Business benefits:
• 33% decrease in shift transition time.
• 10% increase in maintenance efficiency.
• Increased morale.
• Reduced absenteeism.
• Decreased traffic and parking congestion.

Statistics:
• Compressed workweeks began: 1980.
• In use by: 95%.

"If we can trust employees with millions of dollars worth of equipment, I think we can trust them with their work schedules.."
–Nick Horiatis, Human Resources Manager

Trust, ingredient for success
North of Bellingham, five miles from the Canadian border, ARCO's Cherry Point Refinery is one of the most productive and best maintained petroleum refineries in the United States. Time and again, when employees or outside contractors describe the refinery they say, “There's something special about Cherry Point.” The reason for its success as a worksite is the same as the reason behind its effective use of work options by 95% of 450 employees. The key to the ARCO refinery's success is trust.

Human Resources Manager Nick Horiatis puts it this way, “If we can trust employees with millions of dollars worth of equipment, I think we can trust them with their work schedules.”

“I leave it up to the judgment of the employee and the supervisor to do what makes sense for the business, while keeping the employee's interest in mind,” he adds.

Smart management plus small town culture
In addition to a history of smart management, the refinery's rural location encourages a small town atmosphere at work – an environment in which people are proud of their combined efforts, appreciate their jobs, and management and employees tend to trust each other. An environment of trust is reinforced by the refinery's use of work options.

Employees work 3/12s, 4/10s or 9/80s
In 1980, nine years after the refinery's first employees were hired, production workers began compressing their workweeks. Rather than working eight hours a day, sometimes seven days in a row, staff elected to try 12-hour days with more days off. By popular consent, the 150 operating technicians continue to work 3/12s around the clock in a rotating schedule of night and day shifts. The operators appreciate having 14 of every 28 days off.

Soon after, maintenance workers went to a schedule of four 10-hour days, Monday through Thursday. Maintenance also instituted a “mini-shift,” in which 15% of the crew work Wednesday through Saturday. The extra shift addressed technicians' concerns about lack of maintenance coverage on Fridays and provided support on Saturday as well.

The following year, engineering staff asked their manager if they could try working 9/80s, or nine-hour days with every other Friday off. Job coverage was ensured by dividing engineering into two tracks, so that half of the engineering staff are present every Friday. Gradually other work groups and administrative staff followed suit, and now 95% of the refinery employees use compressed workweeks. Even administrative support staff can take advantage of compressed workweeks, regardless of whether their managers work four or five days a week. Instead of assuming one schedule would fit all, management allowed work units to customize their schedules to fit their work as well as balancing personal needs.

Business goals align with employee needs
Making employees happy and accommodating their needs aligns perfectly with business goals at no additional expense. It is hard to find a member of ARCO's management or employees who would argue for a return to an 8 to 5 schedule.

Compressed weeks increase efficiency
ARCO has discovered that work options not only improve employee morale, but they also increase the effectiveness of production and administrative employees. Even at a high performance company like ARCO, maintenance technicians typically spend only 50% of their time “on tools” or actually performing work. The rest of the time is spent moving between jobs, getting parts, putting tools away, cleaning up, or in meetings. Training and Development Analyst Dan DeMent estimates that maintenance technicians at Cherry Point have shaved about 10% off their non-productive time by going to a 4/10 schedule. The longer days allow technicians a slightly longer expanse of productive time between breaks, with fewer starts and stops per week.

DeMent also estimates that the operators' 3/12 schedule decreases by one-third the time spent providing status reports between shift changes. “Making relief” or filling in the operator working the next shift takes both the outgoing and the incoming worker up to an hour. With two 12-hour shifts, daily relief time was cut to two hours per position, instead of the three hours required by three 8-hour shifts.

Similar to production workers, a little longer day can also stretch out the productive periods for administrative employees. Although more meetings per day are sometimes necessary in a shorter week, increasing the blocks of time available for quiet, focused work between meetings by one or two hours can make the difference between completing a project or needing to lay it aside and pick up a train of thought later. Also, DeMent believes the increased quality of employees' time off has a positive effect on their intensity and freshness at work.

Implemented thoughtfully, compressed weeks can increase the total hours of customer service or coverage. John Karabias manages the refinery's medical department and has used compressed workweeks to provide medical services 50 hours a week instead of the typical 40. Karabias works 4/10s Monday through Thursday. The other full-time department employee, a nurse practitioner, works 4/10s Tuesday through Friday.

More efficient for employees, too
Many employees feel compressed workweeks are a more efficient use of both their time and the company's time. Employees appreciate saving commute time and costs. Karabias uses the flexibility of an extra day in the week to get work done when necessary. “If I want to catch up on some miscellaneous work projects, I can come in on Friday to do so and still have a regular weekend,” he says. “If I came to work for eight hours five days a week, I don't think I'd be as productive,” he adds. “With 10 hours, I can get organized in the morning and accomplish a lot more during my day, plus home projects and recreation fit nicely into three days.”

Flexible start times ease congestion
When the worksite swells to capacity with contractors during large construction projects or maintenance “turnarounds,” Maintenance Manager Jeff Seipel asks employees to flex their scheduled start times earlier or later to ease traffic congestion on the two-lane road.

Flextime works with compressed weeks
With permission, employees can trade their scheduled day off for another day so long as it is within the same pay period. Administrative staff can also flex their start and stop times in addition to compressing their workweek, with their supervisor's approval.

Absenteeism decreases
The combination of compressed workweeks and flextime decreases absenteeism since employees tend to schedule medical appointments and errands on their own time. Cherry Point's attendance is in the 99th percentile. Horiatis attributes that ranking not only to the high quality of the employees but also to work options.

Work options pay off
Refinery Training Supervisor Jeff McSorley says, “The freedom employees are given through work options builds morale, which pays off in dedication and extra time put in willingly.” If employees work fewer days, will there be someone present when they are needed? In addition to ensuring coverage within work groups by alternating days off, Inspection Assistant Janey Axelson says, “If you're not here, and you're needed, you come in to work, no question.”

The most compelling proof of success with Cherry Point's use of work options is the recent decision by ARCO's top management to add compressed workweeks as an option for employees at the corporate offices in California.

© 1999 Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. You may reprint this written material, provided you do not use it to endorse a commercial product. Please reference by title and credit Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program and Commuter Challenge. Published April 1999.

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