Utah government's shift to a 4-day work schedule hasn't saved the $3 million in energy costs that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. promised last year, but state officials said Wednesday it has led to about $700,000 in efficiencies.

Mike Hansen, strategic planning manager for Gov. Gary Herbert, told legislators that the state has seen a 10 percent decrease in energy consumption, translating to about $500,000 in savings. On top of that, there has been $200,000 saved in janitorial costs, he said.

Huntsman shifted the state work week to four, 10-hour shifts last August. It was a move businesses were already making, he said, adding it would make government more responsive to citizens and save $3 million in reduced energy consumption.

Hansen said the governor's office overshot its estimated savings because the projections were based on high gas prices and rising utility rates at the time, but those have fallen dramatically in the past year.

"The solution we were looking for was to address what we thought were double-digit increases in utility rates," Hansen said. "We don't have a crystal ball."

There have been other savings as well that are harder to quantify, said Jeff Herring, executive director of the Utah Department of Human Resources.

He said state employees have used less annual leave or sick leave in the past year, and some of that is believed to be because the shorter work week offers more flexibility.

And, Herring said,

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there were nearly 161,000 fewer hours of overtime worked by state employees, a savings of about $4.1 million, although it's impossible to know how much of that decrease can be attributed to the work-week change.

"We went into this with some idea that there might be some cost savings with just the workforce side ... [but] had no idea we'd see what we saw," Herring said.

Hansen said the state fleet has also seen the miles traveled in state vehicles drop by 3 million miles in the past year, a savings of $1.4 million. Some of that, anecdotally, has been tied to the change in the work week.

However, Herring said the primary goal of the 4-day work week is to improve the experiences for Utahns who interact with government. The state has hired the polling firm of Dan Jones & Associates to survey residents to determine their level of satisfaction. Those numbers are expected within a few weeks.