Washington State Department of Transportation
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Compressed workweeks/telework
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Government agency
• Over
20 work sites
“We're learning how to work smarter and better.” –Sid Morrison, Secretary of Transportation |
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Work options help government work smarter
When the Washington State Legislature
assigns more work but fewer employees, comprehensive
change in how a public agency does business is required.
In 1993, the Washington State Department of
Transportation embarked on a long-term mission to change
its decision-making and work processes, inverting its
old-fashioned hierarchy. Along the way, WSDOT management
discovered that encouraging work options, including
compressed workweeks, flextime and telework, fits hand in
glove with finding more efficient ways to get work done,
while retaining and recruiting top-performing employees.
The effort to implement a quality improvement program, empower employees, and overcome resistance to change is led by Secretary of Transportation Sid Morrison. “We have the largest budget in the history of the agency and that requires a tremendous amount of work from a work force that's 5% smaller than 10 years ago,” Morrison says. “We're learning how to work smarter and better.”
Key to CTR goals
When the Legislature disbanded the Washington
State Energy Office in 1996, WSDOT was charged with
overseeing the state Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) Law. A
desire to lead by example has provided additional
incentive to expand the use of work options.
“Compressed workweeks – eliminating at least
one day of commuting every other week – have been
the key to meeting our CTR goals,” says Paula
Reeves, CTR Program Manager. Of 6,500 employees, 25% use
alternative work schedules. Among staff affected by the
CTR Law, 43% work a compressed week.
Compressed workweeks cut costs
Compressed workweeks began with WSDOT workers 15
years ago. In 1984, Gary Demich was on one of the first
road crews to request 10-hour days. Performing bridge
inspections across the state, Demich and members of his
crew pointed out they could save taxpayers a day's worth
of motel and meal costs and still accomplish 40 hours of
work.
Today, Demich is the Regional Administrator who oversees the seven-county Olympic Region. Close to 100% of Demich's road maintenance crews now work 4/10s during the summer to capitalize on the daylight hours. Ten-hour days also reduce the time spent setting up and taking down roadwork traffic controls by an average of two hours each week. Multiplied by the many crews out in summer, the impact on productivity and cost savings is conservatively estimated at $200,000 for the Olympic Region alone.
Factor in low turnover
WSDOT has the lowest employee turnover of any
state agency. Human Resources Operations Manager Carol
Bogue believes the major factor in this retention rate is
work options. All but one of Bogue's own staff of 11 use
compressed workweeks, flextime or telework. In her
experience, Bogue says the net result of work options is
increased effectiveness, resulting from increased job
satisfaction, improved work family balance, less
absenteeism, more cross-training, and more time to focus
on the job at hand. As employees' lives change and their
job responsibilities evolve, managers and human resource
staff work with employees to find the best fit.
Benefits to office staff
Both compressed workweeks and flextime are
widely used by office staff, from engineers to managers
to administrative personnel. The most popular schedule is
9/80s, in which employees work 80 hours in nine days, to
gain an extra day off every other week. In addition to
the morale boost of a three-day weekend, the extra hour
of quiet time before or after normal office hours is
valued by employees as a productivity tool. The key to
maintaining coverage is ensuring each employee who uses
compressed workweeks has a counterpart who knows and
understands both jobs. These two-person teams choose
different days off to ensure that one is always scheduled
to work, or if necessary, rearrange their days off to
attend important meetings.
Employees empowered to meet customer needs
Brian Ziegler, State Design Engineer, oversees
90 staff and emphasizes to managers his desire that
employees use compressed workweeks, flextime and telework
to full advantage. Ziegler says, “Everyone
contributes 40 hours, but if some hours are more
productive by allowing flexibility in schedule and
location for the customer's or employee's convenience,
the result is employees are delivering more product for
the same cost.”
“Real-time flextime” is a term Ziegler uses to empower his employees to use flexibility in the work day to best meet customer needs. His engineers often need to alter their schedules daily to attend meetings and support other statewide WSDOT staff. In one week, engineers in the structural design office might work a compressed week, vary their work start times and finish the day at home on their laptops.
Work options create more work space
Management sees work options as an aid to
increasing office capacity. One work group now uses
staggered schedules and telework to accommodate five
people in a space that originally had two. WSDOT's main
building in Olympia was intended to house 450-500 people,
but presently accommodates 650 staff. More staff are
being encouraged to combine work options with sharing
work space now that the building has reached its maximum
occupancy.
Altering processes to pave the way
Jim Slakey, Director of the Rail and Public
Transportation Division, oversees the state's CTR program
that affects large employers in nine counties. He points
to four changes that have resulted in increased use of
work options at WSDOT. The first was rethinking the time
slip format to formally include a variety of schedules
and work arrangements. The second change avoids
time-consuming paperwork and ensures accountability by
allowing staff to document schedule variations with email
notices to a general folder. Third, direct supervisors
not mid-level managers now make the decision to allow an
employee or work group to use work options, resulting in
increased availability of work options and more
flexibility to respond to work flow demands and employee
needs. Fourth, each employee writes a brief weekly report
that lists items accomplished the previous week and
planned for the next week. The reports are emailed to
each member of the group to enhance spontaneous
communications that might be lost since some teams are
fully staffed in the office less than two days per week.
This report also enables managers and staff to focus on
work products rather than hours worked.
Telework growing
Since 1993, in which a survey revealed just nine
employees used telework within the entire agency, renewed
efforts to promote this work option have resulted in a
500% increase. Approximately 16% of WSDOT teleworkers
choose to work from a satellite office closer to their
homes or customer base. Pilot telework programs exist in
several WSDOT regions that historically have had
traditional approaches to work. These pilots use
performance measures that are converting reluctant
managers into telework supporters. Results indicate
increased employee performance, enhanced job satisfaction
and increased recruitment and retention.
Regional Administrator Demich sums up WSDOT's progress with work options and other efforts to improve business practices, saying “It takes time to bring lasting organizational change to every corner of a large agency. We're a big ship that's slowly turning.”
© 2000 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 February 2000.