Kill Two Birds with One Stone: Optimizing Your Business Practices While Estimating Future Staffing Needs

The City of Virginia Beach Public Utilities Department is faced with uncertainty in needed staffing levels due to ongoing Consent Order negotiations to determine the schedule for their sanitary sewer rehabilitation plan. The schedule negotiations will result in the City having to implement nearly $350 million in sewer improvements in a timeframe that could range from 10 to 30 years. The City is using business process mapping to model different CIP and staffing scenarios in order to best position their organization to deliver a significantly larger capital program and meet compliance milestones. The use of business process mapping to estimate labor effort by staff role for each capital project type and to identify business practice optimization opportunities are further discussed.