In brief
- ‘Half a role’ is a hypothesis. Measure the time and the rework before you decide.
- Automation suits tasks with clear rules, not tasks that need judgement.
- Start with one process and a measure you can check after a month.
‘Half a role’ is a hypothesis, not a result
It is easy to say someone ‘spends half the day in Excel’. It is harder to say how many hours that really is, which tasks take them, and how much of it can safely change. Without those numbers, a decision to hire, to buy a new tool or to automate is guesswork.
Do not assume automation will replace part of a role. First check how much time repeatable work actually takes. The calculator below will help you estimate the scale. Enter your own numbers, because the starting values are only an example.
Work it out in two minutes
How much time does one repeatable task take?
Each month this task takes
0hrs
0% of a full-time role · 0 hrs a day
A full-time role is counted as 160 hours a month. This is an estimate from your numbers, not a promise of savings. It shows how much work there is to tidy up, not how much will disappear.
A week of measuring instead of a hunch
The calculator gives an order of magnitude. For a decision you need data from your own team, and a week of simple notes is enough.
Measuring in five steps
A week of notes is enough to talk about facts.
- Choose2–3 tasks that come back every day
- Recordnumber of cases and time for each
- Note exceptionsunreadable document, no reply
- Count reworkwhat came back and why
- Decideon numbers, not impressions
Exceptions often decide whether a process can be changed safely.
A simple table is enough. The ‘who decides’ column shows at once where human judgement is needed:
| Task | Cases per week | Average minutes | Exceptions | Who decides |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retyping details from a form | … | … | no customer number | rule |
| Reminder about a missing document | … | … | client asks for more time | rule + person |
| Judging an unusual case | … | … | each one is different | person |
What to hand to rules and what to leave with people
Rule or judgement?
This difference marks the limit of automation.
Work by rules
- Repeatable
- The same task many times a day.
- Data in a known place
- You know where it comes from and where it goes.
- Checkable
- The result is easy to compare with the source.
Work needing judgement
- Unusual cases
- Each one needs a decision.
- Relationships
- Negotiations, difficult conversations.
- Accountability
- Decisions someone signs off.
Automation prepares the case, a person decides it.
Excel is not the villain
A spreadsheet can do its job well. Trouble starts when the same information has to be retyped several times, nobody knows the current status of a case, or the next step is easy to miss. Changing tools without tidying up the rules simply moves the same problems somewhere new.
So before asking ‘which tool?’, answer simpler questions: where does the data come from, who owns the case, and how do you know the case is closed?
Example: a missing document at an accountancy practice
The practice works out which documents are missing from a client, and the system prepares a reminder according to approved rules. A member of staff still decides the unusual cases. This is an example of a possible process, not a description of a documented implementation or a promise of savings.
Missing document reminder
Rules prepare, a person decides the exceptions.
Anything missing?
- YesRemindersent from the approved template
- NoCase completepasses to bookkeeping
- ExceptionTeam member decidese.g. the client asks to move the deadline
Once the client replies, the list is checked again.
Hire, tidy up or automate?
After a week of measuring, the right path usually becomes clear:
- Hire if most of the time goes on work needing judgement and relationships, and the volume keeps growing.
- Tidy up if the time goes on rework, searching for information and unclear statuses.
- Automate one step if it is repeatable, based on rules and easy to check.
These paths do not exclude each other. Often you tidy the process first, then automate one step, and only at the end judge whether a new person is needed. See how we approach process automation.