In part 1 of this blog post, I took a look at a particular mini-case-study from a healthcare organization. Using some fairly routine math, we showed they would actually save money by constantly having a “one-up” nurse, meaning someone who sits at home collecting paychecks until an active nurse leaves, at which point they step in for the nurse that left the organization.
If you haven’t read part 1, I’d encourage you to do so before proceeding with part 2. Then again, if you’re the type to try to put together your entertainment center without reading the instructions like I am, feel free to ignore my advice.
In part 2, we’ll examine different scenarios including a real-world example where a household name, Fortune 100 Company, used this exact theory and reaped not only the financial benefits we explored, but other intangible benefits as well.
To start, let’s play devil’s advocate and immediately disqualify any scenarios where one-up or similar theory does not apply:
– In exempt environments where overtime is not paid
– In environments where the average time between leavers/exits does not catch up to the overtime cost of being short (as demonstrated in part 1)
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let me tell you about what I found to be the most fascinating, albeit unexpected part of this exercise—that a juggernaut of a company is already practicing something like this. The following information was relayed to me by Noel Hannon of Hannon Associates, a friend who I consider an elite professional in the HR consultancy space.
The above mentioned company was practicing One-Up Theory almost to a “T”, with one ingenious modification. Rather than having the surplus resource sitting around at home, the employee was splitting time between two things. First, the employees were doing advanced career classes and continuing education. Second, the employees were being “lent out” Continue reading
One-Up Theory 
