kristi steinmann: Feminists start recording now and then I'm going to mute everyone and make sure that you're unmuted. And then you can get started. Okay.
Patricia Hanson: Ready.
Patricia Hanson: Okay.
Patricia Hanson: Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Pat Hanson I'm the director of payroll here at NDS YOU MY CO presenter today is Jennifer Quinn and
Patricia Hanson: Associate Director of the Safety Office in. We're here today to present information on the telecommuting and the remote work site. This has become very popular topic with co bid and everything else happening on our campus. So we're happy to present this information today.
Patricia Hanson: I'll start out
Patricia Hanson: With just talking about where it all began NTSC policy 140 4.1 talks about temporary change of work location.
Patricia Hanson: And what this simply states is that employees may be required to change their work location out of state for extended periods of time for various reasons. In this case, extended period means for longer than 30 consecutive calendar days.
Patricia Hanson: Because of this, we asked employees to ensure that they're insured by proper workers compensation coverage liability coverage and administrative approvals. We asked the employees submit a summary of the proposed work.
Patricia Hanson: The location term and the personnel involved to their supervisor and possibly other administrative approvals for that remote work site request.
Patricia Hanson: A temporary change of work location, however, does not include the development of lead policy which is included under policy 132
Patricia Hanson: Or the leave without pay policy which is policy 149 it also does not include any short term work change of work locations, less than this 30 account 30 calendar days.
Patricia Hanson: Because of their requests of policy 141 44.1 we've heard create recreated a remote work site agreement in DocuSign to assist employees and providing this information.
Patricia Hanson: So what happens, or according to that policy and remote work said agreement is required if working more than 30 consecutive days from a rural, remote location outside the state of North Dakota. In addition to that, we recommend that a remote work site agreement.
Patricia Hanson: Be created if your primary place of employment will be a remote work site for an extended period of time within the state of North Dakota.
Patricia Hanson: The reason that we do that recommendation is that sometimes
Patricia Hanson: That agreement has a lot of green information where you and your supervisor can actually agree upon what your work schedule is what that work will entail.
Patricia Hanson: How often you will be out how long you'll be working remotely and a lot of other details that you may not otherwise discuss with your supervisor.
Patricia Hanson: Some of the definitions as part of that policy.
Patricia Hanson: And this involves all employees, quite often were asked, Does this include student employees. It includes anybody that receives a paycheck from North Dakota State University and includes faculty, staff, graduate assistants and student employees.
Patricia Hanson: The remote work site is a place of employment, not located on NDS you owned or least property where an employer works on a regular basis for an extended period of time. So the egg experiment stations. That's NDS you properties. So, any, any of those
Patricia Hanson: Remote workplaces that are owned or least by a de su. You do not have to complete the remote work site agreement extended period means for longer than 30 consecutive days.
Patricia Hanson: It does not apply to the occasional work from nine NDS you property or those outstation permanent work sites designated by and SEO.
Patricia Hanson: The place of employment is the actual physical location where an employee actually performs the work employee income will be reported to the appropriate state as required by applicable regulations. If you're working out of state.
Patricia Hanson: Some things to consider before completing the remote work site or working remotely.
Patricia Hanson: If you are the employee that is thinking about working remotely. We really suggest that you talk to your supervisor before starting to fill out three more work site agreement.
Patricia Hanson: Quite often we have agreements that come through, where the supervisor said they weren't even asked about it they you know that they had some concerns about it.
Patricia Hanson: And they wondered what they should do now, we suggest that they go back and talk to the employee.
Patricia Hanson: But you resolve a lot of that. If you're the employee and you're going to talk to your supervisor first and say this is what I'm thinking about doing
Patricia Hanson: Some of the things that both of you and your supervisor need to think about is what are the operational needs of the Department
Patricia Hanson: What are the staffing that's required to be able for your department to do its job. Some of the space considerations.
Patricia Hanson: What's very important these days are health and safety issues for your staff and, most of all, what type of position is being requested to work remotely.
Patricia Hanson: Positions that require a physical presence or a constant interaction with clients and coworkers.
