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Optimising task allocation to balance business goals and worker well-being for financial service workforces

Optimising task allocation to balance business goals and worker well-being for financial service workforces
Optimising task allocation to balance business goals and worker well-being for financial service workforces
Purpose
Financial service companies manage huge volumes of data which requires timely error identification and resolution. The associated tasks to resolve these errors often put financial analyst workforces under significant pressure leading to resourcing challenges and increased business risk. To address this challenge, we introduce a formal task allocation model which considers both business orientated goals and analyst well-being.

Methodology
We use a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find the optimal allocation and scheduling of tasks to analysts. The proposed solution is able to allocate tasks to analysts with appropriate skills and experience, while taking into account longer-term staff well-being objectives.

Findings
We demonstrate our GA model outperforms baseline algorithms, current working practice, and is applicable to a range of single and multi-objective real-world scenarios. We discuss the implementation of our AI powered model with workforce managers in-the-loop.

Originality
A key gap in existing allocation and scheduling models, is fully considering worker well-being. This paper presents an allocation model which explicitly optimises for well-being.
workforce, task allocation, genetic algorithm, financial services
1746-5664
Duckworth, Chris
992c216c-8f66-48a8-8de6-2f04b4f736e6
Zlatev, Zlatko
8f2e3635-d76c-46e2-85b9-53cc223fee01
Hallett, Peter
3019f057-ceb4-423e-bab1-df0668d61a2d
Sciberras, James
0cfb78e7-715a-4f4b-bd1f-b5171cfbd6cc
Gerding, Enrico
d9e92ee5-1a8c-4467-a689-8363e7743362
Duckworth, Chris
992c216c-8f66-48a8-8de6-2f04b4f736e6
Zlatev, Zlatko
8f2e3635-d76c-46e2-85b9-53cc223fee01
Hallett, Peter
3019f057-ceb4-423e-bab1-df0668d61a2d
Sciberras, James
0cfb78e7-715a-4f4b-bd1f-b5171cfbd6cc
Gerding, Enrico
d9e92ee5-1a8c-4467-a689-8363e7743362

Duckworth, Chris, Zlatev, Zlatko, Hallett, Peter, Sciberras, James and Gerding, Enrico (2025) Optimising task allocation to balance business goals and worker well-being for financial service workforces. Journal of Modelling in Management. (doi:10.48550/arXiv.2507.01968).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose
Financial service companies manage huge volumes of data which requires timely error identification and resolution. The associated tasks to resolve these errors often put financial analyst workforces under significant pressure leading to resourcing challenges and increased business risk. To address this challenge, we introduce a formal task allocation model which considers both business orientated goals and analyst well-being.

Methodology
We use a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find the optimal allocation and scheduling of tasks to analysts. The proposed solution is able to allocate tasks to analysts with appropriate skills and experience, while taking into account longer-term staff well-being objectives.

Findings
We demonstrate our GA model outperforms baseline algorithms, current working practice, and is applicable to a range of single and multi-objective real-world scenarios. We discuss the implementation of our AI powered model with workforce managers in-the-loop.

Originality
A key gap in existing allocation and scheduling models, is fully considering worker well-being. This paper presents an allocation model which explicitly optimises for well-being.

Text
Optimising task allocation to balance business goals and worker well-being for financial service workforces (preprint) - Accepted Manuscript
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (865kB)

More information

Published date: 6 June 2025
Keywords: workforce, task allocation, genetic algorithm, financial services

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 503285
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/503285
ISSN: 1746-5664
PURE UUID: d98881b5-d181-439e-b2d6-a122ec9e026b
ORCID for Chris Duckworth: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0659-2177
ORCID for Enrico Gerding: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7200-552X

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 28 Jul 2025 16:41
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:31

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Contributors

Author: Chris Duckworth ORCID iD
Author: Zlatko Zlatev
Author: Peter Hallett
Author: James Sciberras
Author: Enrico Gerding ORCID iD

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