The Elephant in the Room

Like the proverbial “elephant in the room,” over-work is the troubling workplace reality thateveryone knows is there, but no one dares men-tion because they don’t know how to deal with it.

No one questions that work hours and reportedstress levels are increasing or that documentedcosts of stress and burnout are rising. Despite itshuge organizational and personal costs, theproblem of overwork is difficult to raise becauseof the common wisdom that long work hours arethe price of success and increased productivity.How can we even think about reducing work-load when the economic environment — nevermind job security — compels us all to keep ourshoulders to the wheel?

The result is that, despite the human capital cost,employers are not doing a good job of addressingescalating workload. And they knowit. Recently, WFD Consulting invitedemployers to rate themselves on arange of factors that drive organiza-tional health and resilience.Respondents rated their organiza-tions lowest on “addressing work-load” (see graphic), with only one inten saying their company was doinga good job.1

Addressing Workload Through ATeam Effectiveness Process

Though workload is largely an unad-dressed issue, a number of compa-nies are finding that they can indeedreduce workload and work stress —while maintaining or increasing pro-ductivity. These companies includeIBM, Deloitte & Touche USA LLP,Texas Instruments and Marriott

International. Using the Team EffectivenessProcess™ developed by WFD, these companieshave empowered work groups to get to the rootof excessive workload and find practical solu-tions. The result is increased effectiveness for theteam and greater job satisfaction and quality oflife for the individual.2

The Team Effectiveness Process™ is based onresearch about the causes of overwork. Teamsare given on-line tools to help them identify pre-cisely the practices, processes, and behaviorsthat contribute to inefficiency and excessiveworkload. They are then guided through a teamproblem-solving process to develop innovativesolutions and action plans that deal with the pri-ority issues for their team. The team manager isalso provided with on-line monitoring tools andtips for sustaining the benefits over time.

Tackling the Issue of Workload: It’s About Time!

FALL

2004

VO

L. 1

2

Source: WFD Consulting

20% 41% 39%

20% 47% 33%

26% 46% 28%

20% 62% 18%

45% 47% 8%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Trust & Inclusion

Social Support

Providing EffectiveManagers

Managing Workload

Low(1-4)

Middle (5-7)

High (8-10)

Problem Solving/Openness to

New Ideas

Few organizations say they are doing well at managing workload and nearly half give their organizations a low rating

Participants rated their mid-size and large, for-profit organizations on a scale from1 (low) to 10 (high) on each factor. The responses from participants have beencollapsed into ‘high’ (ratings from 8 to 10), ‘middle’ (ratings from 5 to 7), and ‘low’(ratings from 1 to 4) and are displayed above.

WFD's expertise in

creating more effective

workplaces has helped

hundreds of companies

both in the U.S. and

internationally become

more profitable by

increasing employee

commitment and retention.

Through its Team

Effectiveness Process™,

WFD helps companies

enhance business

performance and work-life

effectiveness through

work innovation.

About IATIAT is a quarterly

research brief from WFD Consulting

on important workplace issues.

Electronic subscriptions to

this brief are available.

Corporate success stories in addressing overworkcontain several common themes.

Harness the energy of teams. “There is a greatdeal that can be done to address workload at theteam level—and the very process of comingtogether and defining what is in their power tocontrol is a positive experience for team mem-bers,” says Diane Burrus who has implementedthe Team Effectiveness Process™ in a wide vari-ety of work situations. “Because team memberswork together to tackle workload issues that arecausing them frustration and wasted effort, theyare motivated to succeed. Armed with objectivedata, TEP enables workgroups to address issuesthat would be otherwise difficult to raise and todevelop work innovations that save time andenergy.”

But if teams are in such a time crunch, how willthey find time to step back and evaluate theirwork? The answer, says Burrus, is a process thatis streamlined and easy for managers to imple-ment. In this way a small investment of timeyields concrete results. For example, IBM useson-line tools to guide managers through a workevaluation and action planning process withtheir teams. IBM has successfully implementedthe process in every geography of the world,resulting in less time spent on administrativetasks and more profitable time spent with clients.

