Article 28. Example Proof of More than 10% and 50% Overstaffing

Atlanta Georgia Example:
Ref. Where Less is More Efficient Atlanta’s four-day workweek has unexpected results.
By John O’Leary from Governing.com September 2, 2009

…Like many cities, Atlanta was facing a big projected revenue shortfall, between $60 million and $80 million. To generate savings, Mayor Shirley Franklin chose to institute a furlough program. Starting in December 2008, all municipal employees (except certain public safety workers) were shifted from 40 hours per week to 36 and began working four days per week, nine hours per day. Cost savings were generated through a commensurate 10 percent decrease in pay, as well as additional savings from decreased energy usage in municipal buildings.

“Employees love it,” says David Edwards, a senior policy advisor to Mayor Franklin. “They really love having the three-day weekends.” Employee commute time and gas usage has been reduced by 20 percent, and the increased leisure time of a steady stream of three-day weekends has been a major quality-of-life boost. In addition to improved morale, it appears that the reduced work week may be cutting absenteeism.  The biggest surprise with the Atlanta four-day work week program has been the unexpected boosts to productivity. “There has been a direct productivity boost in a lot of operations, particularly those that entail travel, setup and breakdown time, such as road repairs,” says Edwards. For those jobs with one-hour transitions on each end, the four-hour weekly reduction in compensation translates into only two hours fewer of productive labor.

Moreover, productivity per hour seems to have increased. Atlanta’s ATLStat performance measurement system shows that the decrease in work hours has not translated into lower outputs. “The 10 percent decrease in work time is not showing up on the outcome side,” said Edwards. “There has been no increase in backlogs, and all the performance targets we use — potholes filled, building permits issued, and that sort of thing — are showing no decreases in output. Zero.”

According to Edwards, when the program was first introduced, residents still came to City Hall or elsewhere seeking services on Fridays, only to be turned away. “Once people adjusted to the new hours, we really haven’t seen any complaints from the public,” says Edwards. In some cases, shorter business hours at City Hall prompt citizens to change their behaviors, renewing business licenses by mail or paying parking tickets on the Web rather than in person. Such transactions are generally less costly for the city to process.

In late June, with the support of Mayor Franklin, the city council voted 8-7 to increase city property taxes by more than 40 percent. In light of this tax hike, officials chose to discontinue the reduced work schedule.  The furlough programs were mostly ended at the beginning of July, and Atlanta’s employees are back to the old nine-to-five.
Comments by the Author 
Let’s take another look at what is going on here “city employees working 36 hours per week still produce the same as when they worked 40 hours per week”.  This proves that the city is at least over staffed by 10%.  I have stated in numerous articles that where Work Measurement is not used in a bureaucracy there exists at least 10% over staffing.  But since the city of Atlanta does not do Work Measurement over staffing is most likely more than 10%.










Example Proof of More than 50% Over Staffing

Milan County Texas near Austin Texas:
Milan County Texas employees were found to be spending 52% of their work time on unnecessary websites especially Facebook. The following article shows that by using Work Measurement 50% of the Milan County Texas employees are redundant and County Commissioners could save the county taxpayers $millions. But all the County Commissioners did was to block access to Facebook. The fact is that most government employees Never get laid off!

Some of the 130 county employees in Milam County were spending more than 50% of their work time on Facebook.  After the county’s computers started going down with viruses they found that employees were spending over half of their work time on Facebook.  The result was that the Facebook site was blocked on employee’s computers.  The commissioners said that by blocking the Facebook site more work will get done.
Ref. ABC News: Milan County Texas Milam Co. employees spending hours on Facebook at work
Dec 28, 2010  By: Amanda Gomez.
Comment by the Author 
I would ask the Commissioners this question. How is having twice as many employees than are needed going to get more productivity? But even if the County Commissioners were to downsize by 50% within a few years most of the jobs would be replaced. It may be obvious which of the 130 employees should be laid off and which should be kept in Milan County but in larger cities with more employees city leaders would have no idea which employees are productive and which are not without doing Work Measurement or as in this case measuring the time spent on nonessential activities and websites.

