By Heather R. Falks, Employment Attorney – ADA Coordinator | Indiana Supreme Court
Change is inevitable, and it is our choice whether we resist change or evolve with it. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes to nearly all aspects of daily life—including the way we work. Employees have set up offices in their living rooms. Employers have scrambled to accommodate the world of remote work, or teleworking. We have adapted our systems and processes to allow for the continuity of government operations, while ensuring the health and safety of our employees.
Remote work was historically thought of only as a benefit to employees. COVID-19 revealed that it is an essential tool which provides for continued productivity. It can also allow for lower expenses and an improved work environment. Employees continue to be productive, while employers can benefit from cost savings through decreased office space and parking. The environment and traffic flow are improved when more people work remotely. And less people are in close proximity to one another in a physical office—improving social distancing.
Courts have used remote work to continue providing services to the public during this health crisis. Given the forced adaptations over the past few months, courts must plan for the next emergency that might require remote work. Courts should:
- Identify necessary employee programs and applications
- Determine accessibility to these programs and applications
- Provide methods to manage employee performance and time-tracking
Use the essential functions for each employee’s job to help determine what employees will need to access while they are working remotely. This will include items such as files, laptops, scanners, and court software. Office phones should have the ability to be forwarded to personal phones, and a procedure to forward the phone from a remote location should be put in place.
To manage expectations and performance, courts should have a telework policy and an agreement signed by the employee. The policy and agreement should clearly lay out the employee productivity requirements and expectations. Employees should know how performance and time will be tracked and that remote work is a privilege that can be revoked at any time, for any reason. Employees should be required to document their time and specify what projects or tasks they worked on during the day. Managers should schedule frequent one-on-one meetings with remote workers.
It is important to clearly communicate expectations and deadlines. If any expectation or deadline is not met, it should be documented as a performance issue. Give the remote worker an opportunity to improve their performance, and if not improved, remote work may not be reasonable for that employee. Having these processes in place will help ensure performance expectations are clear.
Consistency
Consistency is a necessity when managing a remote work program. Making sure managers are frequently meeting with their remote workers and communicating expectations is key to a successful program. There should be set check-in times where performance is evaluated for all employees. Be careful not to hold remote workers to a higher performance standard than those workers who are in the office. Be consistent with one-on-one check-ins and performance reviews. Make sure all employees, whether remote or in the office, are meeting deadlines and completing their work. Documenting the content of one-on-one conversations will help ensure that individual performance evaluations are consistent among all employees.
Use of Remote Work During a Pandemic
Although our economy is starting to open back up and people are slowly returning to the office, COVID-19 is still a threat to the health and safety of employees and will be for the foreseeable future. Courts should update policies on reporting illnesses to ensure the continued health and safety of employees as they return to work. The availability of remote work encourages honest illness reporting because employees know they will not have to exhaust benefit time or be sent home without pay for a minor cough. Employees are more likely to report their symptoms if they are allowed to work from home. Using remote work keeps everyone in the office safe and helps employees preserve their benefit time for later use if the employee or a family member becomes ill.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) requires employers to pay employees two-thirds of their pay for 12 weeks if they cannot work due to the need to provide childcare for children who have lost their school, summer camp, or daycare as a result of COVID-19. The availability of remote work allows employees the option to continue to work from home while receiving full pay and keeps the court from losing an employee for 12 weeks. This is a win for both the court and the employee.
Developing a robust plan for remote work allows courts to be better prepared for any future pandemic or spike in COVID-19. Courts can stagger employee schedules to limit the number of people in the office during any future spike in cases.
Remote Work as an Accommodation
Now that COVID-19 has forced employers to rely more heavily on remote work, this will likely result in it being considered a more reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. For example, if an employee has surgery that would normally require absence from work for weeks, remote work could be used to lessen that time away. Remote work allows employers to be creative in finding solutions and alternatives to keep employees productive.
Although remote work is different and perhaps a little daunting, it offers courts the ability to continue with the essential work of administering justice while protecting the health and safety of its employees. With some change and effort, courts can evolve to be a model for others on how to maintain productivity during times of crisis.
If you would like assistance with drafting a remote work/teleworking policy and agreement, please contact