Dear Colleagues,
This academic year, we largely resumed in-person instruction and many other activities. It has been wonderful to see students studying together in the library, faculty leading classroom discussions, and staff members working to support the mission of our university.
A substantial amount of our work, however, has continued in the virtual environment. The rapid switch to remote work in March 2020 required us to rethink how we accomplish our work. Early on, it became clear it would be a moment of profound change for many organizations, including those in higher education like UC Santa Cruz.
Over the past several months, campus leaders have developed a framework that will continue to allow for flexibility for some employees. Allowing for remote and hybrid work arrangements can offer benefits that are both in the interest of staff members and the university. While some roles require staff members to be on campus to perform their duties, other jobs can be done with employees working in a hybrid or fully remote environment.
With insights gained over the past year and additional feedback from campus leaders, we have developed a vision and guiding principles for flexible work arrangements to help our campus move into this new blended work environment. Our focus is on making sure staff are able to effectively serve and support the campus and less about where that work is accomplished.
Our vision is to offer a flexible work environment that advances UCSC’s mission and strategic campus goals by attracting and retaining a diverse, talented workforce and optimizing their engagement and contributions.
We adopted eight guiding principles to help guide the development of flexible work arrangements:
- Campus Mission and Strategic Goals: Ensure effective support of the campus mission and advancing strategic campus goals.
- Operational and Business Needs: Prioritize operational and business needs, ensuring department goals, objectives, and requirements are being met, and safeguard opportunities to make adjustments to remain consistent with them.
- Equity: Uphold equity, consistency, and accessibility in all aspects of flexible work arrangements and related resources. Make decisions based on objective business considerations.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Foster a diverse and inclusive culture that enables us to be agile, attract and retain high-quality talent, and further our position as a reputable employer and highly desired workplace.
- Resources: Ensure employees and supervisors/managers know about and can access resources related to health, safety and well-being and know how to escalate concerns.
- Space Optimization: Seek ways to optimize space utilization on campus property, including creating shared workspaces and repurposing/returning underutilized space.
- Infrastructure: Enable flexibility through university-wide technology, communication tools and business processes that allow for organizational alignment, efficiency, and safety.
- Check and Adjust: Regularly check and adjust; adapt to changing conditions and make improvements to move toward our strategic campus goals.
The decision about whether a hybrid or remote work arrangement works for your role rests with your manager or supervisor. If you want to talk to your manager or supervisor about whether a hybrid or remote work arrangement is possible, start with the Staff Human Resources self-assessment tool for employees interested in understanding whether a flexible work arrangement might be compatible.
More information is available on the Staff Human Resources website, including links to an updated Routine Telecommuting/Remote Work Agreement form, Guidelines for Routine Telecommuting/Remote Work, and Flexible Work Principles and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
UC Santa Cruz is an incredible university and the strength of our campus is based on the talented staff, faculty, and students who are drawn to our mission of serving students and producing world-class research and creative scholarship.
We believe that continued flexibility will strengthen our ability to recruit and retain diverse and talented employees and, in turn, accelerate our campus’s unprecedented trajectory.
If you have questions about flexible work arrangements you should begin by talking with your manager or supervisor.
Sincerely,
Biju and Steve
Biju Kamaleswaran
Interim Vice Chancellor, Business and Administrative Services
Steve Stein
Associate Vice Chancellor, Staff Human Resources
