Article 146. Cost Cutting a State Priority but Where to Cut?
The following article from Stateline gives one of the best overviews of how states are coping with the current recession. It highlights the problem of where to make cuts but offers no solution But I do in my comments.
Budget cuts test state personnel policies
By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org Staff Writer August 27, 2009
Forced to dramatically cut payrolls, some states are finding low-cost ways to boost employee morale, even as they struggle to maintain basic human resource functions such as training, recruiting, hiring and regular performance reviews.
…Innovative cost-cutting measures such as these appeal to just about everyone. But pouring time and scarce resources into broad workforce development programs is not as easy to justify.
In 2009, more than 800,000 state employees were affected by budget cuts – mostly through unpaid days off, or furloughs. Hundreds of workers were laid off and thousands of positions were left unfilled, putting additional stress on those left behind. For the fiscal year that began July 1, states already have announced payroll cuts affecting at least a million workers and the numbers are expected to spiral even higher.
Despite these pressures, the Pew Center on the States is urging state policymakers to find creative ways to ramp up proven personnel practices so that shrinking state workforces have the support they need to continue to deliver quality government services.
Comments by Lawrence Rosier
The key message is that states do not know where to make cuts in personnel and still maintain government services. The reason they do not know is that they have not implemented Work Measurement in their government organizations. Once Work Measurement has been implemented they will know what Departments and Agencies are over staffed and how many personnel are needed to maintain government services. This is where precision cuts have an advantage over across the board cuts. Across the board cuts harms areas where government services are under staffed and has little to no effect on other bloated areas of the bureaucracy.
I have recommended that reforms begin with the implementation of Lean Teams. This reform brings a positive cultural change to the organization. There is a high level management Lean Team which focuses its studies on the high level processes of the organization and low level functional Lean Teams. Employees become members of Lean Teams (eventually self directed teams) and are motivated by empowering them to improve their jobs through innovation. By bringing innovation and continuous improvement to the government’s processes the state will save $ millions through increased efficiency both now and in the future. The reform amounts to a win win situation for government union employees as well as the tax payers of the state by employee empowerment and by ending bureaucratic waste. This is followed by the use of Work Measurement to set staffing levels using Process Flow Charts. And this is followed by replacing the current organization with a two tier form of government based on Steering Management and Functional management. See my articles 103, 104, 106, 147,148, 149, 151 and 152.
