Re: Studies of Worker Time

[<Rfreitagmw@xxxxxxx>]

Margaret,
What is the goal of your effort to study worker time? Children's Research 
Center has conducted numerous WORKLOAD studies, which offer advantages over 
classic time and motion studies. In brief, time studies measure how a worker 
divides their time among various activities in a day. Results are generally 
aggregated in various ways to reach conclusions about how much time is spent 
per case, hence how many cases can be handled by a worker, or conversely, how 
many workers are needed for a given caseload. One limitation of this approach 
is that there is no measure of whether time spent is sufficient to meet 
practice standards. Most in child welfare feel that current time spent is not 
sufficient, so simply measuring existing time spent tends to underestimate 
optimal practice. Some methodologies attempt to account for this by 
conducting focus groups or surveys to get opnions of how much more time would 
be needed to do the job right. Unfortunately, this dilutes the objectivity of 
the measured results. 

Workload studies, in contrast, measure how much time is required to meet or 
exceed a predetermined standard of practice. For more information, feel free 
to contact CRC at 608-831-8882.
Raelene Freitag
Children's Research Center