Red Dot Corporation
•
Compressed workweeks
• Manufacturing
• Tukwila,
Washington
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Photo courtesy of Red Dot Corporation.
Employee satisfaction affects bottom line
Red Dot's guiding principles say it will “consider employee welfare its top priority in any business decision,” but they also talk about customer satisfaction, performance and profits in uncompromising terms. Contradictory? No, Red Dot management believes employee satisfaction and a healthy bottom line are complementary goals.
“You have to assume that if you meet people's individual needs, their productivity is going to be higher,” says Eddie James, Red Dot's Personnel Manager. With annual sales totaling $55 million, this manufacturer of truck and large vehicle heating and air conditioning units seems to be on the right track.
In addition to such perks as profit-sharing and time-and-a-half vacation pay, for 26 years most Red Dot employees have been taking Fridays off. A group of employees got the idea from a Canadian newspaper article describing workers with 10-hour shifts four days a week instead of a normal eight-hour, five-day schedule.
Compressed workweeks introduced
In keeping with employee-friendly policies and in response to a petition from employees who had read the article, Red Dot Corporation initiated a 4/10 compressed work schedule for production employees in 1972. After a 90-day trial period, there was no looking back by employees or management, who were equally happy with what was then an unusual concept.
When the company was required to implement a Commute Trip Reduction program in 1993 to comply with state law, managers were encouraged to extend compressed workweeks to non-production workers–the other half of Red Dot's employees.
Bonus day for retooling and maintenance
In addition to employee satisfaction and productivity, Red Dot management has discovered some impressive bottom-line reasons for sticking to its compressed workweeks. Because of the 4/10 production schedule, Bill Flint, Vice President of Operations, directs machinery maintenance and retooling to be performed on Fridays to decrease down time. Flint points out that wear and tear on machinery is reduced by being started and stopped one less day, without loss of output. “Our accounting department calculates Red Dot saves $1,850 in utility costs alone each Friday that the assembly line is quiet–potentially more than $96,000 a year,” Flint says.
Better accessibility to East Coast customers
Better customer service is also a benefit of compressed workweeks. Because Red Dot has customers nationwide, an expanded day with some office staff accessible by 6:30 a.m. is more compatible with East Coast clients' work schedules, enabling more immediate responses to questions and requests.
Intertwined business and personal benefits
The majority of Red Dot employees are scheduled for Monday through Thursday, from 6:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. with a 45-minute meal break starting at 11:30 a.m. All of Red Dot's 257 production staff work the same 4/10 schedule, Monday through Thursday. More than 50% of its other 200 employees, from support staff to engineering, also work compressed weeks for both business and personal reasons.
“When there's a job transfer posted, it's the first thing they ask, `What's the work schedule?' says Purchasing Manager Felipe Lugtu. The shipping department changed to staggered 4/10s to aid in attracting and retaining shipping clerks–formerly a challenge with normal 8-hour shifts five days a week. The shipping department continues to operate five days a week, but some shipping clerks are scheduled to work four 10-hour days Monday through Thursday, and others work Tuesday through Friday to ensure coverage.
Sid Greenewald, personnel assistant, processes large numbers of new hires and layoffs each year due to the peaks and valleys of production. He chose to work the 4/10 schedule several years ago for two reasons: (1) he could be available at 6:30 a.m. to answer questions and help orient new employees, and (2) “the three day weekend keeps me recharged,” he says.
Paperwork and guilt-free Fridays
Do managers end up working more hours to supervise staff on compressed workweeks? Flint explains compressed workweeks can actually serve as a management tool to increase effectiveness. “Upper management typically works five days a week on fairly flexible schedules. On Fridays we have most of our strategy meetings because it's quiet and we can focus–and if we leave early, it's guilt-free!” he says. Some managers save a “to do on Friday” stack of paperwork.
Three-day weekend valued by employees
“Three-day weekends are an additional benefit we can offer employees in a tight job market,” Flint says. Employees value their three days off, and when it is necessary to schedule overtime, can still enjoy a normal two-day weekend.
Employees often schedule doctor appointments on their extra day off. Receptionists can vouch for it as they notice an upswing in reminder calls from doctors' offices on Thursdays. This is good for employees and good for Red Dot. The company loses fewer production hours, and employees don't have to use vacation or sick leave or lose pay to go to the doctor. The holiday schedule is planned two years in advance at Red Dot to ensure that employees working different schedules receive equivalent time off.
Red Dot employees benefit from reduced work-related costs by working four days a week instead of five. The costs of commuting and daycare are 20% less. And local roadways are spared one day of commuting each week–eliminating more than 30,000 commute trips a year.
Check for fit
When do compressed workweeks not work? Despite trying to accommodate the personal needs of employees, sometimes a compressed schedule does not fit the job, and the work days and hours are determined by business necessity. For example, Red Dot customer service representatives have specific accounts, which require their presence Monday through Friday to maintain continuity for clients.
©1998 Washington State University Cooperative Energy Program. The Telework, Compressed Workweeks, Flextime case study is a publication of the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program in collaboration with Commuter Challenge with additional support provided by the Washington State Department of Transportation. This publication contains material written and produced for public distribution. You may reprint this 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. Trade names have been used to simplify information; no endorsement is intended. Published Sept. 1998.