Save Award 2010 Ideas

Create a FTE position as the "Time and Attendance Officer" (TAO) in each field office and headquarters (as many as needed based on # of staff).

Branch Chiefs/supervisors spend upwards of 1/3rd or more of their work day with time and attendance issues.

A properly centralized TAO would remove this minute by minute burden from the Branch Chiefs, thus allowing same to focus on their more important core issues/responsibilities.... more »

We have wrist watches, cell phones, computers, etc. why does the government need to spend so much money on clocks for the walls?

 

The only place I see the need for a wall clock is in meeting space where there are no work spaces (no computers).

I think more DHS components should use the WebTA time and attendance system. I worked for DHS S&T for 2 years and the web based time and attendance system was great. You could certify your time from anywhere as long as you had access to the internet. I now work for DHS CBP and employees have to fill out excel spreadsheets and hand deliver the forms for someone to manually type into an antiquated mainframe system. Instead... more »

To efficiently record progress and maintain accountability, the time and attendance system (WebTads) would be updated to have employees provide a short description of the work accomplished during the bi-weekly period, which would then serve as the foundation of the performance review. The web based time and attendance system (Webtads) has improved efficiency by allowing employees to record hours worked in just minutes.... more »

Allow better flexible work schedules. Allow the employee to set their own schedule to equate to a 80 hour payperiod. For example, one day employee works 6 hours then another two days work 9 hours. This would allow the worker to minimize the amount of annual leave taken to care for their family errands or child care responsibilities. It would also greatly boost morale in the office. The flexible schedule would allow... more »

Allow time card system of Fed employees to utilize a default mode where employees complete time cards only if they have changes to their time card such as requesting leave. Currently, employees have to fill-out time card every pay period even if present every day. Elimination of the time contending with time cards would be a huge cost avoidance in a single year.

When Federal handbooks are written and replaced typically the changes are minimal and only effect certain pages or possibly chapters in the handbook. Rather than replacing complete handbooks, only send out the changes that need to be replaced in a 3 ring binder format. This would save paper, contribute to environmental conservation, printing costs, etc. In order to make sure the handbook is up to date provide an index... more »

Our group has recently been discussing doing away with our "paper" timesheets that we fill out, submit, and send electronically to the supervisor since we are a remotely sited group. We have just switched to Overtime Request and PreApproved and Final Approvals in our electronic timekeeping system (CASTLE) and also submit Leave Requests/Approvals that way. Since everything is electronic and comments can explain details... more »

Each component office or Division within Treasury (or other Dept.) should be required (or at least induced) to designate 1 person who volunteers to assist others with computer, video, or other related technical issues. This volunteer would be a "poweruser" type who could save time and resources to fix minor computer problems, complicated spreadsheets or software applications, help set up the projectors, etc. for his/her... more »

I suggest we eliminate DOI Learn completely. Hardly anyone takes it seriously and we spend far too much time trying to remember our username and password. We end up spending hours on something that should only take a few minutes.

Fax to outside providers only STAT or Urgent exam requests. The Routine exams can be picked up by daily courier. This is just being implemented in Las Vegas to not only reduce use of paper and toner(paper confirmations) but employee time at the fax machine as well.

Supervisor's should be more accountable for their staff's wasting of core time to "visit" about what they will do all day, or what they will do on comp time later. If the taxpayers only knew how much waste there really was they would be enraged!

Have each organization complete a six sigma event to streamline their processes to reduce waste. I know the organization I work with has implemented new ideas out of the air and sometimes performs additional work than that is what required. It needs to be determined if this additional work efforts are actually needed and are benificial. A lean six sigma may find numerous ways to streamline processes and reduce waste.... more »

Simplify time accounting. For "salaried" employees, why count hours? Count accomplishments, count positive comments from satisfied customers, count money saved, widgets produced, etc. So much money is spent on recording and tracking and accounting for time that we could do a lot more useful work if that was eliminated.

Simplify time accounting. For "salaried" employees, why count hours? Count accomplishments, count positive comments from satisfied customers, count money saved, widgets produced, etc. So much money is spent on recording and tracking and accounting for time that we could do a lot more useful work if that was eliminated.