Practical Guidance for Creating Flexible Work Arrangement Strategy and Agreements

Toolkit

Flexible Work Strategy Toolkit for Units and Supervisors: This toolkit is intended to supplement the following guidance and provides a more in-depth look at how units and supervisors can create, implement, and communicate a strategy for Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) in their departments as well as provides tools for supporting a flexible work culture within teams.

Creating a Flexible Work Culture

Oregon State University (OSU) is committed to creating a culture that contributes to employee work-life balance, as a priority and is dedicated to advancing the vision, mission and service excellence of the university. OSU seeks to build a workforce that embraces inclusivity, creativity, and innovation and that advances scholarly and research environments through new technologies and appropriate workplace modalities. At OSU workplace community is co-created through inclusive decision-making, respect for difference, care for others, and high levels of collaboration amongst employees, managing supervisors, and unit leaders.

The FWA policy empowers employees, managing supervisors, and unit leaders to co-create a workplace community through reimagined work modalities. OSU’s FWA policy provides our workplace community with the structure for creating work arrangements that recognize the diversity of individuals who make up OSU’s workforce, acknowledge the differing needs and functions of a unit’s team, and prioritize OSU’s commitment to providing students and campus stakeholders with excellent service.

Guidance for Designing a Flexible Work Strategy

Successful FWA’s start with unit leaders and managing supervisors evaluating the suitability of FWA’s within the unit and creating an FWA strategy based on that evaluation. Unit leaders and managing supervisors are encouraged to annually review and communicate their FWA strategy to their teams.

Guidance for Implementing Flexible Work Arrangements

After a unit has developed its FWA strategy, the next step is for managing supervisors to communicate the unit’s flexible work plan to the teams they supervise. Supervisors are then encouraged to meet individually with employees interested in or whose position might be suitable for an FWA to understand the employee’s interests and needs and to evaluate the suitability of an FWA for an individual employee, their specific job responsibilities, and the business needs of the unit.  

Flexible Work Arrangement Policy Overview:

The FWA policy provides deans, administrators, directors, and supervisors with the authority, rules, and procedures to design and implement FWA  in a consistent way that aligns with the needs of the unit and the university, while also satisfying relevant state and federal laws and collective bargaining agreements. 

The FWA policy applies to all academic and professional faculty, classified staff, graduate assistants, temporary and academic wage employees, and student employees.  Generally, a Flexible Work Arrangement Agrement (FWAA) will not exceed an academic calendar year and will be reconsidered annually. Continual assessment of performance and unit needs will occur throughout the term of the FWAA and may be revised and/or ended if determined necessary by the supervisor or employee.

Definitions:

Flexible Work Arrangement Agreement: A term used to describe a range of voluntary work options that provide flexibility around the location and work schedule where and under which an employee completes work. These options include:

• Hybrid Work: Employee completes assigned work both on site and remotely with an approved flexible work arrangement agreement.
• Irregular/Flexible Schedule Work: An employee’s workday start and end times are altered and/or the employee’s work week is compressed from five days to four or less with an approved flexible work arrangement agreement.
• Fully Remote Work (full-time): Employee completes duties at a location not owned or operated by the university with an approved flexible work arrangement agreement

Flexible Work Arrangement Agreement (FWAA): A form that defines the terms of the specific flexible work arrangement requested by the employee or supervisor and approved by the employee’s supervisor and other university leadership when appropriate.

Exceptions:

A FWAA is not required for occasional and intermittent worksite flexibility considered mutually beneficial between an employee and their supervisor. This sort of flexibility has always been available to professional faculty, in consultation with their supervisor, and it will continue to be so without a FWAA.

Consistent with longstanding practice, academic faculty have the flexibility to choose the location in which they do their work, aside from scheduled on-site classes, required on-site office hours, and required on-site staff meetings or other engagements. Academic faculty do not need a flexible work agreement to continue these customary work practices.

An FWAA is not required for approved leaves of absence, including sabbaticals.

Guidance for creating FWA Strategy and Arrangements:

Consideration #1: Balancing Stakeholder Needs

Leaders should balance consideration and assessment of flexible work approaches across three primary stakeholder groups.

1. the individual employee
   1. If the request is related to a disability or medical condition, the request should be routed through the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access
2. the employee’s team(s)
   1. Unit on-site operations and service goals
   2. Equity of opportunity across the team or like positions (as appropriate)
3. the students/customers/internal clients the employee serves

Various types of risks arise from failures to consider the impact of changes on each stakeholder group. To help avoid these risks, the decision-making process should include identifying potential risks within each stakeholder group (e.g. risk of discrimination in disallowing FWA for one employee but allowing it for a similarly situated one).”

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Ask Yourself:

• To what extent can the position be fully and satisfactorily performed at an alternate location?
• What level of in-person supervision is required for the position?
• What is the level of contact required with customers, colleagues, etc. and to what extent does it need to be done in person?
• Will the arrangement sustain productivity, work quality, and cost effectiveness?
• Will the quality of service to internal and external customers be sustained?

Consideration #2: Identifying Appropriate Flexible Work Arrangement

Role-based, situational flexibility is an aspect of OSU culture that we wish to expand and support. OSU employees serve in roles that range from highly autonomous to highly structured and monitored. All OSU employees seeking an FWA should be considered under the process the supervisor created for their unit and approved when appropriate. Our flexible working model also includes progressively more formal work arrangements when appropriate for the employee, team, and business needs.

Based on the role, different flexible work arrangements may be possible, and may, or may not, require a FWAA.

1. Consider whether this employee’s request is within the flexibility inherent in their position type and job duties as a professional faculty, academic faculty, graduate assistants, or classified employee.
2. If you deem it appropriate to consider a flexible work arrangement, there are three categories of flexibility to consider in order to ensure that stakeholder needs are met as discussed in Consideration #1.
   1. Schedule: offering the employee an irregular fixed working schedule, or additional flexibility as to the time work is completed.
   2. Modality: offering the employee the option to complete some or all work offsite at a location not owned and operated by the university.
   3. Location: There are special considerations and may be additional/different costs associated with employees who have a work location outside the state of Oregon and within the United States or outside the United States. Consult with Employee and Labor Relations officers when considering such a FWA.

Consideration #3: Scalability and Optimization

Supervisors and employees have a shared responsibility for the success of flexible working culture, strategies and formal arrangements. Many of these practices, including “flex time” and compressed work weeks, are planned arrangements that by definition will impact other stakeholders over a longer period of time and potentially limit general flexible work opportunity for other team members. At the same time, such arrangements can be powerful tools for achieving work-life harmonization and hiring and retaining talented and diverse faculty and staff. Bear in mind that equity of opportunity for these types of arrangements across employees in same or similar roles should be carefully considered, and these arrangements should be actively monitored to ensure successful outcomes for the employee, supervisor, team and internal stakeholders.

By continuously and proactively evaluating how working patterns are meeting the needs of the employee, their team(s) and their stakeholders (whether students or other OSU teams), we ensure that the culture of flexible working evolves in a responsive and dynamic manner with the following considerations in mind:

• Needs and interests of stakeholders change dynamically and over time.
• Regular reflection and assessment of the impact of informal and formal flexible work patterns is the responsibility of the supervisor and employee.
• Quarterly check-ins ensure the ability to course correct should the employee’s practice of general flexibility within the parameters of their role become excessive and risk stakeholder balance.

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Resources

• Office Space Considerations
• Supervisor FAQ