Posters IV - The American Academy of Clinical Toxicology

INTRODUCTION. Teleworking has become an emerging initiative among many companies in an effort
to better utilize their current workforce. By globalizing and evolving their scheduling strategy, poison
center managers presuppose cost savings for their company, lowered carbon emissions, a plan of action
for emergency preparedness, and improved job satisfaction among their employees. Assessing
productivity of employees while teleworking as opposed to an in-office workday will be critical in
evaluating the effectiveness of this program. Equally as important is their efficiency as compared to other
colleagues with a comparable workload. BACKGROUND. In February of 2009, our center implemented
10-hour work shifts for our staff of Specialists in Poison Information (SPIs). Four months later, we
launched our telework initiative for 10 SPIS who met predetermined criteria. As we look to expand this
initiative to a broader staff base, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and a corresponding standard of
measure have been established to assess the overall program's degree of efficiency. METHODS. Utilizing
data from previously produced monthly SPI productivity reports, KPIs were established for the 21 SPIs
we analyzed in this study. These KPIs included the number of cases handled per SPI, time SPI was
available to receive a call, time SPI was idle, rate of incoming calls per hour, and average wrap-up time
per call. Automatic call distribution (ACD) and workload data was gathered for each KPI in three different
settings. We compared seven teleworkers productivity during a telework shift and a non-telework shift to
other SPIs during a comparable non- telework shift. RESULTS. Comparison between teleworkers
working at home and in the office, and teleworkers compared to office-based staff, showed less than 10%
variation on most KPI measures. Only availability to answer ACD calls varied significantly. Teleworking
SPIs were available for a larger amount of time during their teleworking shift compared to their own shifts
in-office and to office-based staff (for 10 hr shifts, 9 hr 4 min, vs. 8 hr 38 min and 8 hr 33 min
respectively, p