How can construction firms cut costs while maintaining high-quality output?

Many firms reduce overhead not by cutting key roles, but by shifting routine, time-consuming tasks off their highest-value people. With the right support in place, project quality stays high while costs come down. 

Table of Contents 

• What’s Behind the Rising Cost Curve
• The Departmental Assistant: A Classic Concept for Modern Workflows
• Estimators: More Time on the Numbers That Matter
• Implementing Departmental Assistants in Your Construction Firm
• How to Add Capacity Without Adding Cost 

In many construction firms, the first instinct when overhead rises is simple: cut.  

Cut travel. Cut software. And sometimes, cut people. 

But that playbook isn’t necessarily working for construction businesses anymore.  

As the KPMG Construction Survey outlines, 50% of construction firms are having difficulty finishing projects due to a combination of supply chain issues and compliance red tape. 

Even those who do finish projects on time are pushing harder just to keep pace, with 87% of owners from the same survey saying they face increased pressure to deliver under tighter budgets and greater scrutiny.  

And construction wages are only rising, with average hourly earnings increasing to $40 an hour in the U.S. – almost $10 higher than it was 5 years ago.  

This perfect storm has pushed overhead to a point where cutting isn’t enough, leaving them searching for alternative solutions.  

What’s Behind the Rising Cost Curve

Most construction companies don’t have “waste” sitting in plain sight. Their trucks are being used, their crews are busy, and projects are moving.  

The real overhead problem hides in the way the work is being done. 

Knowledge workers across industries report spending a large share of their day on low-value tasks like manual data entry, chasing updates, and repetitive reporting. Surveys suggest that over 40% of work time can be lost to this kind of busywork. 

In construction, that often looks like: 

• Project managers updating schedules and logs instead of walking jobs or speaking with crew leaders. 

• Estimators chasing subcontractor pricing and re-formatting proposals instead of analyzing risk. 

• Sales leaders spending hours in email triage instead of coaching their sales reps or building key relationships. 

These are talented and experienced professionals. But when over a third of their week disappears into administrative work, the effective cost of every role rises. Overhead feels high not simply because salaries are up, but because those salaries are being spent on the wrong kind of work. 

The Departmental Assistant: A Classic Concept for Modern Workflows

Many construction business owners accept that their time is valuable enough to justify an executive assistant. They know it makes no sense for them to book every meeting, chase every document, and manage every detail. 

A departmental assistant applies the same logic to a team. Their job is to handle repeatable, coordination-heavy tasks so specialists can stay focused on their highest-value work. 

With this overhead-cutting measure:  

• You keep your key roles. 

• You strip the low-value work from those key players.  

• You give those process-driven tasks to offshore or nearshore professionals at a lower cost-basis who specialize in structured, detail-oriented tasks. 

One of the reasons offshore assistant models work so well for construction firms because the economics work. Simply put, it increases output without increasing payroll.  Another reason is capability. Countries across Latin America have deep administrative and technical talent pools, with professionals who excel at structured, process-driven work like document control, bid coordination, and schedule support. 

When you combine that talent with clear workflows and strong oversight, you get a simple equation – more capacity, more consistency, and no spike in payroll. 

The Impact of Departmental Assistants on Key Players

The impact of this support model becomes clear when you look at how it changes the day-to-day for specific roles. 

Owners: From Chief Firefighter to Strategic Leader

For owners, the biggest hidden overhead line is time. When the person leading the business spends their day in email, chasing updates, or reconciling details, the company loses leverage. 

A dedicated assistant (even one shared across leadership) can handle: 

• Inbox triage and calendar management. 

• Document preparation and follow-up on action items. 

• Basic reporting and data gathering ahead of key meetings. 

That may not sound dramatic. But giving an owner back even 8–10 hours a week for strategy, recruiting, client relationships, or process improvement can have a greater impact than any single cost-cutting measure. 

Estimators: More Time on the Numbers That Matter

Estimators sit at the center of risk and profit. Yet in many firms, they are also the ones: 

• Tracking down subcontractor quotes. 

• Rebuilding spreadsheets. 

• Formatting proposals and entering data into systems. 

Eastman Cooke, a New York commercial contractor added two coordinators to support their estimating department. These coordinators handled follow-ups, organized bid documents, and kept timelines updated. As a result, the estimating team significantly increased the number of bids it could produce without adding another six-figure estimator. Plus, they were able to achieve better accuracy and fewer missed details with the added support. 

That is a classic example of overhead going down while capacity and profit potential go up. 

Project Managers: Back to Driving Jobs Forward

Project managers are hired to run jobs, manage risk, coordinate with the field, and keep clients informed. Yet in many construction firms, their day gets pulled in a different direction. 

Instead of leading the work, they often spend hours on: 

• Updating schedules, logs, and daily reports 

• Writing routine status emails 

• Tracking down missing paperwork, photos, or approvals 

• Reformatting documents or re-entering data across systems 

None of these tasks are difficult, but they are constant. And every hour a PM spends on administrative work is an hour not spent solving problems, walking jobs, managing subs, or protecting margin. 

This is where a departmental assistant or project coordinator makes a measurable impact. When someone else owns the routine, repeatable work – project managers can refocus on the activities that actually drive outcomes: managing the schedule, staying ahead of issues, and keeping clients informed before surprises turn into costs. 

Implementing Departmental Assistants in Your Construction Firm

You don’t need a full reorganization to see whether this approach fits your business. Here are easy ways to get started:  

Pick the most overloaded role, not the cheapest one. 
Look for the person or team that is critical to profit but buried in admin work – often owners, estimators, or project managers. 

List the work that doesn’t need their expertise. 
Think in terms of repeatable, process-driven tasks: follow-ups, document control, data entry, scheduling, and standard reporting. If it can be taught and measured, it can often be delegated. 

Design a support role around that list. 
That might be a departmental assistant for estimating, a project coordinator, or an owner’s assistant. Many firms now fill these roles with offshore or nearshore professionals who work full time, in your time zone, at a lower cost basis than a local hire. 

Give the experiment a real chance. 
Document the process, set clear expectations, and measure the impact on both time and outcomes. The goal is simple: more time on high-value work, less overhead wasted on busy work. 

When you approach overhead this way, the question shifts from “Who do we cut?” to “How do we support our best people so they can do their best work?”  

In a market where every percentage point matters, the firms that rethink how work gets done will be the ones that build stronger teams and healthier margins.  

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