U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

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Designing Work for Life:
A Strategy for Recruiting and Retaining the Best

Sandra C. Kolb and Naomi Johnson

Office of Human Resources
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management

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Family-Friendly Work Practices:  The Challenges

• Programs widespread, underutilized
• Policies and actions not in agreement
• Seen as accommodating personal needs
• Can cause resentment among co-workers
• Viewed as employee benefit, not business imperative

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Wanted:  Employees without a Life!

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Designing Work For Life Employee Questionnaire:

Central Focus at Beginning and End of Pilot Periods:  A Comparison of Employees in Three Pilot Site Locations

	Religious/Spiritual Life	Family Life	Work/Career	Leisure
General Counsel's Office	28%	50%	31%	12%
Hospital Business Office	21%	53%	47%	6%
Nursing Unit	14%	40%	47%	20%
General Counsel's Office -- 2	24%	53%	18%	12%
Hospital Business Office -- 2	21%	53%	47%	10%
Nursing Unit -- 2	8%	58%	58%	25%

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Importance of Time/Flexibility in Scheduling Work

• In 2001, more employees rated having a job that allows for time to meet family or personal priorities as "very important" than having a job with a high salary.

	Family Time	High Salary	Personal Time
General Counsel's Office	73%	10%	65%
Hospital Business Office	79%	61%	74%
Nursing Unit	58%	58%	25%

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Background of Work Redesign Pilot Projects

• Based on Ford Foundation and other research in private sector -- part of HHS’ Quality of Work Life Initiative
• Dual Objectives: Improve organizational productivity and employee’s ability to integrate work and personal life
• Work Group Focus: Look at the whole, not just needs of individuals

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Designing Work for Life:  Three Pilot Projects

• Division in the Office of General Counsel
• Hospital Business Office
• Hospital Nursing Unit

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Business Need

• Division in Office of the General Counsel
  • Recruitment and retention
• Hospital Business Office
  • Recruitment and retention
• Nursing Unit
  • Cyclical nature of work
  • Employee stress
    

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The Process

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Traditional data collection: questionnaires, work process analysis
• Data feedback -- "all hands" retreat
• Possibilities and design
• Recommendations
• Implementation and tracking

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Approved Experiments

• Division in General Counsel’s Office
  • Flexi-place
  • Simplified Time and Attendance Reporting
• Hospital Business Office
  • Alternate Work Schedules
• Nursing Unit
  • Supplemental staffing
  • Discharge education partnership with pharmacy

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How We Evaluated

Measures

• Employee/coworker satisfaction
• Leave usage
• Overtime
• Workload timeliness
• Float hours (nurses)
• Discharges
• Turn-over (General Counsel’s Office)

Method

• Interviews
• Pre- and post-surveys
• Time sheets; logs
• Time sheets
• Worker logs
• Nurse manager’s logs
• Agency Monthly Report
• Personnel records

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Employee Satisfaction with Work/Life Balance

1999

• Office of General Counsel 34%
• Hospital Business Office 38%
• Nursing Unit 61%

2001

• Office of General Counsel 65%
• Hospital Business Office 67%
• Nursing Unit 28%
  

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Office of General Counsel Flexi-place

• Users, co-workers, supervisors all satisfied
• Majority felt it had positive impact on organization
• All recommended making permanent

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Office of General Counsel Simplified T&A Reporting

• Led to feeling of trust
• More use of credit hours (82% cf. 69%)
• Credit hours per person almost doubled

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Hospital Business Office: Alternate and Staggered Work Schedules and Performance...

• Charts for scheduled appointments ready when clinics opened.
• Better patient service:  front desk staff still in reception area when last patient leaves.
• More efficient use of office equipment.
• Improved ability to see tasks completed in one day.
• Ability to staff up during peak hours improved.

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Hospital Business Office: Additional Impact of AWS on Performance

On AWS

• Coordinate w/Co-workers - 84%
• Meet Client Demands - 62%
• Stay current - 72%
• Follow-through - 69%

Not on AWS

• Coordinate w/Co-workers - 61%
• Meet Client Demands - 54%
• Stay current - 62%
• Follow-through - 65%
  

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Hospital Business Office: Alternate and Staggered Work Schedules and Productivity...

Dec. 2000

• Outstanding Medicaid verifications - 562
• Outstanding patient updates - 251

July 2001

• Outstanding Medicaid verifications - 38
• Outstanding patient updates - 41
  

• More timely correction of errors
• Better understanding of process on part of providers
• Lower backlog and improved timeliness of updates

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Nursing Unit: Impact of Supplemental Staffing

• Plan:
• Staff for low season
• Supplement RSV season with 3 contract nurses
• Intent:
  • reduce stress, need for unscheduled leave and overtime during RSV
  • reduce need to float during summer
• Impact:
• 1 Contract nurse hired for night shift for RSV season.
• Difficult to evaluate
• Mixed results
  • some reduced stress
  • did not relieve float situation
  • hired staff deemed unreliable

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Nursing Unit: Impact of New Procedures with Pharmacy

1/01-8/01

• Pharmacy - 554
• Nurses - 200
  

• Pharmacy handling most discharge sessions
• Time saving for Peds
• Improved customer service
• Fewer interruptions for pharmacy

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Impact on Recruitment and Retention

• Telework used as recruitment tool.
• New hires applied as soon as eligible.
• Employees stopped looking for other jobs or turned down offers.
• Employee returned to job when new employer did not offer flexible schedules.
  

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Some Lessons Learned

• Retain the "dual objective" focus and define success.
• Solicit widespread employee involvement.
• Focus on work group level.
• Responding to employees engenders trust.
• Leave behind capacity to continually improve the work environment.