Arizona State University recognizes that offering a flexible work arrangement, including hybrid or full remote work, can offer benefits to both employee and employer, such as workforce retention, recruiting, sustainability and work-life balance.
The College at ASU follows the policy and best practices as laid out via the university wide flexible work arrangement (FWA) program.
The FWA program offers a number of work schedules and remote work options. Visit the OHR Flexible Work Arrangement webpage for complete information on the program.
Overview
Requesting a flexible work arrangement
Employees wishing to request a flexible work arrangement should:
- Familiarize themselves with the applicable policy: SPP 306: Flexible Work Arrangements.
- Meet with their supervisor to discuss their schedule.
- Complete The College's Flexible Work Arrangement form and submit to their supervisor for review and approval.
See detailed procedures below.
Flexible work schedules and remote working guidelines
Flexible work schedules and remote working options:
- Are a privilege and not a right.
- Are determined by The College (consistent with university guidelines and business needs) and may vary by position responsibilities.
- Are only available for staff meeting expectations.
- Are not available to new hires until their training period is over and the staff member is meeting expectations.
- Must not compromise the in-person operations of college units.
- Will be reviewed regularly and may be revoked or changed based on the business needs of The College, ASU or changes in job responsibilities or performance.
Considerations
Specific schedules are determined through a discussion between the employee and their supervisor(s). Please note the following:
- All arrangements are reviewed and approved by the employee’s supervisor, the unit’s chair or director and the dean of the college. If an employee requests a fully remote schedule (more than 40% off campus), provost approval is required.
- If an employee is requesting to work a 4-day/10-hour or 9-day/80-hour schedule AND remote days, dean approval and possibly provost approval is required.
- If student workers are providing on-campus coverage, there must be on-site supervision by a staff member or administrator during their shift.
- Some days will be considered “all hands on deck” days, where staff will be required to work on campus (for example, Fall/Spring Convocations, beginning and end of semesters, covering for staff members who have vacation or extended leaves, holiday coverage, etc.).
- The remote plan developed for each employee by the supervisor(s) and approved by the supervisor, chair/director and dean should not vary frequently. It is recommended that changes are made on a monthly basis unless necessitated by an unexpected or unplanned event.
- If an ASU holiday or employee vacation/sick day falls on a scheduled remote day, the remote day should not be changed to a different day.
- For alternative work schedules that are more than an 8-hour work day, additional hours will need to be reported as ASU recognizes an 8-hour work day for holiday pay.
- For example, if a holiday falls on a 9-hour work day, an additional hour of vacation should be reported; an additional 2 hours of vacation should be reported for those working a 10-hour day.
- It is the employee’s responsibility for ensuring they have adequate internet access and a remote working environment that allows for maximum productivity.
- While working remotely, the employee is to be available to the same extent they are available when in the office (active on Slack, responsive on email and phone, able to engage with others via Zoom, even if unscheduled, regular work hours that include a lunch break.)
- Any time spent not working during a remote day should be submitted, approved and recorded as time off (vacation or sick) just as it would be if working in the office. This includes setting out-of-office notifications.
- Personal off-campus appointments should be scheduled on remote days when possible to minimize the impact on other staff members and to ensure an on-campus presence for the unit.
Policies, procedures and workflow
For employees and supervisors
Flexible Work Arrangement Request form
- Employee and supervisor should complete The College's FWA request form.
- Supervisor signs and submits to chair/director for approval and signature.
- Chair/director approves and signs.
- The document is used to complete the FWA Tracking Spreadsheet and Flexible Work Arrangements Summary form.
- This document is filed at the unit level.
- Please note: If a fully remote or more than 40% off campus is submitted, dean and provost approval will be required. These should be submitted separately and approval should be requested as soon as possible so that they can be included in the Tracking and Summary forms. The document will be filed at the unit level once approved.
Once completed, documents should be submitted to The College for approval and will be forwarded by The College to ASU administration on a monthly basis.
For supervisors
Complete FWA documentation in the following order:
- FWA Tracking and Summary Spreadsheet (2 worksheets)
- Individual Tracking Worksheet (List all employees, as the deans will want to be able to review the number of employees on campus each day.)
- Departmental Summary Worksheet (This worksheet should be auto-populated by the Individual Tracking Worksheet.
- Flexible Work Arrangement Summary form (This form will include some of the data from the Departmental Summary Worksheet.)
- Once completed, please upload the following (together) to The College FWA Dropbox.
- FWA Tracking Spreadsheet (with both worksheets completed.)
- FWA Summary form (only include fully remote or more than 60% off campus if already approved by the Provost.
Once approved, The College will notify the unit of the approval to proceed.
Additional considerations for supervisors:
All units are required to submit an FWA Summary form signed by the chair or director as well as an FWA Tracking Sheet for the unit. Individual units must retain individual employee FWA request forms.
Forms must be dropped in units' individual Dropboxes by the end of each FY quarter. If a unit does not have any changes, please email the director of people and talent and let them know. Short-term/temporary changes in normal remote schedules do not need to be updated on the formal request. However, the unit is expected to track the requests and the duration to ensure they do not extend beyond the “temporary” nature of the work schedule.
If a unit has changes to their previously approved FWA schedule, please update the following:
- Update the FWA Tracking Spreadsheet and save in your unit’s FWA Dropbox folder.
- Create a new FWA Summary form and save in your unit’s FWA Dropbox folder.
- Send an email to the director of people and talent notifying them of your unit’s changes. The documents will then be reviewed by the dean and either approved as is or forwarded, after receiving dean support, to the provost for approval.
For fully remote requests only:
- Please note that it is the expectation of the university to maintain an “on campus” presence by staff, and fully remote requests should only be submitted when situations are unique and/or temporary in nature.
- Do not upload new fully remote requests to your unit’s Dropbox. Instead, email the request to the director of people and talent.
- Once the form has been approved by the dean and provost, the form will be uploaded to the Dropbox and the unit will be notified.