Free-Reprint Article Written by: Anne Sych See Terms of Reprint Below.
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Facility utilities are reduced by up to 20 percent, and employees realize an immediate savings in commuting expenses when shifting to a four-day week. Additional Article Information: =============================== 476 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2008-09-09 12:36:00 Written By: Anne Sych Copyright: 2008 Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Anne Sych, please visit: http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/recent/author/anne-sych.html ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=6267&p=load HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/government-in-action.shtml#get_code --------------------------------------------------------------------- Government in Action: Cities Move Toward Four-Day Work Week Copyright (c) 2008 Anne Sych Novo Help Desk Software http://www.novosolutions.com/ While we cannot know if gas prices have peaked or will continue to rise, some municipalities have moved to a four-day work week in an effort to cut expenses for cities and employees alike. Facility utilities are reduced by up to 20%, and employees realize an immediate savings in commuting expenses when shifting to a four-day week. Utah is setting the stage by becoming the first state to institute a mandatory four-day work week for most state employees, joining local governments across the nation that are making workday adjustments to save money, energy and resources. Utahs Gov. Jon Huntsman says he's making the change to reduce the state's carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, improve customer service and provide workers more flexibility. While the idea of a four-day workweek may seem new, the four-day work week is fairly common among city and county governments. Rex Facer, an assistant professor at Brigham Young University whose research team is studying the four-day work week concept, estimates that about one-sixth of U.S. cities with populations above 25,000 offer employees a four-day work week (many work four-10 hour days and alternate days off so that all weekdays are staffed). However Facer expects more cities to begin shutting offices on Fridays. "The increasing pressures the American is facing around gas prices is certainly a significant factor, and the overall fiscal pressures governments are facing in general," he states, are reasons for the change. Beyond the energy and financial implications, the four-day work week provides an improved quality-of-life for many. Gov. Huntsman says it has been generally well received and is especially popular among younger employees. And Facer agrees that an improved "work-life balance" often results from a shorter work week. So how do citizens and government do business when City Hall is closed? It is a lot to expect people to just remember that City Hall is closed or to hold their business for 3 days. An effective tool for allowing business as usual is through the Internet by use of a Citizen Response Management (CRM) System. Many municipalities have implemented Citizen 311 Request Systems, as a centralized face for doing business with the city. Everything from making a service request, to checking city services (and more) are all maintained within the 311 system. When deployed as a self help environment, citizens themselves can find answers to common FAQs, or make requests within the system, not only on Fridays, but 24/7. In the case of service requests, the automated workflow sends the requests to the appropriate departments, and the citizen is advised of the status of their request. They dont have to wait until Monday morning to handle their business. Perhaps one day the four-day work week will move into the private business sector, but for now expect to see more and more government agencies moving towards this avenue for doing business. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Written by: Anne Sych, Marketing Manager for Novo Solutions, Inc. Novo Solutions, Inc. is an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) in Virginia Beach, Virginia specializing in Citizen and Customer Support Software. Free trial versions of the Novo Help Desk Software, Knowledge Base Software Asset Management Software and and suite of web-based Customer Support Solutions are available. Contact: http://www.novosolutions.com/ for more information. --- END ARTICLE --- Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/s/government-in-action.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. 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