Preparations for that have already begun. The Department of General Services has resumed parking enforcement in the Capitol Complex. Information technology staff are testing equipment and network connectivity in state offices. Air ventilation and filtration in buildings has increased along with the addition of disinfecting air with UV rays.
Not all of the state employees who teleworked through the past 15 months will return at once.
It will be more along the lines of building by building in the Capitol Complex. Administration officials say that way if problems arise with equipment, network connectivity or work stations as they return to use, the appropriate support staff will be nearby to address them.
Reid Walsh, deputy secretary for human resources in the governor’s Office of Administration, offered some insights into other adjustments that have been made as Pennsylvania emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic that will give state government a different look going forward.
Will employees have to wear a mask?
Administration officials plan to continue to monitor the situation when it comes to masking and will wait to hear what Gov. Tom Wolf decides about when and where masks must be worn. But Walsh said whatever is decided, the administration has no intention of dropping below the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or Department of Health standards for work safety. Pennsylvania’s mask order will end June 28 or when 70% of the state’s adults are vaccinated, whichever comes first.
Will employees continue to be allowed to telework?
“We’ve been working on a long-term plan for telework as an employer,” Walsh said. “We see lots of benefits to teleworking in general. This is something we want to make sure we’re thoughtful about.”
With the governor generally supportive of modernizing the state’s approach to work, the administration has put in place policies for permanent telework and hybrid schedules.
“From the governor’s perspective, he supports the commonwealth as an employer going places that other 21st century employers are going,” Walsh said. “So he’s supporting telework if appropriate for employees.”
She said he also realizes there are people who need a hybrid situation, who can telework but need to report back to the office at times.
“The pandemic is telling us we’re at the place where we can start those activities,” Walsh said.
Will social distancing be required?
Social distancing is something that the commonwealth encourages but doesn’t require. But Walsh reminded the state is still in the pandemic and not everybody has been vaccinated.
Will daily self-screening be part of employees’ routine?
Initially, Walsh said that is the plan. Employees will be asked daily to answer a specific set of COVID-19 related questions as part of this screening.
“We really want to make sure that employees are making sure they’re well and they’re coming into the workforce healthy and that’s inclusive of anything COVID-related or anything else that would be the normal course of calling out sick because you’re contagious with something,” she said.
As time goes on, she said they will make a determination as to how long they need to keep the screenings in place.
“But we’re always going to direct employees if you’re sick, use your allotted sick time and stay home,” she said.
Will state government employees be required to be vaccinated?
There are no plans for making vaccinations mandatory at this time, Walsh said.
Will the public notice any difference in the service level of state agencies?
The majority of employees who work under the governor’s jurisdiction — about 50,000 of them — have been reporting to their office or work site every day and delivering services to citizens, she said.
That includes state employees who work in long-term care facilities, veterans homes, state hospitals, correctional institutions and driver’s license centers.
“They’ve been reporting to work this entire time to deliver the services,” Walsh said. “They’re going to continue to report to work and they’ll be following the health and safety guidelines that we issue as an employer.”
Other offices that were less occupied during the past 15 months will begin to see an increased employee presence, although potentially some employees may be eligible for some sort of telework arrangement, she said.
But no matter where employees were performing their work, Walsh said the administration is pretty confident in service levels provided to the public.
So teleworking state employees is something that is here to stay?
“I think we’ve seen some interesting shifts in productivity. I think we’ve seen some upskilling and people’s ability to use tools, some of our software tools, that enable more remote work,” Walsh said.
“Productivity wise, it’s really tested what we can do and I think the commonwealth workforce has really stepped up to the plate in terms of those tools or resources they can use to be working in a variety of circumstances.”
She called that a silver lining to state government’s pandemic experience.
With that option being more available, do you see that serving as a recruitment tool to help fill state government job openings?
Absolutely, she said. Now that the administration has a telework management directive and an enterprise willing to allow employees to telework, state government is ready to let some state jobs be done remotely.
“We can recruit talent from all over the state to do those jobs. That’s better for us as an employer,” Walsh said. “Jobs we had in the past that needed to be headquartered in Dauphin County we realized through the pandemic that there were very successful ways to do the job from various locations. That helps us recruit more talent from across the state. That’s a great thing for us as an employer.”
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