Patricia Hanson: To perform their job are not suitable for remote work site. So not everyone that thinks that they want to work remotely or feels that they can work remotely will be approved to work remotely depending on the needs that department.
Patricia Hanson: And employee working remotely, of course, should not negatively impact their co workers so it shouldn't shift their work burden to those for their co workers or create delays for our customers.
Patricia Hanson: And it, most of all, it shouldn't create additional steps in the workflow, because this employee is working remotely.
Patricia Hanson: And part of the agreement helps you define what those tasks will be that will be performed remotely.
Patricia Hanson: And it helps you understand what the outcomes of that working arrangement will be so that's part of what helps with this agreement by doing this, this agreement, everyone understands what is expected and how long the agreement will last.
Patricia Hanson: The employees shall be willing to travel. When his or her work requires so this means even if you've come up with a work arrangement, if something changes and your department needs you in the office.
Patricia Hanson: Or need to somewhere else and everything. You should be available to do that travel to come back to the audience who works at when necessary, regardless of what the remote work schedule says
Patricia Hanson: So right now I'm going to turn it over to Jen and she's going to talk about some of the compliance requirements.
Jen: Your path.
Jen: For just jumping in. When we're talking about a remote work site arrangement.
Jen: We're also stating that we're not changing the conditions of employment, we're still following all NDS you policies, procedures rules and practices. So nothing has changed their
Jen: employment income will be reported to the appropriate state as required by applicable regulations and due to conflict state employment and tax laws.
Jen: It should be noted that in the future remote work cited agreements will not be approved to work in the states of California Ohio and New York.
Jen: A new remote work site agreement must be submitted for approval prior to changing the address of any remote work site. So let's say you are working in a state of Colorado.
Jen: Maybe you are moving to another address within that state or maybe to a different state all together, you would need to resubmit
Jen: The remote work site agreement so that we can make sure we're tracking you and we have you scheduled appropriately with workers comp and and with NDS you as well.
Jen: North Dakota State University may at any time change any or all of the conditions under which the employee is permitted to work or may withdraw permission to work off site.
Jen: This position arrangement will be reevaluated on an annual basis. So you do need to make sure that you're going in and submitting this on an on an annual basis. It also can be discontinued at will, at any time, at the request of either the employee or en de su
Jen: So has many individuals are aware, this process has been in place for employees that are working out of state or off campus in their remote workplace, but both Pat and I during discussion and we talked about this, this
Jen: This I guess process. We do also want to make sure that individuals are understanding that this also relates to our out of country travel. So if you are working out of country for greater than 30 days.
Jen: This process also needs to be taken care of. So these requests must be approved in advance and they also have to be justified with an essential business need
Jen: Request for employees who are not US citizens to work in their home country will not be approved.
Jen: And also for those employees that are working outside of the country you are going to want to coordinate with the sci fi office.
Jen: For workers compensation purposes. So you're going to want to give me a call or call anybody. I guess it's in the Safety Office and they'd be able to direct you to me.
Jen: But this needs to be done early on in the process so that we can walk you through how to go about securing workers comp in that country where you will be residing and working for that period of time.
Jen: Now this platform of utilizing remote work site agreement accomplishes several functions and one of those is meeting that workers compensation function.
Jen: So when we're working out in the state of North Dakota, let's say in the state of Minnesota for greater than 30 days.
Jen: We need to be making sure that these agreements are in place, because we need to secure insurance for you in that state.
Jen: So it's imperative that when you pull up this agreement, and you start working on it and putting your information in there that you're not leaving anything blank or putting na are not applicable. We need this information.
Jen: You're I have had questions in the past, you know, why do you need my gross annual wage. Again, that's to make sure that we get to cover it.
Jen: There also some kind of weird questions in there as far as what type of building, you might be working in. And how many stories or floors are in the building again.
Jen: This is for insurance purposes, so bear with us. And please answer all the questions. One of the questions that is going to be on that form that you may see
Jen: Is, are you working consistently continually within that state for greater than 30 days or are you coming back onto campus or back into the state of North Dakota for a period of time.
Jen: And that is a question so that we know whether we need to schedule you insurance with another Steve. So again, make sure you're answering all the questions.
