WORK-LIFE CONSULTING

ALVIN CHEN

• Senior Social Worker

• Certified Solution Focused Practitioner

• ACTA certified trainer

• CertIV in NPO Leadership

• Hobbies: Songwriting, Gigging, Golf, Swimming

WHY WORK-LIFE ?

• Reduce staff turnover of 25%

• Attract Potential Employees

• Improve staff morale

• Increase productivity and revenue

• How? Use Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs)

WHAT IS FLEXIBLE WORKING HOURS?

• Known as flexi time, it is a scheduling programme that allows them to choose their start time and finish time daily.

Refer to page 1

WHY CHOOSE FLEXI-TIME?

• Extend operating hours without increasing salary costs

• Less people arriving to work at different timings is less disruptive

• Employees can cater to their family responsibilities and manage stress

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CHALLENGES

• Time Keeping System

• Leadership skills

• Change Management

• Customer relations

Refer to page 3

CASE EXAMPLE: NTUC INCOME INSURANCE CO-OPERATIVE LTD

• 20% of its employees opted for flexi time arrangements

• choose to report at 8am or 9am and end work at 4.50pm or 5.50pm

• Turnover rate reduced from 15% to 9% in 1999

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RECOMMENDED FLEXI-TIME ARRANGEMENTS

• Job Sharing - two or more people share responsibilities of one job

• Annualised Hours - replacement of a monthly-hour contract with a yearly-hour contract

Combination of the below 2:

KEY BENEFITS

• Tap on wider range of skills and experience in one job

• Offers opportunity for job sharers to learn from one another

• Jobs can continue to retain full time status to preserve their career skills and status

• Elimination of overtime costs since additional hours have been factored into yearly-hour contract

CASE EXAMPLE: QUEEN’S HOSPITAL, 1996

• staff could choose full time hours of 1,950 hours per annum or part time hours

• indicate availability for extra hours each month

• when workload increases, available staff are asked to work

• when workload declines, staff on shift are asked not to work

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EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES REFER TO PAGE 7

• Assuming each staff nurse works an 8-hour shift per day, two workers may be rostered to fill up this role in 4.5-hour shifts each.

• The additional 0.5hours in each shift will be utilised for hand-over briefings between the two workers to improve communication and follow up needs of patients

Job Sharing

EXPLORING POSSIBILITIES

• Assuming that four nurses are needed to cover one patient in a 168-hour week, rostering 4.5-hour shifts will generate 186 shifts per month for each patient.

• Each worker will work an average of 23-24hours per week, which is almost 50% of their original 44-hour work week.

Annualised Hours

GOAL ACHIEVED - REDUCED STAFF TURNOVER• Reduced work stress due to

shared responsibilities

• Increased emphasis on leadership capabilities due to frequency of communication and rostering

• Increased opportunities of learning

• More hours for self care and family time

GOAL ACHIEVED - ATTRACT POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES

• flexible work hours mean greater work life balance

• retention of full time status of staff mean opportunities for skills development

• Increased opportunities of learning and personal development for staff

• Happier work environment and greater productivity

IMPLEMENTATION OF FLEXI-WORK ARRANGEMENTS

KEY IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

• Attracting suitable partners for job sharing

• Communication between work partners

• Tracking hours using a complex system

• Not possible to include all staff in this arrangement

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REDUCING CHALLENGES

• Understand implementation environment using Likert Scale Survey

• Accurately predict future trends in workload and staff requirements throughout the year

• Example: 1) How many hours do I work a week? 48 hours mean overtime of 4 hours

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USING LIKERT SCALE

Solving Problems

Very inadequate Skills are much more inadequate than adequate for solving problems

Moderately inadequate Skills are more inadequate than adequate for solving problems

Balance between adequate and inadequate skills for solving problems

Moderately adequate Skills are more adequate than inadequate for solving problems

Very adequate Skills are much more adequate than inadequate for solving problems

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2) Am I adequately trained for solving problems in my work?

Assuming 80% of workers from department A indicated “3” as moderately inadequately trained….

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IMPLEMENTATION RESEARCH

Manageable Workload

High distress Distress much greater than satisfaction due to workload

Moderate distress Distress greater than satisfaction due to workload

Balance between satisfaction and distress due to workload

Moderate satisfaction Satisfaction greater than distress due to workload

High satisfaction Satisfaction much greater than distress due to workload

3) Is my workload manageable?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

80% of workers from Department A also indicated moderate distress over their workload

Action: Worker A’s workload consists of problems they were not trained to solve. ABC Nursing Home should consider hiring more senior staff or send staff for training.

OTHER IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

• Procedure for employees to notify supervisors if particular shift is inconvenient

• means for employer to vary arrangement after giving reasonable notice; set out the work arrangements in contract formally

• Clauses in employment contract to explain that outstanding hours / salary owed to employer / employee respectively should be resolved in a specified procedural manner

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• Proposal should be backed with a measurable increase in benefits

• Talk to employees to assess their needs

• Develop effective monitoring system to track productivity and benefits

• Support and ownership from top management is crucial

• Start off with pilot systems

• Patients and stakeholders should be informed of changes

• Build effective communication strategy

Success Factors

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LEWIN’S FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS: REDUCING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

• Communication

• Learning

• Employee Involvement

• Stress Management

• Negotiation

Engaging a certified Coach in Solution Focused Approach helps tremendously ! Refer to Page 11

LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY

Increasing annual reserve by 20% in 3-4 years time via cost savings

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TRACKING COST SAVINGS

Man hours per staff nurse per annum

Original Arrangement based on 8 hour shifts

Flexi-Arrangement based on 4.5 hour shifts

Rostered Hours (44 hour work week)

2300 hours 2300 hours

Holidays 200 hours 200 hours

Handover briefings 0 hours 286 hours

- Training 100 hours 100 hours

- on call 200 hours 200 hours

Total Contracted annual hours

2800 hours 3086 hours

Cost Savings = wages for 3086 hours - cost of re-training and

hiring a new staff due to staff turnover

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OTHER WAYS OF OFFSETTING HIGHER STAFF COSTS

• Utilising funds reserved for bonuses and salary increments

• Hiring a care support staff (mother) every 1 out of 8 workers during shift hours that do not require much intensive work

• Reduce handover briefing durations for seasoned and trained staff

• Reduce number of staff rostered when operations decline during seasonal periods

CONCLUSION

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSTHANK YOU !