Accepting Recommendations of the Future of Work Task Force

June 23, 2022

Members of the Rutgers Community:

After a year of gathering information, surveying the community, and thoughtful deliberations, the Future of Work Task Force that I appointed last May has delivered its findings and recommendations to me. I am grateful to the more than 300 people who comprised the task force and its working groups, as well as the thousands who responded to surveys, took part in online listening sessions, or otherwise provided input to the task force.

I am pleased to announce that I have accepted the Future of Work Task Force report and will direct University Human Resources and other appropriate offices to move swiftly to put into effect the report’s six short-term recommendations as soon as possible.

As I said a year ago, Rutgers is meant to be an in-person, face-to-face university community, with campus walkways, academic building hallways, libraries, dining halls, and student centers buzzing with live interactions. In returning to that model, we also need to heed the lessons of the past two years and the creative ways in which we took advantage of technology to perform our work effectively amid the tremendous challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. I asked the task force, led by Senior Vice President for Human Resources Vivian Fernández, to offer recommendations that could help us better serve students, patients, and the community, operate with greater efficiency and remain competitive, improve employee well-being, and support sustainability.

In accepting the report, I recognize that some recommendations (and in particular the long-term recommendations for both staff and faculty), in the report and summarized here, will need to be discussed with our labor partners, and we will initiate those conversations in the weeks and months ahead.

The task force has made both short- and long-term recommendations. Prominent among the short-term recommendations is a year-long pilot, beginning September 1, that will amend existing University Policy and authorize flexible working arrangements for positions and units where that is possible—with staff employees who are granted permission by their unit for such arrangements expected to work a minimum of three days per week on campus.

Faculty members work in a different fashion from their staff colleagues. That said, it is my unambiguous expectation that faculty teach, train, advise, and mentor in person. Discussions will need to take place between chancellors, provosts, deans, chairs, center/institute unit directors, and faculty about the best way to navigate the full breadth of faculty commitments while still meeting the needs of our students and other trainees for an in-person learning environment. I expect that academic departments and centers/institutes may yet be able to develop flexible work options for our faculty. Of course, for many faculty those options existed pre-pandemic as well.

The task force was sensitive to the circumstances of frontline workers who don’t have the option of working remotely. Thus, the short-term recommendations include exploring an emergency caregiver support program and expanding the types of authorized flexible working arrangements in the pilot year to include a flex workday schedule or a compressed workweek option.

We will also move forward on the report’s short-term recommendations to establish a Presidential Employee Excellence Recognition Program and to develop the infrastructure needed to support new work modalities. During the pilot year, the university will also develop mechanisms to measure the impact of a flexible work arrangement on student services, patient care, and the local community, among other issues.

In thinking about the future of work, we must keep the student experience in the forefront of our planning. As the task force report states, Rutgers students felt the impact of the pandemic in significant ways.  In creating flexible working arrangements, we will make certain that students are well-served—that they have reliable and consistent access to people and resources they need, both in-person and online, that they can experience the kind of vibrant campus life that existed pre-pandemic, that they can benefit from the best practices of technology-enhanced teaching and learning, and that we meet their physical and mental health needs.

The report’s long-term recommendations will require creation of focused working groups on assessing feasibility, resources, assessment tools, and timelines for implementation. I have tasked Senior Vice President Fernández to lead this effort. She will provide additional details to faculty and staff later today and will continue to update the community through the Future of Work website.

Thanks to the Future of Work Task Force and to so many of you who participated in this process, we are putting in place a thoughtful plan to support workplace excellence, attract and retain top talent, improve student and patient experiences, support innovation and sustainability, and foster a caring, inclusive, respectful work environment. 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor