Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis1 Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis Janina H Coats Cara Dougherty David Shechtman Anthony Smalling Kristen Sullivan Sarah Wallace The University of Texas at Dallas Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 2 Table of Contents Company Overview………………………………………….…….……………………………3 Individual Analysis………………………………………….…….…………………………….6 Organizational Structure……………………………………….…………………………...6 Leadership……………………………………………………….…………………………...8 Stress……………………………………………………………….…………………………9 Organizational Commitment…………………………………….………………………...10 Organizational Culture…………………………………….……………………………….11 Recommendations…………………………………………………….….…………………….13 Counseling………………………………………………………….………………………..13 Support System…………………………………………………………….………………..14 System Improvements………………………………………………………………………15 Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 3 Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis Company Overview The Plano Animal Shelter, located at 4028 W. Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75093, is a nonprofit organization funded by the City of Plano. Animal services were first established in Plano in the 1970’s, whereas this specific location was built in 2002. Since then, the animal shelter underwent major improvements in 2010, when the city of Plano provided $100,000 of funding and the shelter fundraised an additional $400,000; these resources were explicitly used to greatly expand and renovate the building and all animal housing. The outer area was also restructured and divided into different sections. Therefore, the staff is able to offer the dogs different outside experiences and can maximize efficiency since more animals can be taken outside at the same time in different “subdivisions” of the outer terrain. The mission statement of the Plano Animal Services declares that “The Animal Services Division is committed to partner with Plano’s citizens, veterinarians, and animal welfare organizations to promote responsible pet ownership and to provide outstanding animal health and welfare and human health protection services”. Their vision is to perform Public Health and Safety and implement extensive local rabies control to prevent rabies outbreaks within the community. Furthermore, their goals include placing as many animals as possible in safe and forever homes. Because the shelter is a city sponsored organization, the overall structure includes the Plano City Council. Ultimately, the City Council has the highest authority over the shelter and in the decision making processes. The city is responsible for the yearly budget and provides a set of rules and policies that have to be followed by all employees of the Plano Animal Services Division. The staff itself has certain authorities similar to police, but they are not allowed to Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 4 carry weapons. The current director of Animal Services is Jamey Cantrell, followed by the two Animal Services supervisors, Florrie Lott and Sherry Smith. Additionally, the shelter employs eighteen officers, five kennel assistants, and one administrative assistant. The organization is also supported by approximately 150 active volunteers. Since the organization is city sponsored, the Plano shelter is only allowed to respond to calls within the city limits, and they can merely accept animals that were picked up within the city limits. In a typical year, the shelter takes in an average of 7000 animals, which equals to approximately 20 animals per day. The majority of these intakes are dogs and cats, but raccoons, bobcats, and exotic animals are also received occasionally. The Animal Services staff is devoted to treat wildlife with the hope to rehabilitate those creatures and return them to their natural environment. The placement rate for dogs received at the Plano animal shelter is around 88% over the last couple years. This is an incredibly high number of adoptions compared to other shelters in the area; it also allows them to take in more animals, since space is not an issue. Mr. Cantrell explained that they often receive animals from shelters in the surrounding areas to avoid that these creatures will be euthanized simply because the other location is overfilled. The Plano site is more spacious than most comparable organizations, and they have not euthanized any animals for space reasons in several years. The city of Plano provides an annual budget of $1,900,000, and donations average $50,000-60,000 per year. This respectable amount of funds allows the shelter to provide their animals with quality food and veterinary care, as well as maintain the building and grounds. Mr. Cantrell has worked in Animal shelters for the past twenty years, and he has been employed at the West Plano Parkway location since 2007. He is responsible for a variety of tasks such as fundraising, internal structure of the shelter, and signing off for euthanasia. Since he Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 5 began his employment with the Plano animal shelter, he implemented numerous beneficial changes, and he continues to improve the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness. For example, Mr. Cantrell strongly focuses on hiring employees that have both people and animal skills. Individuals that love animals and also have the ability to connect with possible adopters improved the effectiveness of customer interaction in the animal shelter greatly. New employees enter an intensive one year training