01 · Workforce Capacity Programme
Half a working year was hiding in one team’s admin. Every year.
A working year is about 1,700 hours. In one team we assessed, we found about 870 hours a year of repeated admin that could come back, spread thinly enough that nobody saw it.
The larger the organisation, the more there is to find. The Workforce Capacity Programme finds exactly where those hours go, then builds the fixes that give them back to the people already there.
In 20 minutes we’ll tell you which team to start with and what the first report would show you.
Or email hello@hoursback.co.uk
The programme, in one minute.
Where the hours go, and the fixes that give them back to the people already there.
What the film says
A working year is about 1,700 hours. In one team, about 870 went on repeated admin. Half a working year was hiding in one team’s admin. Every year.
HoursBack Enterprise. Workforce Capacity Programme.
01 · Diagnose. Confidential interviews, role by role.
02 · Report · The leadership dashboard. Illustrative example, with invented figures. The team’s week, hour by hour. A four-role team’s week: 150 hours worked a week, 20 of them on admin that can come back. 920 hours a year: a little over half a working year.
Hours back, role by role: 01 Finance administrator, 414 hrs / yr; 02 Operations coordinator, 276; 03 Contracts administrator, 138; 04 Reporting analyst, 92. Where the year goes, for the finance administrator: weekly reporting pack, 138h back of 506h; re-keying between systems, 92h back of 138h; chasing and status updates, 92h back of 138h; work that can stop entirely, 92h back of 92h.
The same work, at very different speeds. Weekly reporting pack, four ways of doing it, on an axis from 6 to 12 hrs a week: reporting analyst, 8h; contracts administrator, 9h; operations coordinator, 10h; finance administrator, 11h. Two slowest ways moved onto the fastest: 230 hours a year.
03 · Build programme. Illustrative example, with invented figures. Biggest drains first: chasing and status updates, 322 hrs / yr back; weekly reporting pack, 230; re-keying between systems, 184; work that can stop entirely, 184. 920 hours a year back to the people you already have. Redesigned workflows, integrations and AI agents, with a person approving wherever judgement matters. Read, draft, check, route, a person.
Proven in insurance and recruitment. ~770 hours a year, found in a specialist insurer’s finance function. ~870 hours a year, found across a marine insurance broker’s team. ~780 hours a year, found in a recruitment team.
Where it fits: growth without adding headcount, a hiring freeze, a new operating model.
HoursBack Enterprise. Next step. How much capacity is already in your team? A 20-minute conversation about where it fits. hoursback.co.uk/enterprise
02 · What the findings are for
Capacity you can plan with, not a hunch.
Grow without hiring first.
See how much more work the current team can take on before the next role is needed, by role and by kind of work.
Put AI and automation spend where the hours are.
Fund the fixes with the most hours behind them, not the loudest request. Every fix is ranked by the time it gives back.
Redesign roles on evidence.
Each job description is checked against the work actually done, so job design starts from evidence.
Give the board one defensible number.
Hours found, by role and kind of work, at the conservative end of what the interviews support.
03 · What the assessments found
Found in insurance and recruitment.
~770hours a year
found in a specialist insurer’s finance function, mostly on tools it already paid for.
~870hours a year
found across a marine insurance broker’s team: about half a working year. Now being built out under a fixed programme.
~780hours a year
found in a recruitment team.
In these three teams, the hours found came to between about 110 and 290 a year for each person interviewed. Every team is different, and these are hours identified in interviews, not a forecast.
From findings to fixes
Built and in use.
A marine insurance broker: war breach quotes
The assessment found about 870 hours a year of repeated admin across the team. The most repeated job was war breach quotes: about 15 minutes each, 15 to 20 a week, built by copying the last similar quote and working out the premium by hand. We built a workbook where one row works out the premium and fills in their own quote document. Every breach they had already bound came out to their exact premium, and the quarterly report to underwriters builds itself.
About 5 minutes a quote, down from 15
Their managing director’s figure: two and a half to three hours a week back.
A recruitment team: every call into the database
The assessment found about 780 hours a year of repeated admin across the team, including logging calls. The owner’s bigger worry was the database: call notes weren’t making it in a lot of the time, and a Friday backlog of ten calls took most of an hour, so it got left. Now calls are recorded, AI drafts each note in the team’s own format and matches it to the right job, and the consultant ticks to approve before it goes into their CRM.
The database now fills up as they go
For a recruitment business, the database is the asset.
Where it fits
Organisations planning growth without adding headcount, living with a hiring freeze or moving to a new operating model. It answers a question they rarely can: how much capacity is already in the team, and where. For consultancies and partners, it works the same way inside your own teams.
04 · The first step
Start with one team. Decide with the numbers in hand.
Pick the team where the pressure is highest. Everyone in it gets a confidential interview of about an hour, role by role. Leadership receives the report within five working days of the last interview, with every fix ranked by the hours it gives back. Then you decide whether to build.
