Bench time and project gaps in a software services company: what to do with idle people

A client pauses a project on Friday. The delivery head looks at the sheet and sees six engineers with no allocation from Monday. The sales pipeline has two prospects who might sign in six weeks. The finance lead asks what the team will do until then. This is the bench: people on the payroll with no billable work.

Every services company meets this gap. What matters is how you use it. This post covers how to plan bench time, use it for useful work and keep the team's trust.

Start with a simple allocation sheet. List every person, their skills, current project, end date and next planned project. Update it weekly. Add a column for the likely next assignment, even if it is a guess. Most bench trouble comes from surprise, so a rolling view of the next two months lets you act early.

Separate three situations that look the same on the sheet:

• Short gaps between projects, usually a few days to a couple of weeks.
• Planned gaps, such as a project ending with a new one starting soon.
• Long gaps, where there is no clear next assignment.

Each needs a different response. Short gaps need useful small tasks. Long gaps need decisions on skills, hiring and the pipeline.

1. 1

   Triage by skill

   Group people by skill and seniority, then compare to the sales pipeline. Mark who is likely to be placed on the next project.

2. 2

   Create a bench plan for each person

   Agree a short list of goals for the gap, such as a certification, an internal tool, documentation or a prototype.

3. 3

   Use bench time for internal projects

   Pick tools your team needs, like a deployment script, a test harness or a proposal library. Keep scope small and review weekly.

4. 4

   Support sales and delivery

   Let bench engineers join pre-sales calls, run technical demos or write proposals if they have an interest in it.

5. 5

   Schedule skill building

   Pick courses or reading based on skills clients ask for, not on fashion. Ask the person to share what they learn.

6. 6

   Set a review point

   If someone is still unassigned after the period you decide, hold a conversation about next steps.

People on the bench worry about job security. Silence makes it worse. Speak to each person early, explain the plan and say when you will next update them. Keep their pay and benefits as per their contract. Decisions on pay changes, notice, layoffs or any change in terms depend on the facts and the contract, so check them with your own qualified legal adviser before acting.

Avoid rotating the same people through bench time again and again. If one engineer is always the first off a project, ask whether it is about their skills, their client feedback or planning. Fix the cause.

A bench is partly a planning result. If you hire ahead of signed work, you hold a bench by design. If you hire after signing, you risk late delivery. Choose a rule for how far ahead of demand to hire, and revisit it each quarter. Share the pipeline with delivery and HR so hiring, utilisation and training plans match.

Our HR strategy and workforce planning work covers this link between demand, hiring and skills. Hiring plans also depend on the quality of the process; see the scorecard and skills test for developers.

Name, role and skills.
Last project and end date.
Likely next project and start date.
Bench plan goals for the gap.
Internal or sales work assigned.
Training agreed and completed.
Conversation held: date and notes.
Next review date and owner.

A quiet fortnight is a chance to read recent client feedback, close out documentation and write short case notes about completed projects, without naming clients where the contract forbids it. Ask bench engineers to list the questions prospects asked in the last quarter. The list often shows which skills are worth building before the next proposal.

Some bench time comes from a project that ended sooner than planned. Ask the account owner what the client may need next, whether a smaller support contract is possible and whether the team could stay on for a short phase two. Sales cannot offer what it does not know about, so share the skills list with the sales team and ask them to name the next three likely requests.

Hold a short weekly call with delivery, sales and HR. Review the allocation sheet, the pipeline and the bench plans. The call takes thirty minutes and removes most of the surprises that cause panic decisions.

• The average gap between projects is growing.
• The same skills are repeatedly idle while others are overstretched.
• Bench plan goals are never completed.
• Good engineers start to leave when a project ends.
• Sales is promising skills that the bench does not have.

Look at these monthly with the delivery and sales heads in one call. Decide whether to hire, train, reassign or change what you sell.

Companies serving large clients often face long approval cycles, with projects delayed by procurement or budget reviews. For them, bench planning should consider longer pauses and slower starts. See enterprise software companies for how those teams are set up.