Have You Got the Right Balance Between Productivity and Effectiveness?
- Jones Financial Accounts
- Dec 15, 2025
- 4 min read
Should More Resource Go to Volume Work or Technical Work?
Introduction - Right Balance Between Productivity and Effectiveness?
Fast-growing construction and engineering businesses often hit the same wall:
engineers are flat out, but profit doesn’t rise
the office feels overloaded, but work still slips
directors are dragged into every decision, so nothing moves quickly
you’re “busy”… but not in control
This usually isn’t a sales problem. It’s a capacity and focus problem.
In plain English:
Productivity = how much work you push through (volume)
Effectiveness = how well you do the right work (quality, right-first-time, margin protected)
You need both.
But the balance changes depending on what your business is trying to achieve: stable cashflow, higher margins, fewer call-backs, better reputation, or scaling safely.
And this isn’t “big company stuff”. SMEs feel the pain harder because one weak month of delivery or admin can wreck cashflow and morale.
If you want related reading from JFA’s Daily Blog (useful for this topic), these are relevant:
The Core Decision: Volume vs Technical Work
Volume work (high-throughput)
Examples: reactive repairs, call-outs, service visits, small works.
Pros
faster invoicing and usually faster cash
predictable pipeline (if you have contracts/service base)
easier to standardise KPIs and processes
Cons
margin leakage if scheduling, travel, and call-backs aren’t controlled
admin load becomes heavy if paperwork is poor
teams can look “busy” while profitability stays flat
Technical work (complex and higher value)
Examples: refurbishments, installations, project work, specialist engineering.
Pros
higher gross profit potential
strengthens credibility and future tendering
better long-term customer value
Cons
longer cash cycle (applications, stage payments, retentions)
higher commercial risk (scope creep, variations, cost-to-complete errors)
requires stronger project controls and reporting
CFO reality: If you chase volume without effectiveness, you grow workload, not profit. If you chase technical work without controls, you grow risk, not margin.
Where the Imbalance Really Shows Up: Office Staff,
Engineers, and Management
1) When the office is under-resourced
You’ll see:
quotes delayed
jobs scheduled late
invoices stuck waiting on job sheets/approvals
credit control reactive (chasing at 60+ days)
Result: engineers deliver work, but cash arrives late.
2) When the office is over-resourced
You’ll see:
overheads rising faster than gross profit
too many roles doing “support” but no measurable output
decisions slowing down because processes get bloated
Result: you create admin weight that eats EBITDA.
3) When management is the bottleneck
You’ll see:
directors approving everything
technical leaders dragged into admin tasks
slow decisions on variations, pricing, disputes, and resource allocation
Result: the business scales… then stalls.
This is exactly the “bottleneck” pattern we see repeatedly in growing firms. Jonesfa
What Is the “Optimal Level” Each Department Should Be Working To?
There’s no magic number that fits everyone, but you can set practical targets that most construction/engineering SMEs can run with.
Engineers / Delivery team targets (starting point)
Utilisation (productive/billable time): many field-service businesses target 70–80% as a workable benchmark. If you push higher, quality often drops and call-backs rise.
First-time fix rate: industry medians are often quoted around the low–mid 70%s, with top performers pushing higher. Even small improvements here protect margin and capacity.
What “good” looks like
70–80% productive utilisation
call-backs falling month-on-month
job completion times stable (not creeping longer)
If you want department-specific KPIs already written in plain English, these JFA posts are directly relevant:
repairs department KPIs: https://www.jonesfa.co.uk/post/kpis-every-repairs-department Jonesfa
refurbishment & installation KPIs: https://www.jonesfa.co.uk/post/kpis-for-refurbishment-installation Jonesfa
Office / commercial / admin targets (starting point)
This team should be judged by speed, accuracy, and flow, not “how busy they look”.
Track:
quote turnaround time
invoice turnaround time (job completed → invoice sent)
% invoices disputed
debtor-days movement
WIP updates submitted on time (if you run projects)
The Big Mistake: Measuring Only Volume, Not Value
A common myth in construction SMEs is:
“If we’re busy, we’re doing well.”
Busy can be a warning sign.
Example (realistic numbers):
You run more call-outs and increase monthly revenue by £80k
but call-backs rise and utilisation drops
margin falls by just 5% on that extra work
That’s £4k lost profit in one month, and that’s before you count extra admin time, disputes, and slower invoicing. Over a year, that’s close to £50k lost for “growth” that felt positive.
The Fix: Give Each Department Clear Metrics and Targets (With “What Next?” Built In)
The board doesn’t need 50 KPIs. It needs a small set that tells the truth fast.
Engineers / delivery KPIs
utilisation % (target range, not “max”)
first-time fix rate
call-backs per engineer
gross profit per job type
jobs completed vs scheduled
What next actions look like
training on repeat faults
better parts planning
tighter job scoping before dispatch
adjust scheduling to reduce travel waste
Office KPIs
quote turnaround time
invoice turnaround time
disputed invoice %
debtor days + top 10 aged debtors
WIP pack submitted on time (projects)
What next actions look like
standardised job close-out checklist
invoice twice-weekly minimum
credit control escalation at day 7/14 overdue (not 60)
Management KPIs
forecast accuracy (revenue + gross margin)
WIP accuracy / cost-to-complete movement
overheads as % of revenue
“decision turnaround time” on variations/approvals
staff retention / absenteeism
For department accountability and assessing department leads properly, these JFA posts are built for exactly this:
Practical Steps You Can Follow This Month
Split your work into “volume” vs “technical” (simple coding in jobs system).
Define 5 KPIs per department maximum.
Set target ranges (not perfection targets).
Build a weekly 30-minute meeting:
what moved?
what’s blocked?
what’s the action this week?
Tie the pack to tools that remove guesswork.
Free JFA tools that support this immediately:
Key Takeaways
Productivity (volume) without effectiveness (quality + margin) creates “busy and broke”.
Technical work pays better, but only if WIP, pricing, and delivery controls are strong.
Set target ranges for utilisation and quality, don’t push teams to 100% and expect zero defects.
Every department needs KPIs and a “what next” action plan, otherwise reporting is just noise.
If your business feels stretched, it’s rarely because people aren’t working hard. It’s usually because the work mix, metrics, and accountability aren’t aligned.
If you want JFA to help you build a department scorecard, rebalance workload, and turn reporting into action, start with the free downloads
Wrapping up today's insights, tomorrow we simplify another accounting challenge.
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