Coordinator

Telework A Pandemic Strategy

Many Disaster Recovery plans list telework as a potential strategy to limit disruptions in the workplace.  Potential is the key word. 

Arizona's agencies widely accept telework as a business practice and remote connectivity tools are commonly available, yet a large proportion of State employees with critical functions remain unfamiliar with both the tools and practice of working remotely.  We are not talking about the practice of taking work home or borrowing the office laptop, but learning to use remote connectivity to do a normal days work from a remote location, with or without notice. 

The Arizona Department of Administration (ADOA) has been preparing its workforce to perform critical functions remotely as one of their pandemic planning strategies. The agency first defined "Critical Functions" as those functions that must be restored within 0 and 14 days of an incident (Pandemic outbreak, flood, fire, power outage, etc.).  ADOA then designed a Critical Function Telework Program and began taking the following steps.  These steps could be duplicated by other agencies.

Phase One:

1.      A comprehensive Intranet site was designed to help train selected ADOA employees to work out formal telework agreements with their supervisors and learn about all of the available remote connectivity options currently available to them.

2.      ADOA division heads were briefed on the program and asked to develop division specific security policies, if necessary, and identify those employees with critical functions who could perform their functions remotely.

3.      The identified critical function employees were instructed to log on to the agency's Critical Function Telework website, begin the process of working out a formal telework agreement with their supervisor, receive instruction on all available remote connectivity services, request the appropriate remote connectivity accounts, and begin to practice using their connectivity services by doing their critical business functions from home on a regular basis to remain prepared to work in the event of an emergency.

4.      All Critical Function Employees were tracked through the training and equipping process to assure that each employee was successfully prepared.

5.      Critical function employees were instructed to work with their managers to identify and resolve any barriers they found to enable them to work remotely.

6.      All Critical Function Employees were instructed to utilize Code 110 on their timesheets to record telework hours.  The agency then used HRIS Pay Code 110 On Demand Reports to track the frequency of teleworking among Critical Function employees and reported the results to agency management.

In Phase Two of the ADOA Critical Function Telework Program, those employees who are considered critical but do not work on a business process that must be restored within two weeks of an event were added to the program.  These employees also followed steps taken by the employees in Phase One.

For more information on the ADOA Critical Function Program, contact the Telework Program Administrator at 602 542-7433.