County still mulling half-day Fridays
Marathon County may offer its employees an additional holiday every year and allow some workers to close their offices early on Fridays, under a proposal being developed by county administrator Lance Leonhard.
As part of an ongoing effort to increase employee retention and recruitment, Leonhard pitched a couple of ideas to the Human Resources, Finance and Capital Committee last week based on data collected from other counties in Wisconsin.
The idea of “half-day Fridays” had previously been discussed at an HRFC meeting in May, when human resources director Molly Adzic provided a quarterly update to supervisors. The proposal would allow employees with publicfacing jobs to close their offices early on Friday, enabling them more time to focus on other duties without distractions.
“Employees would still be required to work 40 hours, but it would give them time to catch up on other work,” Leonhard said.
The courthouse and the Lake View Drive campus, where multiple departments have recently relocated, are currently open to the public Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with no closures over the lunch hour. This adds up to 42.5 hours of public access per week.
Leonhard said the way the county delivers services to the public has drastically changed over the years, with more and more people using the county’s websites to do everything from booking a campsite to paying fees and submitting license applications. Though some members of the public do still come to county offices to conduct business, the foot traffic drops off noticeably at the end of the week, he said.
“The public is not accessing our services on Friday afternoon,” he said. “If you want to have quiet time, come to the courthouse on a Friday afternoon and see what happens.”
In today’s competitive job market, where employees are always looking for higher pay and better working conditions, Leonhard said modifying work schedules has become a popular incentive for both public and private sector employers. Several counties have moved to four, 10-hour work weeks for employees, and some have even reduced the total number of expected work hours from 40 to 32 per week – without a reduction in pay, he noted.
“I want to be very clear: I’m not advocating that we do that,” Leonhard said.
Leonhard said the county could also consider opening its offices a half-hour earlier Monday through Thursday. The county clerk’s office has already modified its schedule by allowing people to schedule appointments after 5 p.m. once a month on the night of county board meetings.
County clerk Kim Trueblood said the after-5 appointment hours have gone over really well, and she believes they could bring in even more people on their way home from work if they were to stay open straight through past the 4:30 p.m. closure.
“I think it would be a tremendous benefit to do that,” she said.
Offering an additional paid holiday to employees is another option the county should explore, Leonard said, especially since the nine holidays currently offered to most Marathon County employees is below the average of 10.6 days for Wisconsin counties.
Supervisor John Robinson, chairman of the HRFC, after asking for reactions from committee members, gave Leonhard the goahead to develop formal recommendations and bring them back to the committee for further discussion.
“I’m confident I can develop a policy that would work well,” he said.
