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The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission (WERC) respectfully submits the following as its strategic business plan in compliance with statutory requirements that such a plan be developed and submitted to the Department of Administration (DOA) Bureau of Technology Policy & Planning.

A planning group within WERC has continued the on-going planning process begun in 1996 for business activities and for utilization of information technology. In September of 1996, the agency issued a preliminary draft business plan document. Beginning in October of 1997, the agency planning group, with the benefit of input from all interested agency staff, reviewed and revised that plan document for the purpose of producing a complete and formal business plan and for the additional purpose of developing specific plans for implementing that goal or goals considered to be the agency's highest priorities. A completed plan document was issued in June of 1998, incorporating specific plans relating to the agency's highest priority goals of achieving and maintaining timeliness of written decision and award issuance at both the staff and Commission levels, and expressing the agency's intention to conduct a customer survey when time and resources permit.

During the period January-June, 1999, the agency conducted a customer satisfaction survey in an effort to learn what is important to its customers and how well the Commission and its staff are performing.

• The Survey -- Customers and customer groups were invited by mail and the agency website to complete a 13-page survey document. View the Survey Document in PDF. Some 1200 copies of the survey document were mailed to groups and individuals including union representatives such as officers, business agents and attorneys; management representatives such as administrators, elected officials, consultants and attorneys involved in labor relations and human resource management; professional neutrals in labor-management dispute resolution; and others involved in WERC cases and activities.
• The Responses -- The WERC received a total of 374 completed surveys. A 30-page summary of responses to the survey's multiple-choice questions has been prepared counting the total occurrences of each listed response on the 374 surveys of all responders combined. The summary also shows the percentages of responses to each multiple-choice question given by union and management responders, respectively, (as self-identified in responses to Survey Question # 1). View the Summary of Survey Responses in PDF. In addition, many of the survey questions offered the opportunity for responders to add comments. Those comments have been entered into a separate and much longer 240-page table. View the Table of Survey Comments in PDF. All survey responses remain strictly anonymous. The results have been analyzed so that no individual can be identified.  
• The Planning Implications -- The survey results have been shared and discussed with agency staff and carefully considered as the agency proceeds with its on-going process of revising and updating its Strategic Business Plan. The survey results confirm that the agency's customers share the high priority placed by the agency on timeliness of written decision and award issuance at both the staff and Commission levels. The survey also reflects concerns on the part of some customers that some agency mediation efforts lack innovativeness or assertiveness in pursuing settlements, and an interest on the part of some customers in having the option, by mutual agreement, to expedite the grievance arbitration process.

Because the customer survey generally confirmed the planning group's beliefs about customer priorities and expectations regarding agency services and performance, this June, 2000 revision of the plan reflects only minor modifications of the June, 1998 plan.

The agency intends to continue to review and revise the plan in light of its experiences and to develop specific plans for implementing additional goals as time, circumstances and resources permit.

The WERC looks forward to performing -- in a fair, timely, effective and efficient manner -- its statutory duties including:

As Wisconsin's employment relations statutes continue to evolve, the WERC will remain committed to responding to the needs of all segments of the employment relations community and all branches of State government with continuous improvement and flexibility of its services, consistent with the public policies defined by the Legislature and the Governor.

WERC looks forward to fully utilizing available and emerging technologies; to maximizing the potential of all its personnel; to providing highly-professional and customer-oriented services; to making its personnel and resources accessible to disputants and the public; ; and, as a result, to achieve both excellence and recognition as a leader among North American employment relations agencies.

By striving for excellence in those ways, WERC looks forward to:

To promote peaceful and harmonious labor-management relations by professionally and impartially administering Wisconsin's municipal, state and private sector labor relations statutes to protect and promote the interrelated interests of the public, the employe and the employer.

To thereby provide taxpayers, labor, management and the public with cost-effective services that promote: employment peace; employe freedom to choose whether to bargain collectively about wages, hours and other conditions of employment; uninterrupted production of goods and services; orderly and constructive employment relations; and efficient administration of state and local government.