About an hour
per person, at a time that suits them.
Five working days
from the last interview to the leadership report.
A fixed fee
set by the number of people interviewed, agreed before anything starts.
05 · How it works
Diagnose first. Then build.
- 01
Diagnose
Short, confidential interviews with the people doing the work, role by role. We map where each hour goes, what is repeated, and what has drifted outside the job description.
- 02
Report
A leadership dashboard: hours recoverable by role, by kind of work, where the same task runs at very different speeds, and what to stop doing first. Conservative throughout.
- 03
Build programme
A fixed-term programme that works through the biggest drains first, with each fix scoped to what the work needs: redesigned workflows, integrations and automation across the systems the organisation already runs, and AI agents that read, draft, check and route work at volume, with a person approving wherever judgement matters. Every fix is built to the organisation's security and IT requirements, then tested, handed over and signed off.
06 · What a leadership report shows
The team’s week, hour by hour.
The report opens on one picture: every hour the team works in a week, and the slice going on re-keying, reporting packs and chasing. Nobody is slow; the systems just don’t talk to each other.
An illustrative example
Every chart in this section is an illustrative example: an invented four-role team with invented figures. The layout is what a client receives; the figures are not client data.
A four-role team’s week, hour by hour
An invented example team, not the client in the headline above. Each dot is one hour of its week (4 roles × 37.5 hours). Across 46 working weeks that is 6,900 hours, and the amber slice comes to 920 hours a year: a little over half a working year.
Role by role
Hours back, role by role.
The hours each role could get back in a year. Open a row for the detail behind the number: a one-line read of the role, the work running on autopilot, and where the year goes.
Most of the time back sits in the weekly pack and in keying the same figures twice.
On autopilot
- Copying figures into an old tracker nobody opens
Where the year goes
Amber is the slice that comes back; the pale bar is the rest of the time that activity takes.
Chasing updates by email takes the week in small pieces.
On autopilot
- Printing and filing documents already stored online
Where the year goes
Amber is the slice that comes back; the pale bar is the rest of the time that activity takes.
Contract details are typed into two systems.
On autopilot
Nothing on autopilot
Where the year goes
Amber is the slice that comes back; the pale bar is the rest of the time that activity takes.
Uses the quickest method for the weekly pack; the time back is elsewhere.
On autopilot
- A monthly summary that repeats the dashboard
Where the year goes
Amber is the slice that comes back; the pale bar is the rest of the time that activity takes.
Rows are roles, and the subject is the work and how it is done: this is a capacity read, not a performance review. Every figure is the conservative end of what the interviews support.
Different speeds
The same work, at very different speeds.
Where one way of doing a task takes 8 hours a week and another takes 11, the faster way already exists inside the organisation. The slowest way rebuilds the pack in an older spreadsheet; the fastest pulls the figures straight from the system. It has simply never been written down as the standard.
Weekly reporting pack · four roles, one task, four ways of doing it
- Reporting analyst · 8h
- Contracts administrator · 9h
- Operations coordinator · 10h
- Finance administrator · 11h
The amber line is the gap between the fastest and the slowest way of doing the same task.
Moving the two slowest ways of doing it onto the fastest, 8 hours, gives back 5 hours a week. Across a year, that is:
230hours a year
Three more chartsSee the full sample reportHide the full sample reportWhere the time goes, the work that can simply stop, and how each job compares with its description.
Where the time goes
Four kinds of work take 2,806 hours a year.
Every dot is one hour a week across the four roles. The amber dots are the hours that come back with a realistic change: a conservative slice of each kind of work, never the whole load. The exception is work that can stop entirely, where every hour comes back. The amber figure with each row is what that comes to across a year.
hour a week spenthour a week that comes back
Chasing and status updates
All four roles
7h a week back, of 13h
Weekly reporting pack
All four roles
5h a week back, of 38h
Re-keying between systems
Finance administrator, Contracts administrator
4h a week back, of 6h
Work that can stop entirely
Finance administrator, Operations coordinator, Reporting analyst
4h a week back, of 4h
Stop doing
Some work can simply stop.
Some tasks are done every week or month simply because they always have been, and nobody uses what comes out: stopping them is the quickest capacity back.
Stop doing - heaviest first
Work running on autopilot. The quickest capacity back: about 4 hours a week, 184 hours a year.
Copying figures into an old tracker nobody opens
92hrs / yrFinance administrator
A monthly summary that repeats the dashboard
46hrs / yrReporting analyst
Printing and filing documents already stored online
46hrs / yrOperations coordinator
The spec gap
Does the job still match the description?
Each role’s job description is checked against the work actually done: tasks that have drifted outside the spec, and documented duties that no longer happen. Scored by role, not by individual; the team figure is the average of the role scores. It feeds straight into job design.
