This is a sample audit of a made-up firm.

Back office

Back office

The back office

803 hours of email went between FS people only: coordinating, approving and handing work on. Operations leads, then scheduling.

Hours inside FS

80329% of all email time

Emails

14,960Between FS people only

Hand-offs

11,692Emails between the 6 people in the audit

To the wider office

3,268Emails to colleagues outside the audit

What we found

3 findings, each checked against the email

Maya is the hub: most internal mail ends in her inbox.

5,248emails into Maya45%of internal mail

Theo to Maya1,842

Iris to Maya1,406

Rosa to Maya902

Dev to Maya610

Kofi to Maya488

Of the 11,692 emails between the six, 5,248 go to Maya. The two busiest lanes, Theo to Maya and Iris to Maya, are approvals and questions only Maya can answer today.

What could change. Decide which approvals can move to a quick check in a shared record, so Maya sees a list instead of a stream.

How we counted

Emails sent by one of the six to another; a message to several teammates counts once for each.

A lot of internal mail is a forward that only says "FYI".

25%of internal emails are plain forwards3,740forwards with no new text

3,740 plain forwards14,960 back-office emails

Delivery notes, permit answers and payment notices get forwarded to two or three people so they know. The forward is the whole message.

What could change. Post these updates once, to everyone who needs them, from the record they belong to.

Moving one site visit takes five emails on average.

151 hon the site visit desk5emails per move

Visit requested34 h

Find a time38.7 h

Confirm with everyone33.3 h

Move the visit31 h

Notes after the visit14 h

When the weather or a delivery moves a visit, Dev writes to each trade and the client separately and waits for each to confirm.

What could change. Propose the new time once, to everyone, from the shared calendar.

The busiest hand-off lanes

All hand-offs

TTheoMMaya

1,842

IIrisMMaya

1,406

MMayaTTheo

1,288

DDevTTheo

1,034

RRosaMMaya

902

DDevMMaya

610

MMayaIIris

506

KKofiMMaya

488

What it is about

hours a year

Operations270 h

Scheduling156 h

Purchasing87 h

Finance53 h

People and HR41 h

Sales38 h

Who carries the back office

hours a year

233DDev

Back-office hours per month

coordination over the year

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

This is a sample audit of a made-up firm.

Back office

Back office

The back office

803 hours of email went between FS people only: coordinating, approving and handing work on. Operations leads, then scheduling.

Hours inside FS

80329% of all email time

Emails

14,960Between FS people only

Hand-offs

11,692Emails between the 6 people in the audit

To the wider office

3,268Emails to colleagues outside the audit

What we found

3 findings, each checked against the email

Maya is the hub: most internal mail ends in her inbox.

5,248emails into Maya45%of internal mail

Theo to Maya1,842

Iris to Maya1,406

Rosa to Maya902

Dev to Maya610

Kofi to Maya488

Of the 11,692 emails between the six, 5,248 go to Maya. The two busiest lanes, Theo to Maya and Iris to Maya, are approvals and questions only Maya can answer today.

What could change. Decide which approvals can move to a quick check in a shared record, so Maya sees a list instead of a stream.

How we counted

Emails sent by one of the six to another; a message to several teammates counts once for each.

A lot of internal mail is a forward that only says "FYI".

25%of internal emails are plain forwards3,740forwards with no new text

3,740 plain forwards14,960 back-office emails

Delivery notes, permit answers and payment notices get forwarded to two or three people so they know. The forward is the whole message.

What could change. Post these updates once, to everyone who needs them, from the record they belong to.

Moving one site visit takes five emails on average.

151 hon the site visit desk5emails per move

Visit requested34 h

Find a time38.7 h

Confirm with everyone33.3 h

Move the visit31 h

Notes after the visit14 h

When the weather or a delivery moves a visit, Dev writes to each trade and the client separately and waits for each to confirm.

What could change. Propose the new time once, to everyone, from the shared calendar.

The busiest hand-off lanes

All hand-offs

TTheoMMaya

1,842

IIrisMMaya

1,406

MMayaTTheo

1,288

DDevTTheo

1,034

RRosaMMaya

902

DDevMMaya

610

MMayaIIris

506

KKofiMMaya

488

What it is about

hours a year

Operations270 h

Scheduling156 h

Purchasing87 h

Finance53 h

People and HR41 h

Sales38 h

Who carries the back office

hours a year

233DDev

Back-office hours per month

coordination over the year

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep