Employees can request 100% remote work agreements contingent upon the following factors:

• Suitable space is not available, and/or the decision to approve the remote work agreement allows the organization to best achieve its mission.
• A home office location must be agreeable to the supervisor, program needs, and any funding partners (e.g., county, agency, etc.).
• A headquarter location must be assigned and must be an Extension location within the geographic service area of the position. (This may be different that the home office).
• The arrangement represents an overall cost savings or is cost neutral for Extension when all costs are considered (e.g., travel, space rental, technology, etc.). This is something that is the supervisor’s responsibility to assess.
  
  • An individual may be required to report to the closest available office location when consistent with UW-Madison and division policy and when there is a business rationale to do so.
• All 100% RWAs require the Deans approval.
• Travel reimbursement, per guidance from UW-Madison Business Services, would be from their home address once the remote work agreement is approved. The Division of Extension Office of Financial Services will use the remote work agreement as the authorization for reimbursement.
  • Those with an out of state home address would use the HQ city assigned to them in Wisconsin as the travel base.

Employee Checklist for Completing a Remote Work Agreement

Note: The employee and supervisor will receive e-mail notifications at each step of the process when an action is taken. 

• The employee initiates the Remote Work Agreement in MyUW  under Personal Information > Update My Personal Information > Remote Work Agreement.
• User guide: step-by-step instructions are found in Employee Access to Remote Work Agreement.
• The employee should use the unlabeled comment box at the end of the document to write a justification for the request, speaking to the decision-making factors in Remote Work - Criteria & Conditions - Extension Decision Making Factors.
• The request will be routed to the employee's supervisor for the initial recommendation.
• The supervisor will take one of three actions:
• Recommend approval of the request;
• "Push back" the form for modification or further explanation by the employee to ensure it aligns with Extension Decision Making Factors for Remote Work;
• or deny the request if it is unaligned with Extension Decision Making Factors for Remote Work .
• The supervisor should address in their comment box how remote work will be managed at the team/program level to ensure maintenance or enhancement of unit effectiveness.
• The supervisor will need to identify a headquarter location when approving the request; the location needs to be an Extension location in Wisconsin.
• If recommended for approval, either initially or after modification, it will go to the employee’s Dean-level DLT representative for review and approval. If the request is for more than 40% remote work, the DLT representative will consult with the Dean for review and approval; 
• We review remote work agreements on a fiscal year cycle (July 1st to June 30). Please ensure that the end of the remote work agreement is the end of the current fiscal year or sooner.
• Human Resources is the final reviewer/approver of all requests within the Division.

A remote work agreement may be denied, modified, or revoked. The supervisor must discuss the reasons for the denial, modification or revocation with the employee and provide a reasonable notice period before the revocation or modification goes into effect. Denials, modifications, and revocations of remote work agreements may be reviewed. (See sections III.6 and X of the UW–Madison Remote Work Policy).

If an Extension employee requests a remote work arrangement and the request is denied at any level of the approval process, or if a supervisor modifies or revokes an established remote work agreement, the employee may request a review of the decision by the Extension Dean’s Office using the following process:

• Requests for review should be sent to hr@extension.wisc.edu.
• Components of review requests:
• The employee should outline the details of the denial, modification, or revocation decision, including the supervisor’s stated reasons for the denial, modification, or revocation
• In cases of revocation or modification of an approved remote work agreement, the employee should cite the notice period provided before the revocation or modification goes into effect.
• The employee should submit their request after being notified of the denial, modification, or revocation.
• The Extension Dean’s Office will issue a decision prior to the revocation or modification effective date.
• The timelines outlined here may be extended by mutual agreement.

The decision from the Extension Dean’s Office is final and cannot be appealed.