Jen: And as a good safety employee. I guess we have to bring up all the safety requirements as well. So you'll notice some check marks and check boxes within that form.
Jen: That are asking you some questions about the workplace that you are going to be working in. And these are all safety requirements about your workspace. It could be anything from
Jen: Electrical Safety to fire safety on and then moving into your ergonomics. How is your workspace setup, whether that's your task chair or your desk or in some cases a table.
Jen: We want to make sure that we are reminding ourselves of good work practices and some of that is part of our workspace and our ergonomic situation.
Jen: So I'm not asking these questions to be nosy I'm just asking these questions to make sure that we're reminding ourselves what our workspace looks like and that we are making sure it's as safe as possible for us.
Jen: And that if there are any ergonomic concerns and you're looking at these check boxes you are able to see, you know, maybe I need to make some changes or contact the Safety Office to assist me
Jen: In maybe picking out a different table desk or chair to make it fit, fit me while I'm working in a remote work sake.
Jen: So our goal here is also to reduce workplace injuries and that could be anything from tripping tripping over a computer cord.
Jen: To having low back pain due to improper chair. So that's why you'll see those check check boxes there. And now we ask that instead of going through and just checking. Yes. If you don't want us to to get you on anything.
Jen: We're just saying answer truthfully and then just know that if you have some nose in there, you may want to contact the Safety Office for some recommendations or
Jen: Maybe it's a chance for you to just look at your workspace and move things around a little bit to make it as safe as possible. So with fact, I believe, that concludes
Jen: The presentation that book. Pat and I have put together.
Jen: So we will open it up to any questions that have come up
kristi steinmann: At a couple of questions in the chat so far. So they're wondering. This would include an would this include an adjunct faculty member who's teaching an online course that would have to do this agreement.
Patricia Hanson: You. Yes, it would.
kristi steinmann: And then just confirming that remote site agreements are good for one year.
Patricia Hanson: They're good for up to one year after one year they'll have to complete a renewal form the renewal is a lot shorter. And so it's a different form that is out there.
kristi steinmann: There was another question about
kristi steinmann: So this agreement is not for parents with school aged children who are now learning
kristi steinmann: Remotely and they're wondering if they can be approved to work from home, just a couple days a week throughout the semester, while their children are home and is that something they just work out with their supervisor without this agreement in place.
Patricia Hanson: This is probably one of those situations that we recommend the remote work site agreement, just because there's a lot of things in that agreement that the supervisor and the employee need to talk about in doing this.
Patricia Hanson: We want to make sure that the they have they have child care that you know that this isn't for child care purposes or anything. So we do recommend it but it's not required.
Patricia Hanson: Unless they're working out of state.
kristi steinmann: And then another follow up 30 consecutive days as the indicator on whether or not payroll or insurance needs to be adjusted. If it's just for a few days in a 30 day period. There's no need to submit the form
Patricia Hanson: That is correct.
I don't
kristi steinmann: Care. You just asked. We've had questions about what qualifies as returning to campus within that 30 day period. Do you need to be engaging in official operations on campus or do you log into your computer.
Jen: When we're looking at that 30 days.
Jen: You know, yes, you should be on campus engaging in your official operations. It's not just coming in checking in, for five minutes and leaving it's, you know, one to two days of, you know, significant work.
Jen: That would be counted as coming in on to campus and not considering that we would need to go ahead and schedule you are workers compensation purposes.
kristi steinmann: Get another question. How many NGOs you employees do you suppose will need to avail themselves of this work off site.
Patricia Hanson: We have been very, very busy since school was announced that we're going back into session.
Patricia Hanson: A lot of Adjunct professors are working off campus.
Patricia Hanson: Prior to co bed. We probably had about 55 employees working remotely we're probably now maybe approaching, what would you say Gen.
Y.
Patricia Hanson: Hundred and 50 maybe
Patricia Hanson: Yeah, so far, and they're still still coming in.
kristi steinmann: Myself, where do we find the work site agreement and can you post a link in the chat or follow up with a film.
Jen: Actually hit on that. So I think I missed that in my notes.
Jen: As pat had stated earlier, this is something that you very first step. First step is going to be discussing with your supervisor.