program upon hiring; they have to obtain certifications and complete 128 different tasks before graduating the program. He also implemented an orientation process for volunteers where each individual receives training to perform specific tasks or work specific shifts. Mr. Cantrell’s actions decreased staff turnover to 20% per year, whereas the national average is 50% per year for Animal Services employees. Additionally, the number of volunteer hours significantly increased from approximately 1700 hours per year to approximately 8800 hours per year. Mr. Cantrell uses an adoption approach named “VIP” for animals that have been at the shelter for extended periods of time or have certain special needs. These animals are specifically featured, portrayed, and have reduced adoption fees. This is supposed to attract potential adopters to meet and consider these “VIP’s”. To further improve chances on placement, all animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped, and receive their necessary vaccines for the year before they are put up for adoption. The shelter is located at West Plano Parkway, an easily accessible, high traffic street. It features a large three dimensional mosaic statue of a dog and a cat. This sculpture was built to draw people’s attention and make them aware of the shelter. The animals assembled in mosaic are portrayed with great detail and include collars, tags, and even their very own microchips. These particular features were included to communicate the importance of identification for pets. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 6 Overall, the animal shelter managed by Mr. Cantrell is a very functional and efficient organization that works hard on continuous improvements in providing superior service to the community, as well as to the animals housing in the facility. The provided funds and resources are used wisely and explicitly to further expand and advance the organization. Individual Analysis Organizational Structure The Animal Shelter in the City of Plano is considered more mechanistic than organic. At the Animal Shelter, the work specialization, or how the tasks are separated, is very specific and requires a high level of work specialization. The Officers, who make up about two thirds of the employees, have three main areas they specialize in, but they rotate through all of the jobs one at a time. Officers rotate once a month between responding to calls in the field, customer service and front desk, as well as kennel assistance. This helps prevent employee burn out. The other employees such as the supervisors and kennel attendants also have very highly specialized jobs that they tend to every day. Along with actual employees, there are also 115 volunteers that come in to assist when possible. These volunteers from day one are trained in one specific job. This high specialization in volunteer work makes it easier to schedule and coordinate the volunteer hours to maximize the benefit to the shelter. By requiring this type of specialization in all areas, the Plano Animal shelter remains a very successful organization. The chain of command in the Plano Animal Shelter is especially apparent. With only 26 employees, the structure is well defined. Mr. Cantrell is the Animal Services director and has final say on all major decisions. Just under Mr. Cantrell, there are two supervisors that report directly to him. The two supervisors are responsible for overseeing all other employees: 18 Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 7 officers, 5 kennel attendants, and 1 administrative assistant. Amongst the group of officers, there are also a select two or three that are senior officers. These senior officers also help to oversee the other officers, kennel workers, and administrative assistant when needed. The group of volunteers that comes in reports to the officers on duty, or the two supervisors. This kind of structure in the chain of command helps to keep the organization organized and predictable in everyday decisions. The span of control, or the number of employees that report to the supervisors is about 1 to 4 daily. Because this organization is so small and has a relatively narrow span of control, the organization is able to function better as a whole. Also, with this narrow span of control, the employees are more likely to perform at a higher level than those organizations with a wider span of control. The Plano Animal Shelter is a centralized organization that relies on one main person to make all important decisions. When it comes to who can volunteer, how to spend the budget, as well as important daily decisions, Mr. Cantrell is the sole decision maker. Having one person as the sole decision helps to keep the daily duties of the Plano Animal Shelter uniform and predictable. The Plano Animal Shelter has a simple structure. This simple structure is important to the shelter, because it is such a small company. In a simple structure, there is one main person in charge, and all other employees follow suit. In the case of the shelter, Mr. Cantrell is the head of the organization, and all decisions go through him. This structure is important especially when looking at the high turnover rate in this organization. By having a simple structure, it is easier for the shelter to maintain after an employee leaves. Instead of going through retraining and Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 8 assigning new jobs to people, Mr. Cantrell can instead just simply rearrange a schedule and keep work flowing as smooth