Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

Project Study # 1
Organizational Efficiency through Team Work
Project Description: This authority-wide effort ran from 1999 through 2006, resulting in a move
from almost complete manual labor to the use of complex technology and automation. The
effort was strongly supported by the Utility’s Board of Directors, and employees were involved
from the onset of the project.
At the core of the effort was workforce restructuring. Two core divisions—each with two
distinct “teams” formed of generalists and specialists—was created: Clean rivers (with
responsibility for the liquid treatment processes) and Green Fields (with responsibility for the
solids treatment processes). Because of the mixture of generalists and specialists, each team
is self-sufficient on 80-85 percent of their day-to-day tasks. Additionally, a central maintenance
team was created (Technical Services) for those items covering more than one team. Further,
in 2007, as a result of the retirement of the Personnel Director, the utility was able to combine
business service functions (fiscal and personnel) under one umbrella division, enhancing the
ability to cross-train functionally. The results of this restructuring were: (1) A 7 percent
reduction in budget; (2) perfect compliance with permit liquid and solids effluence limits; and (3)
Class A certification of biosolids by the state and EPA.
The actions supporting this effort included the use of teams to enable team building
skills, communication, developing new job descriptions and capturing field and employee
knowledge in a written, usable format to create a complete training program for both generalists
and specialists. A program was developed that allowed for flexibility in an employee’s choice of
future career growth, choosing to be either a generalist (with pay commensurate with the
amount of skills gained in various areas) or a specialist (focusing training on one particular skill
set). This approach decreased the number of operators per shift by 50 percent. Employee
efforts were recognized by an 11 percent increase in the salary structure.
Size of Utility: 118 employees
Critical Success Factors: ASA is in the process of defining these factors.
Cost: No additional costs were identified.
Alignment: This approach was aligned with human resource planning and strategic planning.
This merging of business service functions was a long-term goal previously unfulfilled.
Benefits: In addition to overarching organizational benefits described above, there was an
increase in worker flexibility and worker competencies which were written down allowing
development of Standard Operating Procedures.
Compiled April 2007
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POC:
Karen Pallansch
Alexandria Sanitation Authority
©2011 Water Research Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.