Root out low value and frustrating work. “Thekey is to go after low value work,” says AmyRichman, who has tracked the impact of the TEPon employees and businesses. “In our researchwe found that, across industries and at differentlevels within organizations, employees werereporting they spent about 20% of their time onlow value or frustrating work that could bereduced or eliminated without negatively affect-ing business results.”

Through an on-line survey and facilitated discus-sion, teams can identify the areas of inefficiencyand ineffectiveness that lead to excessive work-load. “It’s surprising,” says Richman, “how quick-ly consensus builds about where time is beingwasted.” When Marriott hotel properties identi-fied low value work, they were able to cut fivehours from managers’ work weeks, without any

negative effect on financial results, guest satisfac-tion or productivity metrics.3

Maintain a dual focus. “The danger of any workredesign process,” says Burrus, “is that itbecomes all about advantage to the company.There has to be something in it for the teammembers. Otherwise, change is difficult to sus-tain and you haven’t really affected stress, moraleand burnout issues. The key to a sustainable planis a dual focus that benefits both the companyand the individual.”

At Texas Instruments, teams create their own“work-life effectiveness charter” as an integralpart of workload management. Using an on-lineassessment tool and a discussion guide, eachteam identifies ways to “affirm people’s right tohave personal lives” while also meeting businessgoals. Team charters typically include suchthings as respecting each other’s time, communi-cating expectations clearly and early in a project,building personal commitments into projectplanning, evaluating others based on results,supporting each other in taking vacation andother time off, and avoiding unnecessary inter-ruptions.

Far from undermining productivity, tacklingworkload produces results that are gratifying tomanagers, team members and customers.Deloitte used the team-based process with clientengagement teams, resulting in greater teameffectiveness, communication, morale, and satisfaction of both clients and team members.The leader of a team that had previously experi-enced high turnover and low morale, remarkedon the turn-around. “My team was very pleasedwith the increased flexibility, work-life balanceand enhanced effectiveness of the team in working together with their clients. In fact, manyhave indicated a desire to join this team againnext year!” 1 Visit WFD’s website www.wfd.com for more information about theOrganizational Resilience Scorecard or to learn how your organizationrates on organizational resilience.

2 For case studies of how these companies addressed workloadusing the Team Effectiveness Process, visit www.wfd.com.

3For a more detailed account of the Marriott experience, see thearticle “Changing a Culture of Facetime,” Harvard BusinessReview, November, 2001.

Meet The Experts

Diane BurrusDiane Burrus, SeniorConsultant at WFDConsulting, drew on overtwenty years of consulting

experience to develop, pilot andrefine the Team EffectivnessProcess. An expert on developingflexible management practicesand innovative work-life effective-ness strategies, Diane is thePractice Leader for WFD’s TeamEffectiveness Process and hasdesigned and implemented man-agement training programs, flexi-bility initiatives and team-basedprocesses in leading companiesworldwide

Amy RichmanAmy Richman, SeniorConsultant at WFD, hasmore than twenty yearsof experience designingworkplace measurements,including the on-line sur-veys and monitoring

tools that are part of the TeamEffective Process. Amy is anexpert in designing customizedsurveys and in documenting theimpact of workplace interven-tions. Amy is the author of stud-ies on the drivers of employeecommitment and organizationalresilience, as well as analyses ofthe costs of employee burnoutand stress.

Contact Us.200 Talcott Avenue WestWatertown, MA 02472ph: 617-673-3100fax: 617-926-6443www.wfd.comIts_about_time@wfd.com

Addressing Workload Has Tangible ResultsCompanies have monitored and evaluated the impact of a Team Effectiveness Process andfound that there are concrete, beneficial results for both the organization and individuals.

Teams have been able to:• Improve business processes

• Increase efficiency

• Enhance client service

• Increase employee satisfaction,morale and work-life effectiveness

Before and after measurements show• Time on low value work cut in half

• Higher quality of client service

• Increased productivity

• Increased employee satisfaction scores on surveys

• Lower stress

• Lower turnover