Further to the President’s message regarding Humber’s plans for alternate delivery and campus operations for the remainder of the winter 2020 semester, Humber College has determined that only essential services will be provided and remain open on campus for the week of Monday, March 16, 2020 to Friday, March 20, 2020. We wish to minimize the number of students, staff and faculty on campus with the goal of having as few people on campus as possible during this period.
The College will be promoting and making available to all staff the ability to work remotely wherever possible. Guidelines for supervisors and employees are available below.
The College will determine essential services and will communicate directly to you, or through your manager (or their designate). If you are unsure whether you should attend campus next week and you have not heard from your manager, you should assume that your attendance on campus on Monday morning is not required and you should follow up with your manager or their designate to receive directions for the remainder of the week.
Due to these exceptional circumstances, all staff (full, partial load, part time and student employees including work study students) who would normally be scheduled to work during this period will receive pay consistent with their regular schedule. No one will suffer a loss of pay of their regular earnings as a result of limiting on-site work during this time period.
If you are an employee who would normally enter scheduled hours through HRMS in order to be paid, you must continue to do so by entering hours that reflect hours that you would have been normally scheduled to work. Managers, please ensure that you continue to review and approve these hours to align with the payroll calendar deadlines. If there are any questions related to this, please speak with your manager.
Going forward, decisions regarding appropriate staffing levels and attendance will be made on a daily basis. Updates regarding the weeks following March 20th will be provided by your manager and/or available through Communique. Please review these communications daily.
All information related to campus operations impacting employees is available on the HR website. Additional information will also be available through Communique and the Humber website.
We want to take the opportunity to reassure you that we are continuing to monitor the situation closely and are taking active steps to ensure the health and safety of our staff.
Thorough cleaning will occur across campuses in all classrooms and public areas. Individual work stations and work locations may not be able to receive the same level of cleaning and we would therefore ask that all staff take necessary steps to keep their work area clean following your usual personal cleaning approaches. If staff at any time have tested positive or been advised that they have been exposed to COVID-19, arrangements will be made for a thorough cleaning of your office area.
Toronto Public Health recommends key steps to take to help protect yourself and your community including:
Personal Hygiene and COVID-19 Precautions
- Stay home if you are sick
- Please wash your hands regularly and/or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer
- Refrain from touching your face
- Avoid contact with people who are sick
- Use proper cough and sneeze etiquette
- Avoid large events and practice social distancing
Travel
- We have suspended all college-related international travel activities, including travel to the United States, for employees and students until June 30th. In addition, no college-related travel should be booked going forward effective immediately without discussion with, and approval from, the Vice-President in your Division.
- People who are travelling outside of Canada will be required to remain off campus for 14 days upon their return. At the outset of the 14-day period, please discuss remote work options with your manager.
- We would ask all staff to monitor the Government of Canada travel advisories carefully following principles of social responsibility and to restrict non- emergency travel as much as possible. If you feel the need to travel please let your manager know that you plan to travel.
- Should symptoms of fever, cough or difficulty breathing arise within 14 days of travelling, you will be asked to self-isolate and call Toronto Public Health.
If you have any questions or concerns, we encourage you to speak with your manager or the Occupational Health and Safety Services (hiren.patel@humber.ca or margaret.fung@humber.ca).
We appreciate that these may be difficult times for all staff, managing a range of emotions and uncertainty. Humber is committed to the well-being and safety of all our employees and the wider community at-large. Care and compassion will be at the core of all decisions made as this unfolds.
Sincerely,
Lori Diduch
VP, Human Resources & Organizational Effectiveness
WORKING REMOTELY – GUIDELINES FOR SUPERVISORS
This guideline outlines conditions for working remotely on a “Work Remotely As-Needed” basis. Work Remotely As-Needed is defined as a situation in which an employee needs to work remotely in an emergency such as taking care of a sick dependent, or when there is a College emergency such as in health or security situations. The guidelines provided below are to assist supervisors in managing their team while in remote working circumstances.
Availability
- Establish scheduled check-ins with your team daily/weekly ahead of time to avoid frustrations in trying to contact your employees.
- Set expectations on remote work availability and schedules – such as: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, with the team unavailable from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm daily.
- If allowing the employee to make their own schedule, set check-in schedules and make sure the entire team is aware of each team member’s availability ahead of time. Post the schedule on the team chat or send out via email.
- Circulate contact information for each member of your team.
Responsiveness
- Define a timeframe for how long employees should take to respond to co-workers.
- Use tools like Teams or Jabber to keep in contact and make responses more real time.
- Set up defined times for all team meetings to keep your team connected and manage work output.
