HomeMy WebLinkAbout2.D. Front Desk Reception 4 ROSEMOUNT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CITY COUNCIL
City Council Work Session: June 13, 2012
AGENDA ITEM: Front Desk Reception
PREPARED BY: Dwight Johnson, City Administrator AGENDA NO. 2 - 1)-
ATTACHMENTS: APPROVED BY:
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Consider alternatives for front desk reception and
administrative support.
BACKGROUND
Cheryle Coughlin, our front desk receptionist for twenty years, unexpectedly retired last Thursday, May
31s after a six week leave of absence. The retirement was effective June 7, 2012. We have been staffing
the front desk with a capable temporary employee who has previous experience with the City.
In 2010, staff and the Council reviewed a list of about 30 ideas regarding cost savings and our level of
service as a part of our budget review for 2011. One of the items discussed on that list was to cease full
time receptionist coverage at our front desk in the main lobby. An option on our `B" list was to reduce
the receptionist position to 32 hours per week, while the "C" list showed an option for complete
elimination of the receptionist position. Neither option was adopted by the Council at that time.
With the retirement of Ms. Coughlin, it is worthwhile to review our options once again before proceeding
with filling the position with a full-time person.
DISCUSSION
In the latter part of 2009, the City implemented a new digital phone system. One feature of the phone
system allows us to handle incoming phone calls with a phone tree. Callers to the main City Hall number
would be greeted by a message and asked to press 1 for Utility Billing, etc. Staff has temporarily
implemented the phone tree system as of Tuesday, June 5 both to determine how well it works and to
take some of the call burden off our temporary staff. We intend to have a report for you at Wednesday's
Work Session on how well the phone tree system is working using the report writing features available
within the phone system.
The current receptionist position has had two principal duties: (1) receive general calls and visitors to City
Hall and direct them to various departments as necessary; and (2) provide clerical and administrative
support to the Administration Department and occasionally to the Community Development, Finance and
Fire Departments.
At the current time, the City receives about 15 incoming general phone calls per day and about 10 walk in
visitors per day. We intend to evaluate in the coming days how many of the general phone calls can be
handled effectively by the phone tree. The phone tree has an option for "operator" if the caller cannot
determine which option is appropriate. If these "operator" calls are not very numerous, we tentatively
believe that other staff from Community Development and Finance can handle the relatively small number
of walk -in visitors each day.
This leaves the clerical and administrative support function to be considered. The primary functions of
the position in the past have included: data entry, word processing and scanning, answering telephones,
providing assistance to the public, directing inquiries, preparing reports and purchase orders, assisting with
data entry and word processing support to all city departments, maintaining records and files, registering
voters and assisting with absentee ballots, licensing, and some assistance to the finance department.
Current and projected needs include: handling routine correspondence, forms & paperwork, spreadsheets,
Laserfiche, project management and workflow software, records retrieval, and the ability to respond to
projects, problems or complaints that require research, calculations, or resolution. Other projected needs
include assisting in the areas of administration, human resources, development, workforce planning and
development, benefits, safety, elections, licensing, policy and procedure development, and special projects.
OPTIONS:
1. Continue as we have in the past and hire a new full -time receptionist to handle calls, walk -in visitors,
and provide clerical and administrative support. This is the most expensive option, but is also the only
option that provides direct human contact with residents and visitors who call the City. This is an
intangible that is difficult to assess and quantify.
2. Use the phone tree to handle phone calls and existing staff to greet walk -in visitors in the front lobby
and hire a part -time clerical person who would be located back in the office area to provide clerical and
administrative support for the functions noted above. Alternatives to hiring a new part time person would
include adding hours to a current part -time staff member or contracting some of the functions. These
sub - options are considered financially similar for this analysis, so we estimate that we would save
approximately $26,000 per year, but a one -time cost for remodeling the front lobby area would be
recommended to eliminate permanently empty window bays and excessive signage to direct visitors to
open windows. The estimated one -time cost of the remodeling ranges from $10,000- $20,000.
3. Use the phone tree and existing staff as outlined above to handle calls and visitors, but absorb the
clerical and administrative functions within other current staff members in various departments.
This option would save $56,000 per year on the face of it, but would cost other staff members some
amount of efficiency in their own jobs to handle the needed clerical and administrative support functions
noted above. The one time remodeling cost in option 2 would be needed in this option also. The
additional net savings are assumed to be about one -half of the amount identified in Option 2, since some
tasks could be fit into other employee's schedules but others would probably result in some work going
undone or not completed in a timely manner. Additional staffing resources would likely be needed in
special circumstances during election times, leaves of absence, illness or vacation. Therefore, our tentative
evaluation of this option is that the net savings are about $38,000 and again, with a one -time remodeling
costs of $10,000 to $20,000.
CONCLUSION
Staff cannot reach a firm conclusion about which option should be recommended until we have a few
more days to evaluate the operation of the phone tree system. Assuming that the phone tree system is
adequately handling most of the call volume, and assuming that we have few or no complaints about our
level of customer service (no human taking their initial call), then option 2 seems to be the best value.
Option 3 nominally saves more money, but has associated indirect costs that will cumulatively make the
organization less efficient over time.
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