as possible. The day to day structure, the schedules, play a major role in this organization. When Mr. Cantrell came to the shelter, it was a lot more disorganized. After moving in to his leadership role, he was able to create set schedules for employees, as well as create schedules for the volunteers. This scheduling has made it easier for the employees to stay on top of what they need to do. With the volunteer schedule, it has helped a lot because now all volunteers know what times they can come, and what their designated job is. By having these parameters set up for the volunteers, the organization is able to maximize the value from all volunteers. In fact, when Mr. Cantrell started at the shelter, there were approximately 1700 volunteer hours donated annually. After the volunteer schedule was implemented, the volunteer hours have increased dramatically, and last year they were able to report 8800 total volunteer hours. Included in scheduling, there is also a set schedule of when dogs are to go outside, and cages are to be cleaned. By creating a schedule for the animals as well, their days are more predictable, and the anxiety in the animals decreases. This scheduling is important to the organization as it helps to keep everyone in a routine as well as helps to maximize volunteer hours and improve the organization as a whole. Leadership Mr. Cantrell is the Director of Animal Services for the City of Plano. He has expert and legitimate power over the employees at the animal shelter and over twenty years of experience in the job field. When Cantrell started at the shelter in April 2007, he implemented new programs to the volunteer and hiring processes immediately. He is over two supervisors, eighteen officers, Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 9 five kennel attendants, and one administrative assistant. Before an animal gets euthanized, Cantrell or one of the other two supervisors are the only ones that can sign off on it. With such a small staff to run the shelter, the bond between the Director and the staff has to be strong in order to correctly run the organization. The power and influence that Cantrell has directly correlates with the staffs’ job performance and commitment to stay motivated within the job. The stress level is extremely high within the Animal Shelter, because it is an internal reward over anything else. As a leader, Mr. Cantrell constantly has to remind the staff that the animals cannot say “thank you,” and he continuously motivates the employees to focus on the good things that are happening. Cantrell has unique attributes that excel his abilities to manage, coordinate, and propel his team to heights that have never even been sought at most animal shelters. Upon his arrival, the animal shelter was functioning, but it was functioning well below the peaks that have been reached now. Mr. Cantrell acted as a mirror, showing all the flaws that were pertinent through the animal shelter, and then reflecting his thoughts, ideas, skills, and most of all, tremendous dedication and work ethic. He is a transformational leader in every aspect of his authority. Stress Stress is a part of everyone’s life in some form or another. The stressors that cause this stress can vary from a myriad of things. In the case of the Plano Animal Shelter, all of the employees suffer from stressors that result from the job. These stressors come from the animals, from the public, from other employees, and some are a direct result from the job itself. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 10 The Plano Animal Shelter is not a “no-kill shelter.” At any given time, for numerous reasons, they may have to euthanize an animal. The typical worker at an animal shelter tends to have an animal lover mentality; having to put an animal to sleep goes directly against this mindset. This conflict can be a major stressor to all of the employees. There are other stressors that can come directly from the animals. The Plano Animal Shelter is the highest level animal shelter in the Plano area; they are required to take in any animals that other shelters bring to them, often pushing the limits of the shelter’s capacity. This can lead to role overload in the employees that care for the animals, as they have to spend most of their time trying to rehabilitate abused or malnourished animals that were neglected by previous owners. There is a substantial amount of stressors that come in from the public as well. The director of Plano’s Animal Services, Jamey Cantrell, was compared to Adolf Hitler in a newspaper article over the euthanization of the excess shelter animals when the shelter was over capacity. Mr. Cantrell is the final approval on a decision like this; therefore, he has to bear all of the weight on a decision of this magnitude. Stressors like this can immediately turn to strain on an individual. These types of stressors can all have a negative impact on both job performance and organizational commitment, regardless of the fact that most of these employees are animal lovers, and especially when they are receiving little or no social support. This can help explain why there is such a high turnover rate in the animal shelter industry. Most shelters have 50 percent turnover rate each year. This shelter’s turnover rate is about 20 percent, so it is apparent that they have already been addressing this issue to an extent. Some employees cope with the stress better than others, but over time it takes its toll on all of the employees. