What are you doing with staff who cannot work from home?
Date postedApril 17, 2020
Question:
During COVID-19, if you have staff that cannot work from home, have you laid them off or are you allowing them to use vacation and/or sick time to continue to be paid while they are off? I am interested in learning if anyone is allowing staff to use sick time to continue being paid, even if they or their family do not have the coronavirus.
Answers:
When the pandemic first started and schools closed, we allowed employees a few days of paid time off to arrange childcare and on some occasions we let them bring their child to work. Since we have transitioned to primarily work from home and adopted a Pandemic Leave policy this gives an employee 2 weeks of paid sick leave to quarantine, recover, or self-isolate if they contract or are exposed to COVID-19. Employees who are unable or do not wish to come to work may use their sick leave, vacation time, and comp time to stay home.
We had a challenge in that one of our employees has limited and spotty internet access at home. We have provided them with a cellular hot spot, projects that can be completed without internet, (think filing and records retention projects that get put aside for years), and they come to the office and work alone for two days a week. It's all about creating flexibility. Some of our staff are allowed to work non-traditional hours to address homeschooling their children.
We are a small site selection consulting firm, but my one employee is working full-time as before and being paid regularly.
There is sufficient work for Economic Development Organizations to continue doing even from home. Perhaps there is some support staff like receptionists who would not be able to contribute to the ongoing work, but there are typically the employees in most need of a regular paycheck.