Getting More For Less

- Hey everybody! Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute. This week, I am coming to you from Orlando, Florida. You know, many of you are having a great third and fourth quarter, after a really tough second quarter with COVID. And many of you are considering bringing back either furloughed staff or hiring for positions that maybe you didn't even have six months ago. One of the things I want to remind you is, there's more than one way to get that work done. And maybe a full-time person isn't the right choice for you. Remember Parkinson's Law, and Parkinson's Law told us that "Work grows to expand the amount of time that we give it to be done." And so, for example, on the day before we go on vacation, we get a ton of stuff done. Not because we're any more efficient or effective, but because Parkinson's Law kicks into effect. We know we don't have very much time before we're getting ready to go on vacation, and so we just crush our to-do list. So that's very true for our employees as well. Many of you have taken full-time employees and made them part time employees, or you've reduced staff, which means that you're putting more of a workload on your existing team and remarkably your team is getting the work done. So one of the things to think about is, do you need a full-time 40-hour position for the work that you need to get done, or would you be better off taking advantage of Parkinson's Law and hiring someone for 25 or 30 hours and giving them a very detailed list of things they need to get done in a compressed timeframe and see if they can deliver what you would normally get out of a 40 hour a week employee in 25 or 30 hours. Lots of agencies are having great success with this, with part-time people. A lot of families have decided that they don't want to go back full time, that they really liked having a little more time for home or for kids or for schooling, whatever it may be. So that may be a way for you to take advantage of Parkinson's Law and put it to work at your agency. Maybe the answer isn't another full-time person. Maybe it is a series of part-time people, all of whom are working to get everything that they need to get done in a compressed period of time. Think about it. I'll talk to you next week.