The Global Programs and Strategy Alliance (GPS) received a very low favorable response to the question “There is an equitable distribution of workload within my department” for the first two years (2013 & 2014) of the employee engagement survey. GPS leadership decided to explore this question by partnering with Leadership and Talent Development (LTD) to conduct employee focus groups.
Several focus groups were conducted with staff to address the questions of:
- What do you mean by equitable distribution of work?
- What impacts would result if no action were taken on this issue?
- What exactly would need to change to address this situation?
Data showed that individuals’ perceptions of workload distribution varies, from those who believe they are being asked to do more than their fair share, to those who perceive that they are denied opportunities for prime assignments and promotion.
For those who believe that they are doing more work than others, this perception can arise from lack of understanding about individuals’ flexible work schedules and reduced appointments. They see others coming in later or leaving earlier, and assume that they are not working a full day, when often it is simply that colleagues have different work schedules.
There is also a legitimate imbalance of work assignments when supervisors fail to properly manage poor work performance of certain employees. This failure to directly address performance concerns often results in work being taken away from the under-performing employee and instead reassigned to high performing staff.
Another theme the data showed was an acknowledgment by staff of the seasonal ebbs and flows of work during the course of a year. There was a desire expressed to receive cross-training so that colleagues could better cover for one another during busy times.
GPS leaders reviewed the data and chose to take action by increasing awareness of flexible work schedules and reduced appointments. Supervisors were asked to meet with employees to review schedules and ensure that proper hours are being kept. Training for supervisors on delivering performance feedback was initiated in an effort to increase their comfort with having difficult conversations.
After these actions were taken, GPS saw a nine percent favorable increase to this question on the 2015 survey. Future plans to continue addressing this area include cross-training of staff and discussions on employee development and increasing opportunities for all employees to be considered for stretch assignments and promotion.