Jen: I think it goes without saying. You need to make sure that you're coordinating what that will look like and and how you're going to coordinate with that within your office and your department.
Jen: You can find that agreement that forum on the forms page under human resources from payroll. Okay.
Jen: And it's actually on the DocuSign platform. So it's all submitted online, which makes it quite easy when you go in, you're going to go ahead and enter in your name, you're in the email of
Jen: Your supervisor, the department chair the dean, if it's academic and then this agreement form is routed for approval, it goes through your chair Dean director
Jen: It goes through HR payroll. It also goes to the sci fi office. And then there's an approval by your vice president or provost, so if it's approved.
Jen: Then that work site agreement goes into the employees official personnel file and then a copy is also sent to university police and safety. And again, that's for purposes where we can monitor if if we need to get you covered under workers comp within the different state.
Jen: Because the employee will be notified if it's not approved so keep that in mind.
Jen: And then any long term arrangements again like we had stated need to be renewed on an annual basis. And again, that form is also on the forms page under HR
Jen: And it's a lot shorter. It's a quick renewal form because we would have most of your information already, we would just need to know that you're reacting for another few months or a year or whatever.
kristi steinmann: Another question, does it in state faculty member teaching synchronously from a remote location have to file the remote work site agreement.
Patricia Hanson: So synchronously means that they are on campus or not.
kristi steinmann: It means they're holding their class at the time that it's scheduled and live with their with their students, but it doesn't it doesn't necessarily mean that they're on campus.
Patricia Hanson: This is a situation where we'd we'd recommend
Patricia Hanson: The remote work site agreement, but it's not required.
kristi steinmann: A follow up question about the about Caitlin's question before about how being home with your kids. And I think that there's a new session being announced for tomorrow about
kristi steinmann: The time with with kids in the K 12 situations. I don't know if this is something you have an answer for today, but
kristi steinmann: Wasn't sure what you meant by making sure you have childcare in the response to Caitlin's question. Did you mean you're verifying that folks were home in order to engage in childcare or do you have to demonstrate you have child care during the work day
Patricia Hanson: We when I was said that I just meant that if you're requesting the remote work site to be at home with your children that it's actually a live situation.
Patricia Hanson: It's not actually working remotely. So you want to make sure that it's actually a request to work remotely rather than to a leap request.
Patricia Hanson: That's your question.
Carrie Anne Platt: Me myself to follow up with it because I am a little bit confused regarding the child's taking care of children component
Carrie Anne Platt: And I am in that situation of having two kids at home who will be doing the Virtual Academy, your, your recommendation would be for me to request to go and leave in the fall semester in order to do that, or to do the remote work agreement.
Patricia Hanson: It really depends on if your children are able to take care of themselves, or if you're actually requesting the remote work site to take care of your children.
Patricia Hanson: So I think it's on a case by case basis. It depends on what actually if you're able to do your work.
Patricia Hanson: And you can do it as well as you can on campus and everything. There isn't an issue. However, if you need to be there to
Patricia Hanson: In some cases, and everything you're actually trying to teach your children from where you're at, then maybe more. It's a league issue rather than a remote work site request.
Carrie Anne Platt: Thank you for clarifying.
kristi steinmann: Confirm if faculty and developmental leave me to fill out the request.
Patricia Hanson: It this remote work site request is not include somebody on developmental leave that's covered under a separate policy.
kristi steinmann: For grad students who are working remote for the semester, who are also teaching a course, do they need to fill out a remote work say agreement.
Patricia Hanson: Yes, they do. If they're working on stage.
kristi steinmann: I'm looking at the form itself with DocuSign, is there a way to see the forum so you can chat about it with your supervisor before you start the process in DocuSign
Patricia Hanson: Will get back to you. There is a way to see it, but I'm not sure what that link is for employees, so I'll have to get back to you on that.
kristi steinmann: Person about how this all will apply to extension staff. If you could talk about
kristi steinmann: About the agreement for extension staff.
kristi steinmann: I don't know any more details about that question other than. So I don't know if that person can
Jen: That was Kayla, they can elaborate a little bit more on now. And that might be helpful.
kristi steinmann: We can come back to that one. Um, for workers comp and workplace safety should all faculty teaching remote, whether in state or not part time or full, full out fill out the word remote work site your agreement so
Jen: If they're working out of state for greater than 30 days it is required. It's required because we're going to have to get them placed in that state with workers.
