Systems and methods improve the equitable distribution the processing capacity of a computing device processing work items retrieved from multiple queues in a workflow system. A retrieval priority is determined for each of the plurality of queues and work items are retrieved from each of the multiple queues according to the retrieval priority. The retrieved work items are then stored in a central data structure. Multiple processing components process the work items stored in the central data structure. The number of processing components is selectively adjusted to maximize efficiency.