Productivity Measurement
- Agree with the employee ahead of time on the work output or outcome and on deadline dates for delivery/completion.
- Have agreed upon deliverables with performance measures in terms of expected timelines and outcomes.
Equipment & Resources
- Ensure your team has connectivity and access by following instructions outlined below
- Set up Remote access for your team as follows:
Most IT systems are available off-campus without additional access required. Remote access requests are for those systems that are not available off-campus such as Banner INB and Cognos
Set up Remote access:
Remote Access
Using OneDrive to collaborate and share documents:
OneDrive
Access H or I drives:
Access to H or I drive
Microsoft Teams:
Download Teams
How to use Teams
Teams Meetings
Access work from home software:
Work-at-Home Software
Telephony Services:
myTelephone.humber.ca
myVoicemail.humber.ca
Jabber
Set up Webex:
Webex
Set up and use Office 365:
Office 365
Physical Environment
- Emphasize that the employee should ensure that the physical remote environment is conducive for working, a dedicated space or room where they can focus on work with limited distractions, and free of hazards.
Security and Confidentiality
- Emphasize that the employee should refrain from working in public places such as coffee shops, using pubic wireless access connections and leaving passwords readily visible.
- Emphasize that College documents should be saved to centralized folders and not on personal desktops or laptops (unless the laptop is a College resource).
- Emphasize limited or no downloading or printing of confidential documents.
For HR support related to these Guidelines
Contact your HR Business Partner
For technical support with any of services mentioned in this document contact the I.T. Support Centre:
Phone: 416-675-6622 ext. 8888; Toll Free: 1.866.484.6622
Chat: humber.ca/techtalk
Email: supportcentre@humber.ca
Finally, ensure that you provide your team with your contact information, so that they are able to contact you when needed. In addition, ensure that your staff have all provided their contact information with you, for the same reason.
Make a special effort to stay in contact with your team, providing assurance and support as needed.
WORKING REMOTELY – GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYEES
This guideline outlines conditions for working remotely on a “Work Remotely As-Needed” basis. Work Remotely As-Needed is defined as a situation in which an employee needs to work remotely in an emergency such as taking care of a sick dependent or when there is a College emergency, such as in health or security situations. The guidelines provided below are to assist employees in performing effectively while working in remote circumstances.
Availability
- Confirm daily/weekly team and supervisor check-ins ahead of time and ensure it is scheduled in your calendar.
- Clarify expectations on remote work availability and schedules with your supervisor.
- If you are allowed to work according to your own schedule, set check-in times with your supervisor.
- Make sure the entire team is aware of your availability ahead of time.
Responsiveness
- Seek an agreed timeframe for how long you should take to respond to co-workers.
- Use tools like Teams or Jabber to keep in contact and ensure responses are more in real time.
- Confirm all team meetings times and ensure it is scheduled.
Productivity Measurement
- Agree with your supervisor ahead of time on the work output or outcome and on deadline dates for delivery/completion.
- Ensure you and your manager have agreed upon deliverables with performance measures in terms of timelines and outcomes.
Equipment & Resources
- Ensure you have connectivity and access by following instructions outlined below:
- Set up Remote access as follows:
Most IT systems are available off-campus without additional access required. Remote access requests are for those systems that are not available off-campus such as Banner INB and Cognos
Set up Remote access:
Remote Access
Using OneDrive to collaborate and share documents:
OneDrive
Access H or I drives:
Access to H or I drive
Microsoft Teams:
Download Teams
How to use Teams
Teams Meetings
Access work from home software:
Work-at-Home Software
Telephony Services:
myTelephone.humber.ca
myVoicemail.humber.ca
Jabber
Set up Webex:
Webex
Set up and use Office 365:
Office 365
Physical Environment
- Emphasize that the employee should ensure that the physical remote environment is conducive for working, a dedicated space or room where they can focus on work with limited distractions, and free of hazards.
Security and Confidentiality
- Emphasize that the employee should refrain from working in public places such as coffee shops, using pubic wireless access connections and leaving passwords readily visible.
- Emphasize that College documents should be saved to centralized folders and not on personal desktops or laptops (unless the laptop is a College resource).
- Emphasize limited or no downloading or printing of confidential documents.
For support related to these Guidelines please contact your Manager
For technical support with any of services mentioned in this document contact the I.T. Support Centre:
Phone: 416-675-6622 ext. 8888, Toll Free: 1.866.484.6622
Chat: humber.ca/techtalk
Email: supportcentre@humber.ca
Finally, ensure that you get your supervisor’s contact information, so that you are able to contact your supervisor when needed. As well, ensure your supervisor has your contact information for the same reason.
