Workforce Management

PERMISSIONS   Security level with Admin Feature Access permission to Workforce Management. Refer to Workforce Management permissions.

NAVIGATION   Left Navigation Menu > Workforce Management

Workforce Management in Autotask helps you put the right people on the right work at the right time. It provides a centralized way to understand who is available, balance workload across technicians and teams, and improve response and resolution times by assigning tickets and tasks more intelligently.

Depending on your configuration, Workforce Management can be used:

  • By dispatchers and coordinators to manually plan and assign work.
  • In combination with automation (for example, Ticket Triage and Workflow Rules) to automatically route work to the most appropriate queues and resources.

IMPORTANT  Before utilizing Workforce Management, it is recommended to conduct a Data Maturity Assessment to ensure optimal results.

How Workforce Management drives assignment and scheduling

Workforce Management becomes most powerful when combined with Autotask automation tools, such as Workflow Rules and Kaseya Intelligence features like Ticket Triage.

Dispatchers and coordinators can use Workforce Management data to:

  • See who is available and who is already heavily loaded.
  • Filter resources by role, workgroup, skills, or department.
  • Manually assign tickets or tasks to the best‑qualified resource with enough available capacity.

This reduces guesswork and helps ensure faster, more reliable service.

By combining Workforce Management with Workflow Rules and, optionally, Ticket Triage, you can:

  • Automatically route tickets into the correct queue based on category, priority, and customer.
  • Suggest or auto‑update fields such as Priority, Issue Type / Sub‑Issue Type, Queue, and Primary Resource.
  • Limit automated assignment to only those resources and queues that you have marked as eligible.

This allows you to automate much of the first‑line triage and assignment, while still respecting your staffing and workload rules.

Why Workforce Management is beneficial

Better utilization of your team

  • Avoids overloading a few “go‑to” technicians while others are underused.
  • Helps you spot capacity constraints early, such as not enough L2 coverage for after‑hours work.
  • Makes it easier to plan hiring and training based on actual workload data.

Faster response and resolution

  • Tickets and tasks get to the right person more quickly.
  • Priority and SLA alignment helps ensure that critical work is handled first.
  • Less time is spent manually sorting and assigning work.

Higher quality and consistency

  • Work is guided to resources with the right skills and context.
  • Standardized queues, priorities, and categories make reporting and process improvement easier.
  • New staff can onboard faster, supported by structured roles, queues, and assignment patterns.

Improved customer satisfaction

  • More predictable response and resolution times.
  • Fewer dropped tickets or long‑running “stuck” issues.
  • Clearer visibility into who owns a ticket and what is happening next.

Where to configure Workforce Management

Workforce Management pulls together several existing configuration areas in Autotask. You set it up by defining your resources, availability, skills, workload limits, and assignment rules.

IMPORTANT  Before utilizing Workforce Management, it is recommended to conduct a Data Maturity Assessment to ensure optimal results.

Goal: Define who can be assigned work and when they are available.

Navigation:

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users

Key setup steps:

  1. Create and configure resources
    • Define each technician or staff member as a Resource.
    • Set primary role, department, workgroup, security level, and permissions.
  2. Define work hours and holidays
    • Configure standard work hours (for example, Monday–Friday, 8:00–17:00).
    • Set company holidays and any non‑working days.
  3. Adjust individual schedules as needed
    • For resources on part‑time, shift, or on‑call patterns, adjust their personal work hours.
    • Mark planned time off (vacation, training) so they are not considered available for work.

This information is used by Workforce Management to calculate who is available, when they are available, and how much capacity they have left.

Goal: Teach Autotask which resources are best suited to which types of work.

Navigation:

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Roles

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Organization Settings & Users > Your Organization > Departments

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Resources/Users (HR) > Workgroups

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Organization Settings & Users > Resources/Users (HR) > Skills Management

Key setup steps:

  1. Define roles
    • Map common job functions to roles (for example: Service Desk L1, Service Desk L2, Systems Engineer, Security Specialist).
    • Use roles to identify what kind of work a resource should normally be assigned.
  2. Organize departments and workgroups
    • Create departments such as Service Desk, NOC, and Professional Services.
    • Create workgroups to reflect functional teams (for example, “Service Desk – L1”, “Service Desk – L2”, “Cloud Team”).
    • Assign resources to the appropriate workgroups.
  3. Define skills or expertise (optional)
    • If your environment uses skill tags or specializations (for example, “Microsoft 365”, “Networking”, “Security”), assign these to resources.
    • Use skills in combination with queues and categories when building assignment rules.

This structure allows Workforce Management and related automation (such as Ticket Triage) to match tickets to the best‑fit resources.

Goal: Show the system which work matters most, and where it should be handled.

Navigation (typical):

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Queues

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Task & Ticket Priorities

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Service Level Management

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Issue & Sub-Issue Types

  • Left Navigation Menu > Admin > Admin Categories > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Ticket Categories

Key setup steps:

  1. Configure queues
    • Create queues that reflect how you want to organize and route work (for example: “Service Desk – L1”, “Service Desk – L2”, “Projects – Implementation”, “Security – Incidents”).
    • Associate queues with the appropriate departments or workgroups.
  2. Set up priorities and SLAs
    • Define priority levels (for example, P1–P5) and how they map to response and resolution targets.
    • Configure SLAs to match your contractual obligations.
    • Associate SLAs with the relevant contracts and customers.
  3. Align ticket categories and issue types
    • Ensure ticket categories, issue types, and sub‑issue types correctly reflect the kinds of work your team handles.
    • Good categorization improves how Workforce Management and AI‑driven features classify and route work.

This configuration tells Workforce Management which work is urgent, which is routine, and where it should normally be handled.

Goal: Define how much work each resource can reasonably handle.

Depending on your Autotask setup and related features, you can manage capacity by:

  • Standard work hours (baseline capacity).
  • Estimated effort or planned hours on tickets, tasks, and projects.
  • Maximum concurrent tickets or tasks per resource (if configured).
  • Assignment eligibility (which queues and resources are candidates for automated assignment).

With these settings in place, Workforce Management can help you avoid overloading individuals and distribute work more evenly.

  1. Keep resource data current
    • Update roles, workgroups, and work hours when people change teams or schedules.
    • Record time‑off and long‑term absences so those resources are not over‑assigned.
  2. Refine queues and categories over time
    • Start simple, then refine queues and categories as patterns emerge.
    • Avoid creating so many queues that coordinators or automation rules become complex and fragile.
  3. Start with guidance, then move to automation
    • Begin with manual assignment using Workforce Management insights such as availability, roles, and queues.
    • Once you are confident, add Workflow Rules and AI‑driven triage to automate repetitive assignment decisions.
  4. Review performance regularly
    • Use reporting and dashboards to track workload per resource or team, SLA performance, and reassignments.
    • Adjust roles, queues, and assignment rules based on what you learn.

Refer to Ticket Triage Dashboard .

Refer to Resource Planner guide.