Jen: comp, and if they are working in state. It is recommended that they complete it. Okay. Yes. I think it's a great idea.
Jen: It would be a smart move on their part, just to make sure that they have everything in place.
Jen: Since they are working, you know, in state but but off campus.
kristi steinmann: Um, we have another question for faculty who opt to perform their responsibilities teaching, research or service from a remote location. What does HR require us to do. There may be some issues related to academic freedom where faculty are concerned.
Patricia Hanson: I'm not sure what HR requires you to do. What does HR require us to do.
Patricia Hanson: Other than complete the form and respond to the questions. Maybe if I can get a little clarification on
Patricia Hanson: what that question means
Patricia Hanson: And the academic freedom part
MMccourt: Sorry, that was, that was my question. I can clarify.
MMccourt: So I'm in state. But, you know, so the out of state issues. Don't pertain to my situation and I don't know how many faculty those out of state.
MMccourt: You know problems would apply to. But just for someone who lives in North Dakota, who's a faculty member on NDS you campus.
MMccourt: You know, I've never before had any problems with performing my duties in my office or out of my office.
MMccourt: And now it seems that this issue has become
MMccourt: You know, something that I need to pay attention to. I'm just curious. I mean what, what do I need to do you know as a faculty member who doesn't spend every day in my office who does much of my my work, you know, from home or elsewhere.
MMccourt: How is this going to impact me and and others like me.
Patricia Hanson: Is your primary work location, though your office here on campus. Is that what you would consider well
MMccourt: I mean, I guess I'm wondering what you consider primary work location right because yes I would consider it my primary location, but seems to me where I'm running up against.
MMccourt: You know, other definitions of what primary work location is
Patricia Hanson: A primary work locations where you do the majority of your, of your work. So if you're doing the majority of your work from your office that would be your primary work location. So there would be no remote work site agreement required
MMccourt: Yes. That means more than 50% I guess this is the devils in the details here.
Patricia Hanson: Yeah, more than 50% is what I would say.
Patricia Hanson: So, and especially if you're in the
MMccourt: Mastermind developmentally
MMccourt: In which case, those
MMccourt: Aren't issues, right.
Patricia Hanson: They are tissues, because when you're on developmental leave. You're not actually being paid to perform work for the institution. So that's why the developmental the policy takes over in that case.
Okay.
kristi steinmann: Another question. If we need to quarantine at home. Is there a process for this separate from that form.
Patricia Hanson: The court the quarantine process falls under a leaf request.
Patricia Hanson: It might fall under a leaf request and that would be going through the FF CRA program which is under the Cures Act.
Patricia Hanson: Unless of course they're they're required to quarantine for a certain period of time at home and they can still perform duties and work. Then, of course, it falls under that 30 day window.
Patricia Hanson: I believe the quarantine that I've seen is no more than 14 days.
kristi steinmann: Was a question about the remote works I request on the forums page, but not seeing the renewal and just wondering if that's named something different.
Patricia Hanson: Renewal form is coming out there. The renewal form was a form that I was supposed to send out from my office.
Patricia Hanson: And because of the number of remote work say requests and everything. I'm asking are it to make it as a power form that we can put it on the forms page. It's just not out there yet. It will be
kristi steinmann: So question. If you have approval from your supervisor to work a hybrid schedule. So two to three days at home and two to three days on campus, you do not need to fill out this agreement on this.
kristi steinmann: They just want to clarify this seems to be a different message than the previous return to work meeting in July.
Jen: I would say they would not right, Pat, they would not need to complete it as they're coming back on campus.
Correct.
Patricia Hanson: Yeah, this
Jen: Continuous span of time, it's a continuous span of time.
Jen: Greater than 30 days, then this process would need to be, I guess this form would need to be submitted.
Patricia Hanson: And again, this is another situation where we'd recommend it, just to have the the process and the agreement outlined, but it's not required.
kristi steinmann: Please guide all of the questions that I've seen so far, unless I've missed any if anyone wants to either unmute or type your question in the chat.
