UC Davis Health’s Digital Workplace Program goes live

The COVID-19 pandemic pushed UC Davis Health to rethink all aspects of our operations almost overnight. This included formulating and adopting new ways of working productively and engaging with each other in a virtual environment.  Fortunately, our move to remote work was effective and provided key insights into how to continue remote work practices in the post pandemic stage and to enhance, test and improve them over time.

To that end, human resources, information technology, and facilities planning partnered on the Digital Workplace Program (DWP), a remote and hybrid-work program designed to promote flexibility, leverage new ways of working, foster innovation in how we work, and ultimately be better stewards of our resources. The program, which officially launches this week, aligns with UC Davis Health NEXT, the health system’s post-pandemic strategy that will inform and guide our work from here forward.

Eligibility for remote work is based on roles, job duties and operational needs of the departments. It will be the responsibility of each employee to work with their manager to determine if remote work is right for them, based on their job requirements. That said, it is strongly recommended that departments create some operational guidelines in consultation with their division leader during the month of September to determine if, and how, they can support remote and hybrid work schedules. These operational guidelines should serve as internal guidance for managers and staff to ensure the continuity of their operations. The attached the Considerations for Operational Guidelines on the DWP webpage should help departments engage in that process.

In September departments should also create a coordinated plan to submit the new Remote Work Agreements (RWA). The target date for having all staff remote agreements submitted is October 29, 2021. For departments who already have operational guidelines and submittal plans in place, they may start to submit and move toward remote and hybrid work now.

Please note that the program is entirely optional—employees will not be required to work remotely if they do not wish. For more information, program details and highlights, and frequently asked questions, visit the program website or watch this overview video.