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
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
6 June 2025
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).
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
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
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 28 Jul 2025 16:41
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:31
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Contributors
Author:
Chris Duckworth
Author:
Zlatko Zlatev
Author:
Peter Hallett
Author:
James Sciberras
Author:
Enrico Gerding
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