Work sampling: An application to the university

Work sampling, an industrial technique, enables a supervisor to estimate the percent of time a worker spends on a particular activity. In the office situation studied here, it was found that the same amount of work presently produced could be accomplished by a staff reduced by 23% from the present level. This determination was made in less than five hours by the observer, yet a savings of over $9,000 could be realized from these efforts in a single year. Periodic campus-wide use of this technique could result in even more substantial savings for an institution.The research reported on was the subject of a pilot study report in which John Fornof was most helpfully an original participant. The helpful critique of Dr. Robert C. Judd, Professor of Operations Analysis at the University of Toledo, is gratefully acknowledged.