The amazing group of employees who came together to help assess the future of flexible work for staff has been released of their task force service. While the updated existing policies, newly adopted policies, and supporting resources will be works in progress for the foreseeable future, the task force’s work is now officially complete.

In line with each one of our Core Values, Drake HR would like to thank each of the task force members for their:

• Joyful Accountability in being curious, creative, brave, and bold;
• Generosity of Spirit in approaching this work by presuming the very best in our talented and dedicated staff and with an eye always on equity and inclusion;
• Desire to be All In This Together—assuring the task force’s work was regularly communicated to campus with the highest levels of transparency and with opportunities for feedback and input; and
• 100% Commitment to Drake’s Mission in keeping our students first, while simultaneously acting with purpose and optimism in how we evolve and modernize our approach to workforce management.

As we have shared with campus previously, we are adopting a Customized Work Arrangement Policy to replace and supersede policies informing staff about telecommuting, flexible schedules, and summer hours. The CWA policy is now live and posted in the Policy Library. Since it is a brand-new policy, we will conduct a formal review of the policy after it has been in place for one year. Until then, we are accepting on-going feedback, suggestions, and questions. You can direct them to drakehr@drake.edu, please use the subject line: CWA Policy and let us know what you think. We still have a lot of learning to do and we will make improvements as we identify them.

Drake HR is creating a CWA page on its website that will house a variety of tools, templates, and resources relating to the CWA policy. A lot of time and effort has been put into them and we hope that investment of time is reflected in their usefulness to both staff and managers. If you are interested in exploring with your manager a CWA, we suggest you spend some time with these new resources as a next step.

If any managers or department would be interested in training for their areas, please let us know. We are happy to provide whatever assistance or training may be helpful.

Managers: separate communications will be coming your way in the coming weeks addressing how to help review and update essential functions of your direct reports and conduct eligibility assessments of existing positions—as these will be important initial steps to complete before approving any new CWA requests.

Once again, we thank the task force and also all staff who provided feedback, ideas, and suggestions throughout this journey. It’s not over, but it feels great to have covered this much distance already.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

One of the interesting byproducts of COVID-19 has been a spike in remote work arrangements. As we have discussed in the past, hybrid working arrangements are likely here to stay. As we work on finalizing our new updated policies related to hybrid work, there’s a companion topic: out-of-state work.

COVID-19’s impact on the mobility of the workforce has prompted many states to review their state practices on income tax treatment of teleworking employees and the threshold requirements for employers to register as a business in their state.

Consequently, we are taking a fresh look at our existing Out-of-State Policy to assure it is clear, consistent, and adequately addresses the new landscape shaped by the COVID experience.

It is important to note that each state has different requirements for employers conducting business within their borders. A separate set of state income tax laws impact employees conducting business in any given state. This policy is designed to appropriately manage risk associated with both of these topics.

However, it’s more complex than that. If we are not currently registered to conduct business in a state, we also have to review the state’s unique labor and employment laws. There could be different forms of paid leave, a state (or municipal) minimum wage, workers’ compensation, etc. If we are going to have employees in another state working on Drake’s behalf, we want to do so lawfully and ethically and this doesn’t happen without time, care, and effort.

The updated policy is now posted for public comment, and it addresses both situations where Drake may be interested in hiring a new employee who will remain out-of-state and situations where an existing employee may want to temporarily or permanently relocate out-of-state. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please share them. This will help inform final edits.

Please be sure to read next week’s OnCampus for an update on the Customized Work Arrangements policy and related policies that have also been under review.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources; Heather Travis, Controller