New Policy Requires a Big Team Effort

The university's Space Management and Flexible Work Policy was recently introduced to provide campus with guidance for documenting work locations and flexible schedule agreements. In conjunction with the new policy, the university also needed a place to collect this information which would ultimately be used to help improve space planning, campus safety, facilities management, regulatory compliance, and long-term workplace planning.

When the Institutional Policy & Projects team approached Human Resources and UITS about a tracking method, the technical solution seemed straightforward: UAccess Employee's PeopleSoft system already included basic work location functionality. But as Teddy Lopez, IT manager for administrative & business services, and her colleagues dug into the requirements, they discovered a significant gap between what the software could provide and what university leaders needed.

"The product was very bare bones," says Lopez. It could only report whether someone worked remotely. "It didn't give leadership what they needed, and it didn't have the ability to collect flexible schedule information at all."

Space Strategy and Management, the Division of Human Resources, and the Office of Public Safety needed much more specific data; not just who worked remotely, but where employees worked on campus, down to the room level. Better location data would help the university understand space use and support physical security needs, while formally documenting flexible work schedules.

While the UAccess Work Location and Flexible Schedule module launched July 15, getting there required far more than just writing code.

Matt Shimel, the lead developer, found himself tackling what he calls a "stretch assignment." What seemed relatively simple on paper quickly grew into a complex, cross-team effort to build complex logic behind the scenes. For example, if an employee selected "hybrid," the system had to verify that both an on-site and off-site location were provided. Supervisors needed a way to request revisions from employees. And, the system needed an annual automated reminder process to keep information current.

One of the biggest challenges was making the appropriate data accessible while keeping personal information secure.

The UAccess Employee team coordinated with the Identity & Access Management team to ensure that location data captured in the system would remain appropriately protected as it moved across UAccess Analytics, the data warehouse, and the EDS and Boomi integrations. Even within the module, home addresses are masked from supervisors during the approval process—only the city and state are visible.

"To me, that was a big lift," Teddy says. "Making sure we had all the data going in and coming out correctly because of the trickle-down effects."

Working with Enterprise GIS and Space Strategy and Management, UAccess developers also integrated live campus maps, making it easier for employees to select their exact work location while completing the module.

The payoff extends well beyond the new module. University Analytics & Institutional Research is developing reports that will give Space Strategy and Management an aggregate view of building occupancy and the number and percentage of employees working remotely or on-site. HR can use aggregate data to support tax and regulatory compliance. Public Safety gains better estimates of building occupancy. And the university now has validated location data that simply didn't exist before.

"It was a lot of fun," Matt says, "and I learned a lot by doing it."

That stretch assignment and the teamwork behind it have given the university something it didn't have before: a more complete, accurate and secure institutional picture of when and where work happens.