A survey of workloads and staffing needs for secretarial, grounds, and maintenance personnel at Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies, Silang, Cavite, Philippines

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to assess the current staffing situation at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) for two departments: (a) secretarial and (b) grounds and maintenance. A second purpose was to recommend appropriate staffing needs for these departments to AIIAS administrators. Two research questions guided this study. First, “What secretarial and grounds and maintenance work activities exist at AIIAS?” and second, “How many support staff are needed to support AIIAS teaching and other operational activities? This study was structured to answer these two questions and based on the data, to make recommendations that would help AIIAS’ administrators guide staffing activities toward effective, appropriate, and realistic objectives. Assessing of the current staffing situation and defining staffing needs should help AIIAS administrators to employ the right worker, for the right job, at the right time, and doing the right things. The study identified work activities by frequency of performance: daily, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. The study also identified the importance of each task, the time spent for each activity and the average working hours per week. Twenty-six work related activities and nine nonwork-related activities that were considered as very important by the secretaries were “maintain/update files (correspondence, minutes of meetings, records, and other documents),” “type/edit/prepare correspondence, minutes classroom material, etc.,” “keep the work area neat and clean,” “print and make photo copies of materials,” and “send out memos.” “Maintain/update files (correspondence, minutes of meetings, records, and other documents)” and “type/edit/prepare correspondence, minutes classroom materials, etc.” had the most hours used with an average hours per week of 89.5 and 68 hours respectively. The total average hours of work-related activities done by each secretary were 41 hours per week. The most hours used among the nine nonwork-related activities of the secretarial staff were “attend to family/personal matters such as going home, making phone call, studying, reading etc.,” followed by “attend to other supervisor and/or co-workers’ work request or unfinished work,” and “AIIAS Church-related activities.” The total average hours that each secretary performed for nonwork-related activities was 11 hours per week. Seventeen work-related activities were identified for the janitorial workers. Some of the activities that were considered as very important and most time consuming were “polishing floors,” “clean toilets,” and “arrange furniture and chairs.” Average hours spent by the each janitor on all work-related activities were 47 hours per week. “Attend to other supervisor &/or co-workers work request or unfinished work” was considered important by the janitors among the nine nonwork-related activities. The total estimated time spent on nonwork-related activities by the janitorial supervisors was 17 hours per week.