Each gap carries one of three tags: not in the spec, in the spec but not happening, or done on autopilot - still done every week or month, though nobody uses what comes out.
The job descriptions broadly reflect day-to-day reality. Some tasks sit outside the spec and a few documented duties are not happening. Worth an update, not urgent.
The team figure is the average of the per‑role scores.
How each role compares to its spec
In the job description
Nothing
What actually happens
Chasing colleagues for missing purchase order numbers
In the job description
Month-end reporting
What actually happens
Copying figures into an old tracker nobody opens
In the job description
Nothing
What actually happens
Answering status requests by hand
In the job description
Document control
What actually happens
Printing and filing documents already stored online
In the job description
Nothing
What actually happens
Re-keying contract details into the finance system
In the job description
Nothing
What actually happens
Answering status queries on contract renewals
In the job description
Annual review of standard terms
What actually happens
Last done before the current contract templates
In the job description
Monthly management summary
What actually happens
A monthly summary that repeats the dashboard
In the job description
Quarterly data-quality review
What actually happens
The quarter runs out before it is started
07 · Who you would work with
Built by someone who has run operations inside large organisations.
HoursBack is led by David Bevan, who spent more than 20 years in creative and marketing operations, most of them inside large organisations. At Coca-Cola he led a global self-serve marketing platform that cut content production costs by 95%. At Betway he drove over £2m in operational savings. At Kraft Heinz he automated the in‑house agency’s studio workflows. At Korn Ferry he ran the creative engine behind an £80m business development pipeline.
Scaled to the size of the programme.
David leads every engagement. For larger programmes, additional facilitators can be brought in to run interviews alongside him, working to the same method under confidentiality terms agreed before they start. You keep one point of contact, and every finding is reviewed by David before it reaches you.
David was a cornerstone of our success with the ShopX initiative… I was consistently impressed by his patience and the immense amount of effort he put into the details, the ‘unseen’ work that keeps a project moving forward.
Vidyarth Eluppai SrivatsanSenior Director, Global Marketing Technologies, The Coca‑Cola Company David is skilled and knowledgeable with regards to Creative Operations, Tech & Tools and ensuring the technology works seamlessly for end users.
Ekaterina BuevaMarketing Operations, in‑house agency, Kraft Heinz He’s one of those rare animals who can combine strategic thinking (eg developing a framework) with proper hands‑on delivery (eg the practical skills to make it work in the real world.)
Michael StoreyManaged David’s work at Kraft Heinz, including building automations in monday.com
Quotations from public LinkedIn recommendations.
08 · Questions
Questions leaders ask first.
What is a workforce capacity assessment?
A workforce capacity assessment finds where a team’s hours go on repeated admin. Short, confidential interviews with the people doing the work, role by role, map where each hour goes, what is repeated, and what has drifted outside the job description. The hours that come back go to the existing team.
How do I find out where my team’s hours are going?
By asking the people doing the work, role by role, in short and confidential interviews. HoursBack then turns what they say into a leadership dashboard showing hours recoverable by role and by kind of work, where the same task runs at very different speeds, and what to stop doing first.
What does leadership receive at the end of the assessment?
A leadership dashboard. It shows hours recoverable by role, by kind of work, where the same task runs at very different speeds, and what to stop doing first. The figures are conservative, and yearly totals use 46 working weeks, so a working year is about 1,700 hours.
How much time does it take from my team?
About an hour per person, booked around their week. No preparation, no forms to fill in beforehand.
How long does it take?
The interviews fit around your team’s diary, usually within two weeks. The leadership report follows within five working days of the last interview.
What do you need from our IT team?
Nothing for the assessment: it is interviews, not system access. For a build, we work to your security and IT requirements and agree access before any work starts.
How is our data handled?
Interviews are confidential, role by role. We agree how interview material is handled with you before any work starts.
Is this a headcount review?
No. The hours go back to the existing team, and it is not a software product. Job-description alignment is scored by role, not by individual.
How do we explain it to staff?
As what it is: a look at where the admin goes, so the team gets time back. It is not a performance review and not a headcount review.
Are the staff interviews confidential?
Yes. The interviews are short and confidential, role by role.
What happens after the report?
The first fixes are already built and in use: a marine insurance broker now takes about 5 minutes a quote, down from 15, and a recruitment team’s database now fills up as they go. A fixed-term build programme works through the biggest drains first. Each fix is scoped to what the work needs: redesigned workflows, integrations and automation across the systems the organisation already runs, and AI agents that read, draft, check and route work at volume, with a person approving wherever judgement matters. Every fix is built to the organisation’s security and IT requirements, then tested, handed over and signed off.
What does it cost?
A fixed fee, set by the number of people interviewed and agreed in writing before anything starts. No day rates, no open-ended time.
Next step
Which team would you start with?
Book 20 minutes. We’ll tell you where we’d start, what the report would show and what it would take from your people.