(See Secs. 111.01, 111.70(6), and 111.80, Wis. Stats.)

(NOTE: reiterated vision elements are capital lettered and bold, goals are numbered, objectives are lettered, tactics are numbered in parentheses and action plans are lettered in parentheses.)

1. Respond flexibly, promptly and effectively to customers' changing needs by planning and proactive management.

a. Continue the strategic planning process initiated in 1996 on an ongoing basis, with the benefit of additional input from agency personnel and, if and as needed, further surveying of customers.

(1) The agency recognizes the importance of receiving, analyzing and basing planning in part on customer and internal input. In addition to the feedback provided by the customer survey conducted in 1999, the agency continues to receive, analyze and base planning in part on informal feedback received from customers and staff on an ongoing basis. No other formal survey activities are currently planned.

b. Involve employes in agency strategic planning to maximize improvement and constructive change.

2. Assure that the agency becomes aware of developments in the fields of dispute resolution and employment relations law and practice so that it can adopt best practices developed elsewhere and innovate in the (re)design of its services.

a. Continue attendance of Commissioners and selected staff at Association of Labor Management Agencies annual programs and other quality training and inter-agency networking opportunities, as agency resources permit.

b. Actively promote communication and cooperation with other State of Wisconsin agencies and with agencies in other states, including continuation of periodic four-state joint staff training programs with agencies from Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota.

c. Improve and innovate the training provided to parties by the agency regarding techniques for effective collective bargaining, cooperation and dispute resolution.

1. Change rules, practices and policies and seek statutory changes as necessary to allow the agency and parties to make fuller use of available and emerging modes of communication.

2. Use available and emerging technologies to maximize the agency's ability to use its human and other resources to meet the needs of our customers.

a. Review and improve or initiate agency use of technologies including:

b. Train and encourage agency personnel to use and to innovate regarding the agency's use of those technologies.

1. Maintain WERC as an excellent place to work.

a. Recruit and retain highly qualified and motivated employes by retaining the multi-sector, multi-function jurisdictions of the agency.

b. Treat all personnel fairly and with respect.

c. Maintain a healthy and safe work environment in the office, in the field and on the road.

d. Enhance the quality of work life of all agency personnel by encouraging all to work together as a team toward shared goals and with shared values.

2. Provide all agency personnel with sufficient information, time, feedback, support and other resources to provide high-quality services and to develop themselves to the fullest occupationally.

a. Provide all personnel with the training, equipment, organization and working environment needed to be highly productive.

b. Continue to develop the existing evaluation system to provide timely, thorough and fair supervisory evaluation of employe performance based on clear and well-understood criteria, policies and expectations.

c. Continue to develop the existing case information systems both to support the employe performance evaluation system and to enhance the agency's ability to achieve its goals and objectives.

d. Provide constructive training, feedback and support to all agency personnel staff regarding their job-related strengths and weaknesses through supervisory and voluntary peer-to-peer interactions.

e. Reward employes according to the quality and value of their work performance.

1. Continuously strive to improve the quality and timeliness of services.

a. Achieve compliance with established time guidelines with regard to all written decisions and awards at both the staff and Commission levels.

(1) The agency continues to call upon all Commissioners and employes to work toward 100% timeline compliance in all cases -- staff and Commission.

(2) A major emphasis continues to be placed on decision/award timeliness in determining matters related to Mediator/Attorney staff members' compensation and individual working conditions. More compensation will continue to be provided to those who achieve and maintain written case timeliness.

(3) Mediator/Attorney staff are expected to determine what measures are needed to get themselves timely and to stay timely.

(4) Team leaders are expected to develop action plans with each staff member who has or appears likely to have one or more cases in his/her control for longer than the existing timeline.

b. Secure sufficient staff and other resources to provide needed flexible, timely and effective responses to the dispute resolution needs of the parties.

2. Develop and implement a system to fairly and promptly inform all agency personnel how their efforts are being received by service recipients; to assure customers that their needs and concerns matter to the agency; to enable early resolution of potential problems; and to allow the agency to apply its resources in ways that are more valuable to those we serve and more cost-effective for taxpayers and feepayers.

