Trending
LOCK HAVEN -- A Pilot program recently established in the Clinton County Children and Youth Services Department received positive feedback from its leaders.
CYS Director Autumn Bower and Assistant Director Tristan Rock provided the commissioners with a rundown on how the tele-work program -- which began in mid-March -- has helped the department.
"It allows CYS staff to work from home one day a week. And that is always a Tuesday and a Thursday," Rock said.
The program, which had backing from the board, allows CYS staff -- if they choose -- to work from home one day a week. According to Rock, with the schedule as it is roughly 50 percent of CYS staff are in the building Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays unchanged.
"Prior to being permitted the ability to tele-work one day, all staff needed to take a tele-work training and submit that certificate," Rock said.
Employees also needed to be in good standing with the agency, successfully complete the 90 days probationary period and successfully completed foundations. "Which in the CYS world is the required training that all caseworkers must complete," she said.
According to Rock, tele-work has not disrupted the department or its responsibilities that include meeting deadlines, home visits, court hearings or in-person meetings.
"If they need to complete (any of) those they are still expected to come into the office and take care of those things and just function as if it's a normal day," she said. "It's just a normal day, they're coming back and forth from their homes."
Rock said the department keeps track of each employee by having them submit daily logs.
"We can monitor everything they're doing and make sure everybody is being productive," she said.
According to Rock, the program is widely accepted amongst CYS agencies with the support of the Department of Human Services.
Rock said the Pilot program will run until mid-June.
Bower told the commissioners the program has seen a multitude of benefits in its short run-time so far. She specifically touched on recruitment and retention.
"I think that it'll take a little bit of time to see, since it's been a short period of time, but I feel pretty confident that there will be some improvement with that," she said.
Bower noted the department has seen a higher rate of turnover in the last year.
"So I'm really hopeful that this pilot program can help with some of those recruitment and retention efforts," she said. "It can be quite difficult for an agency when you have a lot of turnover and constantly try to retrain staff."
Since the program began, Bower said her staff has seen an increase in productivity. She said when an employee has a planned tele-work day, they're encouraged to complete a wide range of paperwork that can otherwise be time consuming in the office.
"Some of them that need to do some of these different pieces of paperwork on those tele-work days, they're putting out more of that than they would if they were here," she said.
Bower believes this is because employees often get pulled from their work in-office due to phone calls, questions from coworkers and other factors.
Employees have also used this tele-work days to take the 20 hours of required training that's needed each year.
"They've been able to utilize tele-work days to work on some of those training hours that need to be complete prior to our annual licensing inspection," she said.
Bower said she and Rock have noticed an overall shift in the employees positivity as well.
"I think they're coming in here more upbeat (and) I think some of that is connected to this pilot program," she said.
Other factors Bower touched on regarding the program was its ability to alleviate stress, create a better work/life balance and reduce electricity use in the department.
All three commissioners thanked Bower, Rock and their staff for their feedback.
"I think that it's a fantastic program," Commissioner Angela Harding said.
Harding noted CYS was chosen for the pilot program because the staff is predominantly one of its youngest throughout county departments.
"The hope is that we can work out and tweak through whatever issues may arise and formulate that for an overall county policy," she said. "Which allows departments to have the ability to offer one day a week for remote work."
Harding said the board hopes this can help with retaining and recruiting employees in county government and "sustain our workforce."