Guidelines for Remote Staff Work Arrangements
From Dr. Jean Morrison, University Provost and Chief Academic Officer,
Gary Nicksa, Senior Vice President for Operations,
and Amanda Bailey, Vice President for Human Resources
On June 23, President Brown wrote to all University staff and faculty to announce the recommendations of the Committee on the Future of Staff Work at Boston University. The letters to faculty and staff described principles, process elements, and general guidelines for the implementation of remote work arrangements and explained that more comprehensive guidelines were being developed by Human Resources to operationalize the committee’s recommendations. As you may recall, the primary recommendation of the committee was – to the extent feasible within our residential research university environment – to give eligible employees the option of requesting to work remotely up to two days per week.
Over the last several weeks, Human Resources has worked with the Office of the General Counsel, Organizational Development & Learning, Marketing & Communications, and the Committee on the Future of Staff Work at BU to develop a set of guidelines for remote staff work arrangements, checklists for staff members and managers, and an online application and review process for remote work arrangements. These guidelines, checklists, and other tools are available on a new Remote Work at BU section of the Human Resources website. The online application form will go live on Monday, August 16. Starting on this date, eligible employees will be able to submit an application to their manager to work remotely.
We encourage you to visit the Remote Work at BU website. On it you will find remote work guidelines, an employee toolkit with a checklist for requesting a remote work arrangement, a manager toolkit with a checklist for evaluating remote work requests, advice for successful hybrid teams, well-being tips for remote and hybrid work, and a list of frequently asked questions.
We want to thank the many individuals who worked diligently over the summer to develop the remote work guidelines and toolkits, and to thank all of you for your patience as we developed these important guidelines. Providing this flexibility in a way that supports the teaching and research mission of the University is a complex task. The guidelines that have been developed support our institutional goals by advancing our educational and research missions, staff recruitment and retention, business continuity, enhanced support for strategic initiatives, and environmental sustainability.
If you have questions on the guidelines, process, or website materials please contact the Human Resources Service Center at hr@bu.edu or call 617-353-2380.