With my General Reform Model using Lean Teams and Work Measurement you will know that of the 130 employees which of the 68 employees are redundant. You will also know how long it takes to do each of the county’s tasks and with that data you can create a bottoms-up budget for all of the city’s tasks. With Team Management as a permanent implementation city employees  are empowered use innovation and to work together in teams for the continuous improvement of the city’s services.
Proposal to Milan County Texas
From: Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant

Lawrence Rosier & Associates 573 364 8789 Website: http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com Since 2005, 280 articles and ebooks. REF: Article 198. Milam County Texas was Found to be Over Staffed by fifty Percent
From ABC News: MILAM COUNTY TEXAS
Milam Co. employees spending hours on Facebook at work
Posted: Dec 28, 2010 5:21 PM CST By: Amanda Gomez
To: Dave Barkemeyer Milam County Judge Milam, Texas
From: Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
Lawrence Rosier & Associates 573 364 8789    Cell 573 578 4716   Website: http://managementconsultant.blogsome.com Since 2005, 280 articles and ebooks.

Attached is my proposal for the reform of Milam County's government.  I have chosen Milam County because it is the only county in the nation that has been honest in reveling the problem of staffing county government.   All County Governments have the problem of staffing spikes caused mostly by elections.

The intent of this proposal is create a pilot template for reform which Texas Counties can follow to improve the efficiency and service to county residents.  The approach is to follow the reform models developed by the Principal Consultant Lawrence Rosier after which most details and findings can be directly replicated if so desired by other Texas counties.  The intended purpose of this Pilot implementation is to benefit Milam County as well as the State of Texas therefore it is suggested that funding for the development of the pilot be provided by the Texas State government.

Savings and Consulting fees
Estimated annual savings of $768,000 is based on 20% of the total salaries and benefits of the 2012 Milam County Budget.  Actual savings is unknown but may be more than the 20% shown.

The County Government may terminate the implementation and the Consultants contract at any time with one weeks notice.     The weekly consulting fee covers all fees and expenses including travel and overhead and is to be paid weekly.

For more information on this proposal please contact the author.
Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant
12143 Cedar Grove Rd. Rolla Missouri 65401 573 364 8789
Cell Phone 573 578 4716


Followup Letter to the editor
Editor & Publisher Of the Cameron Herald October 12, 2012
On Dec 28, 2010 ABC News reporter Amanda Gomez reported that Milam Co. employees were spending half of their work time on Facebook.   This problem is not unique to Milam County all counties have this problem.
I have submitted a Proposal to Dave Barkemeyer on October 8, 2012.
The proposal is to implement reforms in the county government to make it operate more efficiently like a private business.  The reform implements Toyota’s Enterprise Lean training all county employees in using the Lean tools to review the county systems making them more efficient and effective.  County employees will be trained in the methods of work assignments and balancing work loads to increase productivity.  The objective is make the county government more efficient but with increased efficiency there is a reduced requirement for personnel.  To minimize the impact I have recommended that the county go to a four day workweek this gives the county an automatic 10% increase in productivity with out reducing staffing. The result is an annual estimated savings of from $700 thousand to $1 million. Please comment on this proposal.

Lawrence Rosier Principal Management Consultant   573 364 8789     In the proposal I estimated that the savings to Milam County could be more than 20% of current county salaries and benefits (from Milam county 2012 budget).
20% overstaffed $768,000 annual savings
30% overstaffed $1,152,000 annual savings
50% overstaffed $1,920,000 annual savings
This is a limited time offer which could save Milan County significant savings leading to lower taxes.  If you have questions concerning this proposal contact me by email or by phone 573 364 8789.  There was no response to this letter or the proposal.