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 11 Organizational Commitment Organizational commitment is the essence of the organization’s core. With strong organizational commitment, the company will flourish; whilst with weak loyalty within the group, nothing will suffice to prevent the internal combustion of the organization. The Plano Animal Shelter fits in the same linear relationship as any other organization when it comes to the success-to-worker’s-commitment, but it holds much more moral importance than most. Commonality and familiarity boast every organization’s productivity and overall happiness of the atmosphere; but at an animal shelter, there are factors that most do not have to encounter: the animals. For humans to function to their best possible potential, certain “requirements” have to be fulfilled; with the animals in the shelter, who are already scared and lost initially, constant change in staff is the last thing these poor creatures need. The turnover rate at the Plano Animal Shelter was incredibly high before the arrival of the new Director of Animal Services, Mr. Cantrell. He implemented new hiring criteria to insure stability and longevity of his crew. He also flourished the “rewarding” aspect, because, as he said, “…this is a very demanding job on one’s psyche, with not very much pay…” Incentive was a much needed area of improvement. Most government facilities, such as the animal shelter, benefit highly off volunteers’ work and efforts. There are simply not enough crew members to do all the things that need to be done. The unfortunate part was that, even though there are a plentiful amount of volunteers, most were not serious, constant, or very reliable. Jamey came in and completely redesigned the volunteer program. He set up actual application processes, which ensued serious contemplation of each volunteer rather than the lax, uncertain, and quite frankly, pathetic, volunteering that caused more woes than prosperities, as before. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 12 Organizational Culture The organizational culture at Plano Animal Shelter can be adequately described through Hofstede’s taxonomy. Hofstede’s taxonomy describes the members of society and how their values have an impact on behavior. These values include: collectivism, low power distance, and feminine culture. Plano Animal Shelter is collectivistic not individualistic; the workers take care of each other and are loyal to each other. Mr. Cantrell described his workers this way. The team members go through a very rigorous process that weeds out people who are not serious about the program. It was revealed that only a couple people have remained in the organization for longer than two years. The few people that remain are very loyal to each other. Mr. Cantrell described them as a close knit group that take care of each other. Power distance was a largely evident part of culture in this organization. The levels a person goes through in the organization are level one, two, and senior. There seems to be a low power distance in this organization. This means power is uniformly distributed. The director talks about his open door policy. Mr. Cantrell says that he is always an open ear for his employees, and he is out for their best interest. The highest level of authority, Mr. Cantrell, does not seclude himself from the lower level employees. The culture values in this organization, in regards to the Masculinity-Femininity, are feminine. The character traits of a culture that is feminine are that they are more caring. The employees’ jobs are not for the faint of heart. They are subject to a high stress environment and a low paying job. The team members that choose to stay truly do it for the love of animals. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 13 They are selfless and care for other people’s well-being before their own. For this reason, this organization has a feminine culture rather than a masculine culture. Recommendations Although the Plano Animal Shelter is doing many things right, there are three recommendations that we have for them to implement. The three recommendations are an employee counseling and wellness system that deals with the high levels of stress encountered in this type of a work environment, a support fund and support group that will address families in need of caring for their existing pet or pets, and various information system updates. These suggestions would have to be cleared through the City Council in order to be implemented, but we feel that they are all ideas that would, overall, lead to a much more productive shelter. Counseling Our first recommendation is a counseling and wellness system for the employees. As stated above, the employees at an animal shelter encounter a large amount of stress on the job. One of the issues with employee turnover is the high stress levels employees experience on a daily basis that cause them to burn out quickly on the job. Some of the stress they encounter on a daily basis are suffering animals, euthanasia, other disgruntled employees, and upset pet owners. These stressors directly go against the typical animal shelter worker’s approach. This issue affects employees on a mental level and hinders their overall job performance. We would recommend that the shelter have a specific counseling session. Although Mr. Cantrell always Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 14 keeps his door open for employees to talk to him, the organization needs a formal session for employees to get their stress and feelings