GUIDING PRINCIPLES

Our mission at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is to solve the most pressing and profound scientific problems facing humankind.

1. During the pandemic, the Lab has demonstrated that it can achieve important elements of its mission with our people working in a variety of modes.

2. Lab leadership supports the continued use of diverse and flexible work arrangements where appropriate for the work and desired by the individual.

3. This new paradigm will require us to try modes of flexible work to see what works and continue to refine our approach as the Lab increases staffing levels on Lab sites.

4. For many employees — and employers — flexible work options are an essential part of the overall employment value proposition and can be a powerful tool in employee engagement, retention, and/or recruiting for Berkeley Lab.

5. Decisions about flexible work arrangements should be made by the division and/or area leadership in consultation with area leadership, supervisors, and individuals. These decisions should be based on meeting business needs and criteria for flexible work mode determined by division/area leadership. Decisions about flexible work arrangements for matrixed staff should be based on the business need of the host organization/s, work leads, and other keystakeholder/s.

6. Area and division leaders should develop criteria to determine when flexible work modes can be employed to best meet their business and cultural needs. The appropriate level of on-site presence required to ensure opportunities for informal scientific exchange, face-to-face meetings, training, and mentoring when needed should be factored into divisions' flexible work mode decisions.

7. Flexible work arrangements are not possible for every position, group, or person. Certain jobs have no alternative to fully on-site work. Some employees will not be successful working off-site and other people will not want to work off-site. Supervisors will need to take into account these situations when making decisions for the optimization of work on our sites.

8. Our stewardship principles require that leaders ensure that people who are not working on site every day have the same opportunities to contribute and to develop professionally.

9. Each of us needs to take responsibility for promoting inclusion, diversity, and equity for everyone at the Lab in this new environment.

10. The organizations that develop Lab-wide policies (Human Resources; the Office of the Chief Financial Officer; Environment, Health and Safety; Information Technology; Security and Emergency Services; etc.) will continue to develop, adapt, and maintain the policy, guidance, and systems that govern flexible work arrangements (including space, finance, procurement, safety and health, site access, and connectivity), taking into account regulatory, legal, policy, oversight, and cultural risks and constraints as well as feedback from the areas and divisions.

11. Parking and space limitations can benefit from effective, balanced implementation of flexible work arrangements. Area and division management will need to carefully manage the balanced utilization of space to demonstrate responsible stewardship of this limited resource. Over time, the Lab will likely need to reassign, reconfigure, reorganize, and reshape some space to adapt to widespread flexible work modes, but in the meantime, divisions will maximize the usage of their currently assigned spaces through effective Hybrid Work space assignments to ensure the reentry to more populated Lab sites is successful.

12. Some divisions or work groups may need to actively stagger work schedules so that on-site work is distributed over the five-day work week. These organizations are asked to develop scheduling protocols that ensure on-site coverage that matches their business needs.

13. Making the positive changes in our work environment will require a greater level of communication between supervisors and employees at all levels of the organization.

14. Out-of-area Remote Work may have implications for an individual’s taxes, health care, travel costs, and other issues. These consequences should be considered carefully before Remote Work begins.

Note that these principles are not comprehensive and will be adapted to challenges that arise as we work through these significant changes to our culture.