What Firms Get Wrong About Measuring Admin Work

Administrative operations are under more scrutiny than ever. Law firm leaders want better insight into performance, efficiency, and staffing, and they’re turning to data to get it.

In our experience, this is where many firms go off track.

The issue isn’t a lack of data. Most firms have plenty of it. The problem is that they’re relying on the wrong data to answer the wrong questions.

Why Time Tracking and Utilization Fall Short

In billable roles, time tracking tells a clear story. In administrative roles, it rarely does.

Assistants, records staff, reception teams, and office services professionals don’t operate in neat, predictable blocks of work. Their days are defined by interruptions, urgency shifts, and competing priorities. They cover for one another, respond to real-time needs, and support multiple practice groups at once.

Trying to evaluate this work through utilization rates or hours per task creates a false sense of precision. Those metrics show where time went, but not whether the work was necessary, appropriately assigned, or handled at the right level. They measure motion, not effectiveness.

The Difference Between Activity Data and Real Insight

Activity data can tell you what happened. It can tell you how many requests came in, how long tasks took, and how busy people appeared to be.

What it can’t tell you is whether the support model makes sense.

It won’t show you where work is being duplicated, where approvals are slowing things down, or where highly paid staff are handling work that could, and should be done elsewhere. It also won’t explain why some teams feel overwhelmed while others appear underutilized.

That level of insight only comes from understanding patterns, demand drivers, and how work actually flows through the firm, not from a spreadsheet of activities.

Metrics That Sound Useful, but Don’t Drive Action

Some administrative metrics persist simply because they’re easy to collect. For example:

• Number of help desk tickets closed

• Pages printed or scanned

• Average call wait time

• Number of attorneys per assistant

These figures may look reassuring in a dashboard, but they rarely lead to better decisions. They don’t tell leadership how to rebalance workloads, where coverage is breaking down, or whether the current structure is sustainable. They measure output in isolation, without context.

As a result, firms review the numbers and then do nothing differently.

What Leaders Actually Need to Know

The most useful insight starts with better questions:

• Who is doing which work, and should they be the ones doing it?

• Where are support tasks bottlenecked, duplicated, or unnecessarily escalated?

• Which teams are consistently operating at capacity, and why?

• How is urgent work handled when demand spikes?

• What would the support model look like if it were designed around actual demand rather than historical ratios?

These are the questions that lead to smarter staffing decisions, more effective outsourcing, and stronger service delivery.

Case Study: Replacing Activity Metrics with Real Clarity

A large law firm came to Mattern convinced it had a staffing problem. Administrative teams reported being overworked, leadership saw uneven utilization data, and the firm was considering adding headcount.

Instead of starting with time studies or productivity targets, we conducted a strategic workload analysis. We examined what work was being done, by whom, and why. The findings were revealing: highly skilled staff were spending significant time on low-value tasks, approval layers were creating avoidable delays, and certain roles were absorbing work that belonged elsewhere.

By realigning responsibilities and adjusting the support model around actual demand, the firm gained clarity on where resources were truly needed and where they weren’t. Leadership was able to make confident staffing and sourcing decisions without relying on misleading utilization metrics.

The Mattern Perspective

If your current metrics aren’t driving better decisions, they’re not doing their job.

At Mattern, we help firms move beyond surface-level reporting to uncover real insight into administrative operations. The goal isn’t more data, it’s better understanding. And with that understanding comes a support model that actually works.

If this sounds familiar, we should talk. Contact info@matternassoc.com.