The Productivity Initiative is a 10-year program launched by the King County Wastewater Treatment Division to make sure that ratepayers are getting the best return for their investment in wastewater treatment services.

Productivity Initiative

WTD’s Productivity Initiative Pilot Program is a 10-year program that was conceived as an opportunity for a traditional utility to be managed and operated more like a private business. Started in 2000, in a national climate where privatization was a threat to public utilities, the pilot program established year-by-year goals for reducing costs and annual savings targets. It applies certain private-sector business practices, including incentives to increase efficiency and cut operating cost, an incentive-based payout to employees in the wastewater program for meeting and exceeding annual targets, and mechanisms that ensure the wastewater utility continues its high level of service and environmental protection for our customers.

Background

The Productivity Initiative was developed in 2000 and approved by the King County Executive and Council as a pilot program for the operating program in 2001. For King County's wastewater treatment employees, it was a way to improve how we do business, while providing the same high-quality services to the public that King County has always provided, and doing it with the best and most appropriate technology, human resources and fiscal planning found in the business world today. To the public, it means WTD is committed to being more efficient, reducing costs and meeting the county's obligation to protect public health and the environment.

The Productivity Initiative Pilot Program identifies specific levels of service, cost reductions and efficiencies over the period 2001 to 2010 that will result in an estimated $75.9 million savings for ratepayers, while maintaining levels of service to these same customers. Through 2008, $61.9 million in savings have been achieved (view full report here). Savings are achieved by undertaking an intensive review of current business practices, identifying and implementing cost saving practices, working to increase employee involvement in business decisions and ensuring that the wastewater program receives the best possible services from its partner agencies within and outside the county.

The Productivity Initiative links management decisions about employees with labor, and it requires that management and labor cooperate to identify new ways of getting business done, meet the bottom line, protect public health and safety, and allow employees to share in the financial rewards and risks of operating the program more like a business.