partly filled request.

Pools#

A pool is a named group of people you staff from, such as “Platform engineering”. Once pools exist, the heatmap on the Resources page can be narrowed to one of them.

Type a name in New pool and select Create
Select Members on the pool
Choose Add somebody
Pick a resource profile. People already in the pool aren’t offered again.

To take someone out of a pool, select the × next to their name. Select Hide members to collapse the list. A person can belong to more than one pool.

Scenarios#

A scenario is a what-if staffing plan, such as “If we win the Acme deal”. Its allocations are hypothetical and stay out of the heatmap until you apply it, so you can lay out a plan without changing anyone else’s forecast.

Type a name in New scenario and select Create
The scenario covers the next twelve weeks and starts as draft.
Select What it assumes
This lists the scenario’s hypothetical allocations: who, how many hours a week and from when. Select Hide to collapse it.
Apply or Discard it
Apply turns the scenario’s allocations into real ones, and the scenario shows the date it was applied. Discard throws them away, as if nothing happened. Both are only available on draft scenarios, and neither can be undone.

Note

The web app doesn’t have a form for adding hypothetical allocations to a scenario. If a scenario has none, What it assumes says so, and applying it changes nothing.

Tips and limitations#

Raise a request as soon as a project knows it needs someone, even if you already suspect who. An open request is how an unmet need shows up in planning conversations.
UnitX doesn’t match skills or suggest who should fill a request. The choice is yours.
A scenario’s hypothetical allocations don’t show in the heatmap, so two scenarios can book the same person without either one showing a conflict. Agree who’s planning before applying.
A placeholder profile can fill a request, so you can staff a role before anyone has been hired. See placeholders.

FAQ#

Why is there no Fill it button on my request?

It’s still a Draft. Select Submit first. Filled, Rejected and Cancelled requests can’t be filled either.

I filled a request and the person is now over-allocated.

The request didn’t state hours, so their full capacity was booked. Cancel that allocation on their profile and allocate the right amount.

Does applying a scenario remove existing allocations?

No. Applying adds the scenario’s allocations as real ones. It doesn’t change anything already booked.

Still stuck? Search the docs with ⌘K, open Help inside UnitX, or contact support.