What is Workload Calculation, and What Does it Tell Us?

The 6th Edition Standards come with a new twist: the workload calculation. As administrators, this may be a function that we’ve had to deal with before. Still, then again, that’s not a sure thing in academia, an environment with so many variables and moving parts that a bullet-pointed list of job duties can seem woefully inadequate for encompassing everything we do in a day. I’m going to use the next couple of blogs to discuss workload calculations, what they mean (and don’t mean), and how to deal with this new aspect of our compliance with ARC-PA Standards.

What does it mean?

Let’s begin with the technical explanation. A “workload calculation” for faculty and staff is essentially a documented method of quantifying how much time or effort various personnel (faculty, key staff) devote to program-relevant roles (teaching, advising, clinical supervision, service/committees/support, administration, scholarship, etc.).

The calculation usually expresses the assignment in units (hours, credits, percentage Full-Time Equivalent (“FTE”), or “load units”). It shows how the faculty/staff revenue-time commitment aligns with institutional expectations and resource allocation.

Key elements typically include:

• The roles/tasks included (e.g., didactic teaching, course prep, clinical supervision, student advising, program admin/coordination, accreditation/admin support, service/committees).

• The quantification of those tasks into a standard metric (e.g., credit hours, contact hours, estimated prep hours, supervision hours, etc.).

• An institutional “full-load” benchmark (e.g., 1.0 FTE, 40 hours/week, 12 credit courses per semester) so you can express each person’s workload as a proportion of full load.

• Documentation that the actual assignments align with the benchmark (i.e., no one is overloaded, or the program has evidence it monitors and manages load).

• Sometimes, a method to account for the “weight” of different tasks (for example, labs or clinical supervision may carry more preparation or follow-up time than a standard lecture).

• In short: a workload calculation says “Dr. Smith is assigned so many hours of teaching + so many hours of supervision + so many hours of service/admin, which translates into X% of a full-time load; the institution/program expects full-time load to be 100 % (or 1.0 FTE) so Dr. Smith is at 90 % of full load, leaving room for scholarship or other duties.”

What does it prove?

Why is ARC-PA expecting or requiring such documentation (or at least references to workload) in the Sixth Edition?

A significant issue with a workload calculator is that it makes people feel like their career is under a microscope, and not a particularly friendly one. I think most of us have seen the classic comedy Office Space, in which employees are scrutinized by efficiency consultants, “The Bobs,” who ask everyone, “What is it that you do here?” In that movie, the implication is that many of these poor workers are about to be out of a job, while many others are soon to be overloaded with more work than they can handle.

Uh oh! Must we apply that awkward scenario to people with the combined mission of education and medicine? PA education is described by many of us as a “calling,” something we’re passionate about. Of course, many educators may feel uncomfortable about categorizing their calling in numbers. How does one quantify a passion? How can it be broken down into hours and percentages?

A lot of the awkwardness of this situation may be solved by simply naming it, as in, “We know it feels strange to break down our careers this way, but there’s a purpose behind it.” Because in truth, this is a way we can ensure that our programs have what they need to thrive.

A workload calculation gives ARC-PA evidence of:

• Resource adequacy: It shows that the program has sufficient faculty and staff capacity and that workload is managed so that faculty are not over-committed (which could compromise the quality of instruction, supervision, and program governance).

• Faculty/staff qualifications and role alignment: The Standards require that faculty and staff have defined roles and sufficient time to fulfill them. Workload calculations help demonstrate that faculty are not so overloaded with other duties that they cannot meet program responsibilities.

• Program stability and sustainability: If workload is unreasonable (e.g., one faculty member doing 150% of a full load), this may raise concerns about burnout, turnover risk, or program vulnerability.

• Governance and accountability: It demonstrates that the institution/program tracks assignments, has established benchmarks, and can document equitable and transparent workloads. That shows good administration and oversight, which are key in accreditation.

• Quality assurance: If faculty are spending disproportionate time on non-program tasks (or if there’s no precise distribution), then program quality (student supervision, curriculum delivery, clinical site coordination) may suffer. A workload calculation helps the program demonstrate that it has considered these risks.

So, when ARC-PA reviews a program’s submission (self-study, site visit, etc.), the workload calculation is part of the “evidence” that the program meets Standards related to faculty/staff resources, sufficiency, assignment, and oversight.

ARC-PA’s Standards show in numerous ways their awareness of the challenges of running a program within an institutional setting. For example, we’ve reviewed in depth Standard A1.02, which requires that your institution carry its reasonable share of the weight. Institutions are expected to be involved because that’s how programs stay healthy, funded, and adequately staffed.

Workload calculation is an extension of this. In effect, this is ARC-PA’s way of ensuring that our programs have what we need to do our jobs. Suppose your PA program struggles with your institution about funding for adequate staffing, for example, or sufficient support for data collection and analysis. In that case, this is the evidence you can present in support of your needs.

Next time…

Now that we’ve had a chance to talk about the workload’s meaning and purpose, we’ll turn to methodology. Next week, I’ll discuss the workload calculators available and some standard approaches to workload calculation in higher education. Join me then!