out. This type of counseling could help reduce the total employee’s turnover rate. Employee mental health should be of vital importance for the company. There can be an employee wellness program to help reduce this stress. A workplace wellness program could be any workplace health promotion activity or organizational policy designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace and to improve health outcomes. Generally speaking, health promotion is defined as a process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. Health promotion can be carried out in the workplace as well as many other settings. Since the shelter has such a strongly funded budget, the organization could go as far as to pay for a gym membership for each of its employees; it has been found that exercise is a great release for individual stress. If they can implement programs such as these to help out employees, the turnover rate should be reduced. With reduced turnover, organizational commitment will increase. Mr. Cantrell has done a great job of reducing the turnover rate at his shelter; however, we believe that implementing this program will further strengthen the organizational commitment within this organization. There would be a cost for implementing this program; however, the reduced cost of a lower turnover rate would offset this cost, eventually leading to a net gain for the organization. Support System The second recommendation for the Plano Animal Shelter is to add both a support fund and support group for struggling pet owners, such as financial struggles and families struggling to care for their pet. We suggest that some of the excess funds in the animal shelter’s budget could be used to provide health care services, healthy food, and even flea and tick prevention for Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 15 some already placed animals. These services would be on a first come, first serve basis for families that provided information proving that they are unable to afford these basic needs for their pet. This plan would eliminate some of the animals that end up being placed in shelters during financial hardships for a family. The cost of this program for a single family would be cheaper on the shelter than it would be to take the animal in, care for it, and place it in a new home, all while eliminating the possibility of euthanizing the pet in the instance that it is never placed in a new home. The support fund idea would ultimately save the shelter money, while keeping the pet in its family that it has grown to love. In the case of the support group implementation, the shelter could provide a bi-weekly or monthly class for families that have a pet and are in need of information on how to correctly care for the animal. This could include basic care needs questions, basic pet training, or even teaching families how to correctly play with their additional four legged family member. This sort of program encourages families to come into the shelter, which could potentially lead to more animals being adopted. As with the employee counseling and wellness system, there would be a cost to implementing this program; however, the cost to implement the program would be offsetting costs that would otherwise be incurred if the program was not in place. Overall, this program should lead to an overall gain to the organization. System Improvements The third and final recommendation for the organization is improvements to various aspects of their computer infrastructure. One thing that stuck out is the current computer system. Currently, the system can see when repeat offenders come in to pick up the animals. The system cannot see when offenders come in to adopt dogs for the first time, since it is a criminal record. Plano Animal Shelter: In-Depth Analysis 16 The Plano Animal Shelter could function smoother if they were granted access to a list of animal offenders. One reason for this would be that people who should not be adopting will automatically be in the system as so. This would possibly reduce cases of animal cruelty. When the animals have to be brought back into the shelter, it costs more money. The money is used for operations, storing, feeding, and maintaining the animals. This is a cost that can be avoided if the system was updated to show people who should not be allowed, because of offenses, to adopt an animal. The Plano Animal Shelter needs to look into getting a new software system. It appears that their system is not very efficient. The system is used when animals are directly picked up off the streets to see their record. The system is efficient in that particular aspect, but the “in office” area of the software needs work. A software system that allows for real time updates in the office will maximize information flow. This update will allow for employees to see animals coming in and estimate space capacity before the animals arrive. Another idea that Plano Animal Shelter can use is RFID tracking for animals. This will allow the shelter to electronically keep up with the animals. If each animal was assigned an RFID when they come in, the shelter can keep up with time and care for each animal digitally. This cuts out the need for workers to manually enter information about the animals over and over again. It would also create a uniform system of information and reduce human error. These overall changes to the current system can help improve employee communication and reduce error. It can also lower stress in employees by eliminating the extra work for the system.