SMPH's Manager Guide to Approving a Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA)
Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) are submitted by employees in Workday. For instructions on how an employee submits an FWA in Workday please see SMPH Guide on Submitting a Flexible Work Arrangement.
Campus has created a Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA) guide for managers, which we highly recommend reviewing. This SMPH guide serves as a supplemental document to that resource.
Review Employee's Flexible Work Arrangement
When an employee submits a flexible work arrangement (FWA) questionnaire, the manager will receive a task in their inbox to review and take action on (reference screen shot below).
This task will include:
- Key details about the request, such as the proposed start and end dates of the agreement
- Whether the employee is requesting to work fully remote or partially remote
- Which days of the week they plan to work remotely
- A full report of the employees’ questionnaire responses
The task will also include a report of all the workers’ questionnaire responses (reference screen shot below).
Manager must review the employee questionnaire for accuracy. At this point, you can approve, send back to the employee, or deny.
If the request looks accurate, the manager selects ‘approve’. Then the manager will receive a new task to ‘complete questionnaire.’ See below for screenshot:
Designation of Headquarters City
The manager's next step is to designate a Headquarters (HQ) location. Managers must receive prior approval by SMPH HR in order to delegate any location other than a UW-owned (or leased) Campus facility as the HQ. Please review our Headquarter Location Knowledgeable if you have questions on what would be considered an alternative headquarter location.
Is the employee assigned fully remote as an expectation of their employment?
If you do not have an approved alternative headquarters location through SMPH HR, you should select 'No.' If you believe you have a rationale for selecting 'Yes,' please pause by clicking 'Save for later,' and submit an alternative headquarters location request using the Headquarter Location knowledgebase.
Is the employee considered field work-remote?
A fieldworker is an employee whose official work requires the employee's presence at various locations other than their headquarter location at least 33% of the time (as a requirement of the position). Work generally refers to learning or work done outside the classroom, involving real-world observation, data collection, or hands-on application of academic concepts.
If an employee is temporarily working remotely from a university-established off-campus site, an FWA is not required.
For the majority of our SMPH employees, this answer should be ‘no.’ For consultation on if your employee classified as field work remote, please contact your HRBP.
Lastly, supervisors must attest to the statement, “I understand that this employee is not eligible to be reimbursed for travel to their assigned campus location, based on the guidelines in UWSA policy 1228. Please type your name below to confirm your acknowledgment.”
If your employee has an approved HQ through SMPH HR:
If you have received approval for an alternative HQ location by SMPH HR via email, the manager will need to indicate ‘yes’ to ‘Is the employee assigned fully remote as an expectation of their employment?’
The next question that will populate is, "Is the employee’s Work From Home location more than 85 miles from their primary campus location?" Please answer this question from the standpoint of “Work from Home or Other Approved Work Location.”
The next question is "Is travel reimbursement authorized for travel between the employee's Work From Home Location and the work unit's campus location?" Here you will indicate whether or not you will allow for travel reimbursement. If you indicate no, employee will likely be denied expense reimbursement related to travel reimbursement.
Lastly, the manager will need to type their name acknowledging the statement before hitting ‘submit.’
Once this task is submitted, it will route to your HR Business Partner/HR Assistant for review.