WHERE
ÖKO-Service GmbH is a community-benefit limited company owned by two associations, BAN (50%) and ARGE Müllvermeidung (Consortium for Waste Avoidance) (50%). The company’s headquarters are in Graz, Austria.
ÖKO-Service was established in 1994 and its aim is to provide employment and training to unemployed people in services benefiting the environment. The main contract giver is the Employment Agency of Styria. At the moment the company employs about 45 people in Graz and in Tillmitsch in the district of Leibnitz, south of Graz. The services are mainly sold to private customers and companies. The services are also often offered on the basis of contracts from the Province of Styria (cup and tableware rental) and the city of Graz (garden waste shredding, used cooking oil collection, cup and tableware rental and mobile dishwashing unit) so that they can be offered to the end users at subsidised price levels.
Competence of key supervisors is essential for making job rotation work
In recognition of its services in the field of environmental protection, the company holds the Eco-profit certificate since 1996. Öko-Service was awarded the Environment Prize of the city of Graz in 1997 as well as the newly introduced Agenda 21 Prize of the city of Graz 2002 in the category “Exemplary integration of social goals and sustainable work processes”.
WHY
The gardening service, a core field of business at the beginning of the company, is seasonal and only provided work for part of the year. Thus, the company started to look for other services that would provide work for its employees throughout the year, such as recycling.
HOW
Necessary conditions for making the system work
Training
Öko-Service has an induction programme which makes sure that all new employees work in all the different fields in their probation month. In this way the company can identify the areas in which the new employees are good at and not so good at. After that they work in the jobs they are best suited to. But after a while they will also work in the other areas to see how well they can manage. Essentially everyone is trained in every area so that they can be deployed in principle in every area on demand.
The company can provide a broad qualification in terms of basic work skills because it has many different work areas: in recycling there are contacts with the customers, handling of electric/electronic waste requires manual skills, and the tableware rental has a strong logistic component, like production line work. The ‘transit workers’ (trainees) are offered as diverse a work experience as possible – as much as they can cope with.
How it is organised
The trainee workers can join or leave the company at any time of the year, the maximum duration of a transit position being 14 months. The company must take on a certain minimum number of trainees per year, depending also on how many of the trainees move on to other employment. While the trainees are with Öko-Service, they must look for a job themselves. The job search is supported in a very individual way. Each trainee must clearly understand what the programme is aiming at, that is, their attitude to work must correspond to the requirements. Only rarely do the trainees end up getting a job with any of the company’s customers.
The company places a lot of value on making sure that the trainees do not have to find out the rules of the work by themselves – instead, everything is clearly explained and also available in writing, so that everyone knows exactly what to expect when they start work. In order to do that, the company also has a core of permanent workers with the right attitude to work, who can teach the newcomers everything they need to know. Due to the diversity of the trainees the phases of training cannot be standardise, but the rules are generally as follows:
Phase 1 – Probation month (same for everyone)
In the probation month the trainees work in all areas and then there is an interview with an assessment form (self-assessment). The section supervisors fill out another copy of the form and conclusions can be drawn and a decision can be made whether the person can stay in the company. The entry process for new workers is managed by the head of training, then there is an interview with the managing director or head of operations and at this point a very individual process of working with the trainees begins.
Phase 2 – Individual work deployment
The rules and conditions of the work are explained very exactly (basic work skills: punctuality, reliability, reporting ill on time, etc.). It is very important to comply with these rules. If they are broken, the trainee automatically faces an interview with the management and if nothing else works, it is possible to dismiss the employee, although this happens rarely.
Each day the tools/machines are handed out and given back, so that it is always known when something is broken or who needs extra training so that they can use the tools better (in contrast to most companies, where the workers usually have their own personal tools). The machines are maintained by a permanently employed mechanic.
Phase 3 – Job search
This phase runs at the same time as phase 2.
Example
The core area, the gardening services, has a steady work load. If, for example, the customer Saubermacher say that they need more people, these employees are taken from other areas.
This is possible because the company plans the working teams from day to day - except for the washing machine, which has a regular rota. All the other sections are planned on demand: a plan is made the day before and then finalised on the day, taking account of people on sick leave, holiday etc. The communication between the section supervisors must be good. They must know well the resources they have/need in their own section and in the others, and be able to give and take with the others flexibly. This process only works with permanently employed, flexible key workers.
Experiences
All the sections are seasonal except for the electric/electronic waste. The job rotation system makes it possible to keep people busy and avoid long waiting times until the next job comes up. “When the dishwasher isn’t running that doesn’t mean you have nothing to do…”
Transferability
In other companies where the system of job rotation has not worked successfully, it is usually a management problem. You have to make sure that your key supervisors are flexible enough. The job of the managing director is to make sure that the right supervisors are there, and not to intervene in their daily arrangements.
Enclosure: Information about the theory of job rotation (PDF)
For more information: Öko-Service GmbH, e-mail: office(at)oekoservice.at