Dear Staff,
The pandemic has created an opportunity to reimagine how best to support one of our most valuable assets — you! With students demanding more online instruction and our off-site capability enhancements during the pandemic, we began to question how we work and evaluate best practices in the region and higher education.
We need to ensure a workplace that fulfills our mission of providing students with a top-tier learning experience and an environment for faculty to carry out their research. To that end, we’re reimagining our workplace by offering greater flexibility. Realizing that different units on each university campus have a different level of interface with faculty and students, our goal is to enhance efficiency and effectiveness irrespective of how and where people work.
The University of Houston System Board of Regents voted to support this reimagined workplace for you. To that end, each university president will establish policy, guidance and support to facilitate this opportunity.
*Core elements of the reimagined workplace include:
- Fully Off-site: Staff can work 100% off-site if the position is classified as off-site and approved as required
- Partially Off-site: Staff can work some days on-site and some days off-site as approved
- Occasional Off-site: Staff can work off-site temporarily as approved
- Compressed Workweek: Staff can work different hours to make 40 hours per week as approved
- Flexible Workday: Staff can work outside the normal 8-5 workday as approved
*(Some elements already exist while others are new).
With this opportunity, there are also guidelines and protocols which include:
- Workplace flexibility is a privilege, not a right
- Based on student/faculty interface, each unit will set its own parameters
- Performance is a requirement, irrespective of the location or time of work selected
- Approval is required and the approval can also be withdrawn
- Training is required for participating staff and supervisors
- The policy will be reviewed yearly for any necessary adjustments
I am pleased to position our staff to have an even greater impact on our institutions. Thank you for all you do and for being the best staff in higher education. I am forever grateful for your service.
Sincerely,
Renu Khator