The task force examining staff flexible work arrangement policies and practices wants to say thank you to campus. Thank you to those who attended the virtual brainstorming sessions on August 5–6; thank you to those who have shared emails with ideas, articles, and suggestions; and thank you to the 230 individuals who completed the online survey. The task force asked campus for feedback and was not disappointed!

“I truly appreciate that we have a culture where you can count on honest feedback. The comments we received will both inform and guide the task force as we consider recommendations for future practices,” said task force member Katie Overberg.

Employee comments covered every imaginable aspect of remote work, flexible working schedules, and what a post-pandemic workforce ought to look like. Some employees are feeling uncertain, while others are excited by Drake’s desire to preserve some of the positive lessons we have learned over the past 18 months.

At the same time, universities are complex organisms and coming up with recommendations is not a simple task. Many employees offered suggestions for navigating these complexities in their comments. “Employees want the flexibility of working from home but can still be a part of a collegial environment, even if it’s only a couple of days each week.  I believe the individuals who directly serve our students should spend more time on campus but those who have more external positions don’t need to be on campus,” wrote one commenter. “I think it’s important to consider the positives of flexible work arrangements beyond staff morale, engagement, and retention.  Students might actually appreciate virtual service options and/or service availability outside the 9-5,” noted another.

The task force remains on track to provide recommendations in October. One of the challenges will be assuring that recommendations are specific enough to provide clear guidance for campus-wide staff policies, but flexible enough for units to tailor programs to their own needs. This won’t be easy, but the task force—especially with this fresh feedback from campus—truly appreciates how important these topics are to employees. Just how important? Of the 230 who responded to the survey, 65.18% rated flexible work options as “extremely important” and another 22.32% indicated it was “very important.”

“While we still have the hardest work ahead of us, the feedback we received was a powerful reminder of the impact of these decisions across campus.  We are going to do our best to continue moving forward through our workforce policies,” said task force member Linda Feiden.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources