The University of Arizona Administration Building

 A.E. Araiza, Arizona Daily Star 2018

Many of the University of Arizona’s 14,298 employees will now have the option to create a flexible work schedule.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced employees at the UA β€” and in most office-style workplaces β€” to transition to remote work to mitigate viral transmission, the UA’s new flexible work initiative is not driven by public health necessity.

Instead, one of Tucson’s largest employers is joining a nationwide trend of taking the pandemic-era lessons learned about what work can look like beyond commuting to an office five days a week and applying them to a longterm vision for work post-pandemic.

β€œAs you all know, the pandemic has introduced us to a number of flexible work tools and practices,” UA President Robert Robbins said in an email to employees last week.

β€œLike other employers and higher education institutions, we are embracing evolving workforce trends to help sustain the university’s position as a great place to work and ensure we remain competitive in the labor market.”

What is flexible work?

Some jobs at the university, like teaching and student support positions, require time on campus, but there are still options to find flexibility in those schedules, too. That’s because flexible work doesn’t just mean fully remote, though that is an option for some UA employees. Flexible work can also include:

Hybrid work week, which means an employee works some of the time at an office and some of the time at home.

Flexible schedule, which means an employee is allowed variations on when they start and end work each day, but they work a full work week.

Compressed work week, which means an employee completes their scheduled hours for the week in fewer than five work days.

Core business hours, which refers to established times (example: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) when all employees in a unit or department must be working. Time outside of those hours is flexible.

Flexible work arrangements like these allow workers more options for arranging child care or other responsibilities, managing a chronic illness or simply working at a time of day or in an environment most suited to their productivity.

Although some UA employees have had flexible work options since before the pandemic, Celina Ramirez, vice president for university initiatives, said the pandemic exposed more people to its benefits.

Ramirez

β€œThe pandemic made a lot more supervisors open to flexible arrangement than they had in the past,” she said. β€œWe also had a lot more employees asking about it because they saw how it works for their lives as well.”

Ramirez, who has worked at the UA for 15 years, said she’s grateful to have had a flexible work schedule during most of her time on campus, which has coincided with raising two children.

β€œTo some extent I’ve chosen my jobs based on how much flexibility they had so that I could meet the parenting needs I had,” she said. β€œThe goal should really be getting the work done and getting it done effectively. That may look different from person to person.”

More job satisfaction

Last spring, Ramirez and a team of administrators conducted a survey to gain more concrete information about employee perspectives on flexible work.

According to the workers who responded to the survey, 42% of staff already had a flexible schedule; 44% had a hybrid work week; 26% were fully remote. The survey also found that 88% of employees who didn’t already have some kind of flexible work arrangement wanted one.

Rank-and-file workers aren’t the only ones who see benefits to flexible work options.

According to the survey, more than 70% of supervisors saw increased productivity among staff who worked remotely or partly remote. But staff β€” more than 90% β€” said the biggest benefit of flexible work is increased job satisfaction and employee wellbeing.

Over the summer, the university ran a pilot program for remote work across 22 departments, and is now in the process of analyzing the results.

Alex Underwood, registrar for the UA, was part of the pilot. Prior to the pandemic changing the look of office work, the 40-plus full-time employees in the Registrar’s Office were expected to work in an office on campus from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, with few exceptions.

Underwood

Since the office is public-facing, it’s made sure to have enough staff on-site to support students in person. Some workers prefer to work in the office five days a week, while others prefer to work remotely or during non-traditional business hours. Underwood has found a compromise by requiring staff to come into the office at least two days a week, which is when they have their all-staff meetings.

Overall, he said it’s benefiting his department.

β€œHaving that flexibility and letting people know that the office cares about them as people has made a big difference in both recruiting talent and retaining talent,” Underwood said. β€œWe’re doing everything we can to both serve our students and the university, but also serve our workers.”

Although it will be up to individual supervisors and department heads to allow flexible work β€” the survey noted that those under the age of 35 were most likely to support the idea β€” backers of the initiative are encouraged by Robbins’ recent endorsement.

β€œOne of our key takeaways was that supervisors felt like they needed leadership’s support,” said Alex Robie Harris, senior project director in the Office of University Initiatives.

β€œJust seeing that email is going to give supervisors the support and permission they’ve been looking for β€” that this wasn’t just a reaction to COVID. This is a longterm way that will change the way we all work.”

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Kathryn Palmer covers higher education for the Arizona Daily Star. Contact her via e-mail at kpalmer@tucson.com or 520-496-9010.