Every organization wants to understand how much capacity it really has. Leaders often rely on time tracking, utilization rates, or productivity ratios to find the answer. These measures appear objective but are one-sided and rarely capture how work is actually experienced. Capacity looks different across roles. A production worker, a project manager, and a product designer all face limits, but the way those limits appear and affect performance is entirely different. A single utilization figure cannot describe them all.
A new measure, work or position strain, offers a different way to consider capacity. It is not a throughput measure. Instead, it’s a capacity-response indicator that describes how a position responds to the level of work it faces. Strain explicitly expresses the tension between work demand and the resource’s ability to absorb it. Its complement, slack, represents reserve capacity. Together they show whether a role is
operating with resilience or under pressure. Strain shifts the idea of capacity from one of volume to one of impact.
The Limits of Traditional Capacity Metrics
Traditional approaches to capacity reduce work to time or quantity. They count hours available, tasks completed, or percentages of utilization. While easy to collect, these measures miss the deeper dynamics of capacity. Time logs ignore the cognitive load of switching between complex tasks. Output measures overlook the coordination efforts embedded in quality and rework. Utilization rates assume all activities are equal, even though some require deep focus or extensive decision-making that limit how much can be done.
The result is an incomplete picture. Some roles appear underutilized on paper but are already stretched by complexity and interdependence. Others seem efficient but carry hidden slack because their work is standardized and predictable. Quantity-based methods do not explain how individuals and teams actually respond when demand increases or conditions change.
What Strain Reveals
Strain reframes capacity from “how much work is being done” to “how the role is responding to its current level of demand.” This makes it possible to compare across very different jobs using a consistent standard of capacity health. Measured on a five-point scale, strain values can be interpreted as follows:
- High and Low Slack (1–2): These roles have clear reserve capacity and can absorb new projects or disruptions with little effect.
- Balanced (3): These roles are well matched to their workload, operating steadily but with limited room for change.
- Low and High Strain (4–5): These roles are stretched. Even small disruptions, such as turnover or added initiatives, can trigger performance or quality declines.
As depicted above, slack and strain serve as endpoints on a continuum of capacity-response. They describe how demand influences the resource performing the work, showing whether that influence builds stability or erodes it. A healthy organization maintains the right mix of both.
How Orgsure Developed and Applies the Measure
At Orgsure, we developed and implemented strain to improve or augment how organizations understand and analyze capacity. We view it as a companion measure to those focusing on time or output. Orgsure calculates strain using position-level data to provide a consistent scale across all roles, regardless of function or work type.
By aggregating strain data, leaders can see patterns that reveal where the organization carries hidden slack or unsustainable load. They can model the effects of change, such as reorganizations or workload shifts, and understand how those changes will influence resilience. Strain makes it possible to measure not just how much work exists, but how well the structure can handle it.
The Core Insight
Work strain transforms capacity measurement from counting effort to understanding impact. It shows how work demand affects people and structures, highlighting both resilience and risk. By treating strain (and slack) as a capacity-response measure, Orgsure gives leaders a precise way to see how much the organization can truly take on. It turns capacity impacts from an assumption into evidence, and helps design structures that perform reliably, even under pressure.
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Un horaire flexible signifie bien plus qu’un simple aménagement : il incarne une nouvelle manière de concevoir le temps de travail. Ces dernières années ont vu l’adoption croissante de concepts novateurs tels que les horaires flexibles, aussi appelés flexitime.
