New policy would allow GCSU staff to telework

A new policy allowing GCSU employees to telework and have alternative work schedules is awaiting approval by the University Senate.

Employees who need to take a course or come in earlier to leave earlier can use flextime, or telework, to help balance their work and life issues.

The policy defines teleworking as “working at a location other than the employee’s usual and customary work place,” whereas flextime is “a work period that may vary from the core work hours established for a department or school,” but will still ensure a 40-hour work week.

“A lot of people already do this on our campus, we just haven’t formalized a policy on it,” said Diane Kirkwood, director of Human Resources and a member of the Work Life Task Force. “Our typical hours on our campus are eight to five, Monday through Friday, but we have a lot of variance in that.”

The Telework and Flextime Policy was first submitted to the University Senate in October 2009 by the Resources, Planning and Institutional Policy Committee, chaired by Dr. Catherine Whelan.

Georgia began a similar initiative with the state’s executive branch to help decrease air pollution and traffic all throughout the state. Although it is another benefit for GCSU, the policy’s main purpose was to help employees balance their work with their life. GCSU modeled the policy after the state Board of Regents’ policy released in 2008.

“We recently had a visit from a state group looking at cutting down pollution and cars on the road,” Kirkwood said. “They’re looking to work with us on a commuting program and a benefit for employees as far as telework and reducing cars on the road.”

Because many faculty and staff already use flextime and telework, the policy ultimately will formalize the agreement, something that many felt needed to be done. Before, it had been an informal agreement between the employer and employee.

“I’d been a little uncomfortable as a manager not having a formal document that in a sense protected both me and the university and my other person I supervised so that there’d be no question as to what the parameters were in this relationship,” said Dr. Ed Hale, the director of Institutional Research. The policy will lay out the guidelines and expectations for both parties.

Hale was also a part of the Work Life Task Force. In addition, he has employees in his department who telecommute.

“For us, telecommuting has not only worked out to benefit the employee, in terms of allowing them to arrange their life and work, but it’s also serving our needs in a much better fashion,” Hale said.

His database administrator is in the office two days a week and telecommutes from Atlanta three days a week. The newly-hired employee telecommutes because there is not yet enough space for him to be in Milledgeville full time, and it allows him and his family to make the transition.

“The types of things we do for the university, sometimes we don’t work eight to five,” Hale said. “We work when stuff needs to be done and so the teleworking gives us the flexibility to do that.”

Neither Kirkwood nor Hale anticipate any problems, but Kirkwood said that since it can’t apply to all positions, it may discourage some and that the university would work to ensure proper coverage in each department with people utilizing the policy. Because most faculty’s presence is required for classes, teleworking will not be as convenient for them as flextime will.

If approved, Kirkwood said the first step would be to train department managers about the policy to ensure they know what it entails and how it will impact their departments.

Kirkwood hopes that, if approved, the policy could begin in the summer, although a timeline has yet to be set. The Telework and Flextime Policy will be up for approval at the next University Senate meeting, Feb. 22.

Posted by Allison Bramlett on Feb 19 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry