County weighs 4-day week
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on May 14, 2015 1:46 PM
The Wayne County Health Department is looking at the merits of the four-day workweek, introduced at all county agencies in 2008 as an energy savings measure.
"We're currently evaluating it," Health Director Davin Madden told the Board of Health on Wednesday. "We sent out a survey to all employees."
Madden said the move was prompted by discussions with commissioners over the last year about whether to return to a five-day workweek. He said once the surveys were compiled and studied, the findings will be forwarded to the county manager.
So far, though, he said that feedback from staff was largely positive, leaning toward continuing the four-day set-up -- operating Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. until 6 p.m.
"We have got over 85 percent of the respondents in favor of keeping it," he said.
He said the main complaints centered around the accessibility of services in some areas, but even that did not appear to be a dealbreaker.
According to a quarterly satisfaction survey done at the Health Department, questions about whether the hours were convenient for patients and if they were "happy with the Health Department hours" consistently drew a response rate of about 95 percent positive.
"Now we have kind of put ourselves into an interesting position because from a service exposure to the community it makes sense (to be open five days)," Madden said. "But in this four-day workweek we have created expanded hours so have actually enhanced accessibility."
He said that it has proved to be a perk and a recruitment tool for the Health Department, as workers appeared to appreciate having Friday off to handle other responsibilities, such as child care.
"We have a fairly significant number of employees that work here because of the four-day workweek," he said, adding, "Fridays have always been a little lenient and vacant if you will from our patronage."
The question ultimately will boil down to what will be the gain should the Health Department return to the five-day schedule.
Madden said he would not argue either point, because there are merits on both sides. His intention is to compile results of all the surveys, which he will share with the board before passing them along to the county manager.
"There are good arguments on both sides," he said. "I want to do what's going to keep us viable. I don't want to lose good staff."
Board member Tommy Gibson said the employees he had spoken with seemed to really like having a four-day workweek.
"I would think by allowing the employees to have Friday free, I would think you would see a reduction in sick days," Board Chairman Bob Cagle said.
Gibson asked if a figure had ever been announced of what the cost savings to the county had been with the conversion to the abbreviated schedule.
Board member Ray Mayo, who is a commissioner, said he was uncertain of the exact dollar amount, but felt the savings have not always shown up across the board by shutting off the heat or air conditioning.
"I'm going to be an advocate for making sure that each department be looked at individually," he said. "Some departments don't need to be here no Friday.
"I think it's on a need-to basis."
Cagle agreed with both the health director and Mayo's suggestion for the county to make a decision on a case-by-case basis among the county agencies.
"As Davin said, it's a hiring benefit, something we offer for those people," he said. "We seem to be functioning fine with a four-day workweek.
"If it comes down to the board saying something, I would hope that we would push to leave it alone, if we're being productive in getting the job done and have a 95 percent successful satisfaction rating."
The board also voted to cancel one of its summer meetings. It had previously voted to hold a special evening meeting on June 30 to accommodate presentations of winning student essays from the annual Teen Public Health Perspective Contest. Since the July 8 meeting would be so close, Cagle recommended the board dispense with that meeting and resume in August.