3. Encourage all WERC personnel to perform all of their duties consistent with the following values:

4. Provide meaningful in-service training and other job-related personal development opportunities for all personnel, with special emphasis on training and orientation of personnel new to the agency.

a. Continue periodic mediator/attorney staff meeting programs designed, if possible, to qualify for continuing legal education credit.

b. Continue to include General Counsel's updates on recent developments in mediator/attorney staff meeting programs.

c. Provide opportunities at staff meetings and otherwise for agency personnel to share problems, experiences and techniques with their colleagues and to hear from and interact with customer representatives, in ways that maximize the opportunity for professional growth and improved/enhanced agency services.

d. Continue current levels of reimbursement of employes' job-related occupational development program expenses.

1. Make information about the agency and its processes available in as many ways as possible to: customers, potential customers, the labor-management community generally, the legal community, all branches of State government, interest groups concerned about employment relations matters, the public, the press, other employment relations agencies and professionals, students of employment relations and dispute resolution and others who may be interested.

a. Establish a home page on the Internet World Wide Web with: case processing aids; searchable databases of WERC decisions and digests; downloadable forms; e-mail links to WERC personnel; interactive decisions/publications order forms, etc.

b. Continue to make subscription services available in monthly e-mail and annual CD-ROM forms, in addition to monthly updating of internet decision and award collections.

c. Continue to publish agency news and information via an e-mail announcement mailing list, the agency's website, and the publication of WERC World on an as-needed basis.

d. Systematically introduce new Commissioner(s) and professional staff to regular customers Statewide.

e. Develop and offer a speaker's bureau of Commissioners and staff members available to speak to groups and classes Statewide about the WERC, its services, and other selected employment relations and dispute resolution topics.

f. Develop other lawful, ethical and appropriate means of informing all branches of State government about the work WERC is doing, the results it is achieving, and the value of those services to the parties and their communities.

g. Attempt to reduce misunderstandings about the role and responsibilities of the Commission as distinguished, for example, from the interest arbitrators appointed by the agency.

h. Explore the possibilities of organizing a day-long seminar-type program concerning labor relations law and dispute resolution practice topics of practical value to the Wisconsin labor-management community.

2. Continue to provide quality services to parties personally and directly wherever the parties are located; but also experiment with alternative means of providing quality services to parties interested in using such alternatives as telephone and fax, etc.

3. Put systems in place to assure that the agency complies promptly and fully with public records and open meetings requirements.

4. Promote access to and use of the agency's personnel and processes in ways that overcome such obstacles as: geographic distance between the parties and agency personnel, unnecessary formalities, and outdated or unnecessary limitations imposed by agency rules or policies.

a. Review and revise agency rules and policies to make them as technologically up-to-date, clear, easily understood and otherwise customer-friendly as possible.

b. Offer agency services in innovative ways that meet the parties' needs, such as, perhaps, panels of agency grievance arbitrators, expedited services, etc.

c. Provide better service to geographically under-served areas.

5. Establish fee levels that will both permit parties to obtain needed services while funding sufficient fee-based staffing and related reserves to enable the agency to provide the needed services in a quality fashion.

As a part of its on-going strategic planning process, the agency strategic planning group or groups and individuals designated by the planning group have been developing and will continue to develop short- and long-range tactics and action plans for the implementation of those of the goals and objectives outlined above that are the agency's highest priorities.

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Questions about this plan or about the WERC's strategic planning process can be directed to Commission Chairperson James W. Meier (608-266-0166) or to Attorney/Team Leader Marshall L. Gratz (414-963-4695), c/o Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, PO Box 7870 Madison, WI 53707-7870.

Respectfully submitted this 14th day of August, 2000.

WISCONSIN EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

James R. Meier, Chairperson

A. Henry Hempe, Commissioner

Paul A. Hahn, Commissioner

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This page is a public domain communication of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. The URL of this page is {http://www.werc.wi.gov/business_plan.htm}. Last modified on 15 AUG 2000. Comments, questions and suggestions.