Alternative Work Guidelines Office for Student Success

It is our goal to support our staff to ensure they are engaged in their roles while providing exceptional customer service to our students. We believe it is important for our teams to be on campus to support our students and provide flexibility to support our staff.

Key Terms

• Flexible Hours = working time (days and/or hours, e.g. adjusted hours, compressed work week, reduced hours)
• Remote = working at a location other than the regular assigned on-campus workspace
• Occasional work from home means on an as-needed basis (these requests should be approved for a particular purpose as necessary). Managers need to be mindful to not establish a “regular” schedule (e.g., establishing a schedule where the employee can work remote once a week or month). Providing a consistent day or schedule (although it may not be frequent) is not considered occasional. These requests should not occur more than four times in a semester.

Important to Note: The Office for Student Success supports two options for alternative work arrangements:

1. Long term alternative work arrangements,
2. Occasional alternative work requests,

Documenting when and where an employee is working is important not only for the supervisor, colleagues and customers (students) but also for purposes of Workers Compensation coverage.

The below guidelines will be a pilot within the Office of Student Success for 6-months. During the 6-month period, supervisors need to track individual requests (approved and not approved requests).

This grid provides a visual representation of both the long term and occasional alternative work arrangements. Specific details are outlined below including available forms.

Flexible RequestsComplete Flexible Form; Follow appropriate approval process (see below)Supervisor has approval authority; Supervisor tracks approved and non-approved requests

Disability AccommodationsContact Heather Roop, https://www.uky.edu/eeo/ada-compliance

1. Long Term Alternative Work Arrangements

Alternative Work Requests

In accordance with prior UK Human Resources policy, any Student Success position may request an alternative arrangement through the established channels listed below. Supervisors, unit leads, and the Office of the Vice President for Student Success must all approve any remote, hybrid or flexible work requests.

The UK Human Resources managed Flexible Work Request Form and Remote Work Request Forms will flow through the below process:

1. Employee discusses flexible/remote work arrangement with supervisor prior to submitting the online form.
2. Once an employee has received verbal approval from their supervisor, the employee should submit the appropriate form on the UK Human Resources website. The employee should include SSBO@uky.edu as one of the additional email recipients by the employee submitting the request.
3. The form will immediately route to the supervisor to approval via email from UK’s Work-Life Office.
4. Upon approval by the supervisor the email (and attached approval) will be forwarded via email to the department director (if applicable). The supervisor should NOT approve the form itself, but should provide approval via the text of the email to the respective department director or unit lead.
5. Upon approval by the department director (if applicable) the email (and attached approval) will be forwarded via email to to the unit lead for further approval.
6. Upon approval by the unit lead the email (and attached approval from all parties) will be forwarded to the Office of the Vice President for Student Success (SSBO@uky.edu) for final approval and processing through UK Human Resources.

When reviewing flexible and remote work requests supervisors, unit leads and the OVPSS, unit lead, and supervisor will consider the following:

• Does the proposed arrangement in this request allow for service enhancement?
  • This could include an extension of hours to allow unit services to be more accessible on the weekend or evenings (beyond the 8AM-5PM normal working hours).
• Does the proposed arrangement illustrate how the employee’s position responsibilities have been temporarily modified to accommodate this request?
  • This could include a special project with the need to work off-site or how others in a unit will assume responsibilities to accommodate the request.

2. Occasional Alternative Work Requests: “on-site work with occasional work from home” (note: this is work from home versus working remotely).

Standard Requirements

• Requests require supervisor approval to work from home.
• Employees would not need to complete a flexible work arrangement form. Supervisors are given the authority to approve the occasional work from home requests.
• Employee needs to successfully complete their 90-day orientation period for a long-term flexible work arrangement or an “on-site work with occasional work from home” arrangement to be approved.
• The employee must meet expectations in all areas of job performance and have a positive work history (can’t be on PIP).
• The office/department must have appropriate office coverage during core business hours.
• An employee with an approved “on-site work with occasional work from home” must continue to have collaboration within our team, with customers and partners.
  • Remote employee must be available by phone, email, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc. throughout the time they are scheduled to work that day. Employee must be able to provide needed equipment.
  • Include remote employee in huddles and meetings by technical method (e.g. phone, Microsoft Teams, Zoom).
• Consider if there is an impact on other employees (e.g. workload distribution).
• Reflect on how the on-site work with occasional work from home requests and approval process is working for your area and supervision.

Additional Items to Consider:

• It is important for the supervisor to be fair, consistent across comparable positions, and to provide equitable opportunity in how they approve occasional work from home. The goal is to provide flexibility to meet the employee request while best meeting our student needs. Fair is defined as impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination. Every individual will have different needs at different times; we all experience different life circumstances. We value every individual and their current situation in making the request.
• There may be periods of time or days when occasional work from home will not be approved (specific meetings, payroll processing, etc.). Flexibility to work on-site during teammate days off, to attend quarterly meetings, etc. is needed. These dates and times must be determined by the supervisor and ensure this is communicated to team members.
• The ability for an employee to do on-site work with occasional work from home depends on the job responsibilities of their specific position.
  • Consider if the type of work is appropriate for a remote option. Identify positions where their Major Job Responsibilities require them to be on-site. There are positions where the “on-site work with occasional work from home” opportunity may not be an option.
    • Consider the responsibilities of the job.
    • Does the role require daily face-to-face contact?
    • Does the role require access to confidential paperwork (that cannot be securely electronically accessed off-site)?