coe-staff: Work Share Program participation

[Randy Kamphaus]

Dear Faculty and Staff,



I appreciate the care with which you are approaching enrollment in the UO Work Share Program. Your many questions reveal your commitment to our students, your colleagues, and our college. As you make your decisions today and tomorrow, I encourage you to consult with your supervisor.



I also want you to be fully informed of your supervisor’s responsibilities as you prepare to meet with them. I have pasted below an excerpt on this topic from the HR website.



https://hr.uoregon.edu/programs-services/uo-voluntary-summer-work-share-program/uo-voluntary-summer-work-share-program-unit



Many of the questions I have received pertain to issues of scheduling and workflow. I recommend, in particular, that you read the section on Scheduling and Prioritization prior to discussing participation in the program with you supervisor.

I also receive questions about my support for our employee’s participation in the Work Share Program. Assuming your supervisor’s approval, I am fully supportive of all eligible employee’s participation. Where feasible, I am adjusting schedules, meetings, projects and other workflows during this time period to better accommodate participation in Work Share.

I look forward to “seeing” everyone at our COE Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, June 20, at 10:30 am Pacific Time.



Regards,



Randy



UO Voluntary Summer Work Share Program - Unit and Supervisor Guidance

The following information provides unit-leadership and supervisors guidance for establishing and applying criteria to consistently manage employee requests for reduced schedules as part of the UO Work Share Program.

Please feel free to discuss the program with employees. Such discussions should focus on making sure employees are aware of the program and overall opportunity, messages sent to them, and website resources. If employees have questions after reviewing the material that you are unable to answer, please refer them to HR. They can email their question to hrinfo at uoregon.edu<mailto:hrinfo at uoregon.edu>.

Objective and Reliable Criteria

You will need to use objective and reliable criteria and document your decision-making when determining who can or cannot participate in the UO Voluntary Summer Work Share program. The main factor that you should be considering in this analysis is whether the department can operate effectively with staff participating in the work share program.  If you deny an employee’s participation, you need to provide concrete criteria and rational for why an employee’s participation in the workshare program would hinder operations.

·         The simplest method is to either approve or deny all requests to participate from employees in your unit, or use seniority as the basis for your decision if you have classified employees.

·

·         If you are going to be more selective, you will need to define what objective criteria you used in allowing some employees to participate and not others. Criteria are objective and reliable if:

o

o    They do not include protected personal characteristics (prohibited discrimination is prohibited);

o    HR can review the criteria and understand why you arrived at the decision; and, Generally, the decision is based on documented information.

o

o    Examples: You have two executive assistants who are both requesting 20% FTE reductions through the work share program. The easiest way to review these requests is to approve both requests or to deny both requests.  If you feel like that is not possible because, due to operational need, you can only have one person in this position working at .8FTE over the summer, then you need to use objective and reliable criteria to explain your choice between the two employees.  Objective criteria could be the employees AY 19-20 performance reviews, the employees’ duties (to the extent one has a duty that must be performed over the summer and the other does not), or seniority (length of time at the institution.)

·         If certain business needs are mission critical, then all employees who work on those aspects should be treated similarly.

·

·         If you have questions about what objective and reliable criteria you should use to make a decision about work share, please contact uoelr at uoregon.edu<mailto:uoelr at uoregon.edu>.

Scheduling and Prioritization

When determining employees’ schedules under the UO Voluntary Summer Work Share program, consider what days or times would be best for your employees to be off and the employees’ needs. Schedules should align with your department workflows. For example, if you have all-staff meetings on Thursdays, you will need your employees to work on Thursdays to attend.

If your employees participate, please work with your employees to prioritize their tasks. Their workweek will now be shorter than usual and they may need assistance in determining what work to perform first.

Supervisors must document employees’ summer schedules and modified duties under the program. Summer schedules must reflect reduced hours and duties that align with the employees reduced FTE. For example, an employee at .8 FTE, can only work 32 hours every week. This is true for hourly and salaried/exempt employees. Documentation can be an email that explains the agreed upon schedule and reduced duties over the program period or the reduced schedule template that will be available on the Work Share website.

No Retaliation for Participation

Supervisors may not retaliate against employees who show interest in or participate in the Work Share program. The program has been approved by the University as a means to recoup some budget savings for a limited period over the summer. So long as the program will work for your unit, employees are free to apply and participate in the program without fear of adverse employment action.

No Impact on Performance Evaluation

When working on an employee’s performance evaluation for next year, the fact that they participated in the Work Share program cannot be used against them in assessing their annual performance.  Supervisors should understand and account for the fact that employees will be working less and therefore their duties should either be reduced or extra time should be provided to complete tasks. However, if the employee’s quality of work drops, or if their pace of work drops more than reasonably expected due to the reduction in hours, those performance drops could be noted on an evaluation as they normally would be. If you have questions or concerns, please contact uoelr at uoregon.edu<mailto:uoelr at uoregon.edu>.

Return to Full FTE at End of Program

Employees who participate in the Work Share program should generally be returned to their prior FTE at the end of the program. That said, during the challenging times ahead departments may need to make changes based on budget needs, including unit-specific Work Share programs, layoffs and – in the future – progressive pay reduction, furloughs, and/or FTE reductions. If you are seeking to take additional employment actions in conjunction with or following the Work Share program, these actions will need to be unit-wide and not focus solely on those employees who participated in Work Share. Units must work with HR prior to communicating or taking any unit-level actions described in this paragraph. For more information, please contact uoelr at uoregon.edu<mailto:uoelr at uoregon.edu>.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists-prod.uoregon.edu/pipermail/coe-staff/attachments/20200602/fe9b79d9/attachment.html>