Patricia Hanson: Christy. Is there a way to stop the sharing my screen still being shared.
kristi steinmann: Your screen is not shared.
Okay.
kristi steinmann: There was a question on 30 days. Is it work days or 30 calendar days.
Jen: 30 calendar days 30 continuous days that includes weekends holidays. It's 30 continuous days. That's how it's counted
kristi steinmann: Question I'm
kristi steinmann: For possibly for john
kristi steinmann: How do you deal with a quality concerns for supervisors or staff, perhaps the position description states, they're responsible for answering the phones and greeting students in the office. This would make a remote agreement unrealistic can supervisors make provisions for an employee.
John Woolsey: So, I mean, there's when you look at this, you're always looking at is the request reasonable that the employees asking because they would need to know more.
John Woolsey: On exactly, you know what, what they mean. I mean, if you have a job description and part of that is to answer the phones and it's not reasonable to have that done from afar. It's something that
John Woolsey: Sounds like they want to possibly work remotely. We have to, you know, go through a process of why that is and
John Woolsey: So I'm not sure how to answer the question based on the information I have, if you want to contact me separately outside of this, you can definitely do that.
kristi steinmann: Do we have a time frame when the remote work renewal form will be posted and available.
Patricia Hanson: I would hope within the week I will double check on it.
kristi steinmann: All right. There's another question. What date is the remote work site form effective is it beginning August one, or September one.
Patricia Hanson: That depends on when they're, when they're actually starting their remote work.
Patricia Hanson: If they've already been doing it and they want to create the remote work site or fill out a completed remote work said it's probably whenever they actually fill out the form
Jen: Her courage or time or perceived in insurance.
Jen: Was covering these employees were calling covering all of us who were working from home.
Jen: I believe it started back in March. So they covered it and then
Jen: It came to a point where, you know, we were still living in this this period of remote work. And so they had to stop covering those employees that were working remotely if they were out of state.
Jen: So the date that we had been using was July one. So if you are a remote worker that has been working since March from home. Okay. And you're still working from home.
Jen: I would recommend they use the July one date, but if you have come back to campus and now you're considering starting with that remote work, use the date that you're going to start
Jen: I hope that helps answer that question.
kristi steinmann: If someone who lives outside of North Dakota has permission to work a hybrid schedule. Do they need to fill out the remote work form for insurance purposes.
Jen: So if you live outside of North Dakota. Are you you're working a hybrid schedule. Are you coming on to campus at all.
kristi steinmann: Le if you could unmute or
kristi steinmann: In the chat.
Hallie Pritchett: Yes, it would be someone say working two to three days a week on campus and two to three days off campus because we do have a number of people who, you know, live in war. History
Jen: Okay, so not
Jen: I guess in that example.
Jen: Holly, you would not need to
Patricia Hanson: Complete the form for insurance purposes.
Jen: If you were living, working in Morehead Minnesota for greater than 30 days. And yes, you would need to do it.
Hallie Pritchett: Okay, thanks.
kristi steinmann: Um, there was a question around who, it would be best to reach out to email about a more detailed question related to this to not discuss in the full group maybe patter Jen.
Patricia Hanson: It either one of us. Yes, we can help.
Patricia Hanson: And I think on the final slide had our email addresses, but
kristi steinmann: For that out.
kristi steinmann: Any other questions.
Carrie Anne Platt: You repeat the list of states that Approvals will not be made for I'm trying to take notes. And I don't think I got all of them, California was one of them.
Patricia Hanson: California Ohio in New York, just because of their complex employment tax laws we just do not have the staffing to accommodate those requests at this time.
Carrie Anne Platt: Thanks. I just wanted to make sure I had to list. Correct.
kristi steinmann: Questions.
kristi steinmann: And there was a request to send out the slides. So we can
kristi steinmann: send that to me. Patrick and some that aura when we send out the link today.
kristi steinmann: I don't see any other questions. So wrap up.
kristi steinmann: Is there anything else you want to add
Patricia Hanson: Thank you everybody for attending. Thank you.