There may be times the university issues an Instructional Continuity Day, or a weather-related shutdown. During these days, essential employees are expected to report for work on campus as assigned by their supervisor. Non-essential employees are expected to work their normal schedules from a remote location.
You may be asking, "What if my job tasks don't translate well to remote work?" These instances need to be prepared for and navigated by departments and supervisors to ensure staff members understand work expectations and have the necessary equipment/resources. Special consideration may need to be given to employees whose job duties are not easily done remotely or those without technology resources at home.
Additional Support
If you need consultation, please contact our UNL HR Employee Relations team at hroffice@unl.edu.
Potential Alternative Work Tasks for Staff Members
(*Denotes non-technology options.)
Complete training or professional development
- Formats: Books*, podcasts, TED Talks, Bridge courses, articles*, webinars.
- Topics: Productivity, Leadership/Supervision, Communication, Wellbeing, College Students, Job-Specific, Industry Trends, Compliance Training, Technology
- Assignments: Assign employees specific items to read/watch. Ask them to reflect on the material, include prompt questions if needed.
- Online learning from trusted sources:
- Microsoft Office: Office 365 Training Center, Educator Center, or Office Clarity: Office Mastery on YouTube
- Microsoft Excel: Excel-Easy, My Excel Online, Excel Hero, Excel is Fun YouTube, Excel Campus, Mr. Excel, Improve Your Excel for tutorials online
- Adobe: Creative Cloud tutorials and Acrobat DC tutorials online training
- O'Reilly Learning, login using your UNL email to gain access
- edx.org is a nonprofit offering 1900+ courses from institutions including Harvard, MIT, Microsoft and more.
- Free online learning at GCFGlobal.org
- Free online courses from the world’s leading experts at Alison.com
- coursera.org has a variety of free online learning topics
Organize or purge physical* or digital documents and inbox.
Create, review, or revise training materials or standard operating procedures.*
Write detailed reports or summaries of recent events or projects.*
Research or benchmark new trends, competitors, tools, or technologies that could benefit the team.
Data-Crunching. Compile department data to generate reports/metrics. Clean, update, or analyze existing databases.
Review and update job description.*
Complete a task for a colleague or manager, or offer support to another unit.*
Think and plan for the future. Review to-do list, prioritize tasks, set goals, create action plans, and define intended outcomes. For example, do you run an annual meeting or conference in several months where the planning can start earlier?*
"Back Burner" Projects. Remote work time can be ideal to have your team member tackle delayed projects such as writing manuals or other types of documentation.
Reflect and evaluate your job performance. Record accomplishments, identify areas for improvement, set personal and professional development goals, and research professional development opportunities.*
Build or maintain your professional network by reaching out to colleagues, conducting an informational interview, or building connections on LinkedIn.
Work on developing a new idea, solving a problem, or improving a process.*
Make calls or send emails to follow up with customers or students.
Updating Websites. Review department websites (and other promotional/written materials) for information that needs to be updated.