After months of development, state agencies may soon have standardized guidelines for remote working.

Chris Moreland, public information officer for the Office of Administration, said state agencies were working with OA to identify alternative labor standards for all departments.

Departments are discussing standards for providing training, regular in-person meetings, mentors, onboarding and performance metrics for employees working outside of the typical office setting, Moreland said.

“Departments are developing plans that identify positions eligible for alternative work and how they will meet those standards,” Moreland said. “These plans will be reviewed with the governor’s office before they are implemented. “

Kelli Jones, spokesperson for the governor’s office, said some agencies have submitted their distribution work plans to Governor Mike Parson, and they are currently under review.

Distributed work refers to employees working outside the usual offices of a department, including temporary or permanent homework.

Many state employees began working remotely after offices closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Parson ordered state employees to return to work in person on May 17.

About one in five government employees has been infected with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to data provided by OA earlier this month.

Parson told reporters on Thursday that he hopes some sort of distributive work plan will be implemented in the near future.

Assessing workload and determining the success of remote employees were looming concerns for the governor, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported Thursday.

Jones said none of the plans were approved by Friday afternoon.

Jennifer Battson Warren, deputy director of affairs at the Department of Conservation, said the state agency had yet to finalize a work plan distributed on Wednesday.

The Department of Conservation closed its commission headquarters building from August 17 to 20 after two positive COVID-19 cases were identified among staff.

Instead of shutting down a single pod or floor where the case was identified, Warren said about 300 employees were fired home for remote work because one of the positive people was working with other employees throughout. the building, so that the potential spread could not be located.

Warren said the Conservation Department regularly had team members working in remote locations due to lack of space to house them or the nature of their work.

“Distribution work and work from remote locations has taken place for the Department of Conservation since its inception,” said Warren. “Our conservation officers, a lot of our field staff, our fishermen, biologists, foresters, all of these people work in a distributive way because their work is in the field.”

Warren said the department’s work from home policies follow the same principles as other departments in the state, with attendance and hours guidelines that establish basic hours of work.

“Everyone has performance goals to manage their annual job,” Warren said. “So no matter where a person works, we have a presence and working hours policy in place, we have telecommuting agreements that people have to sign if they are somehow remotely. full time or even part time. status and then annual performance goals that help us manage their individual performance to ensure work gets done.

The governor has been working with state departments since May, she said, to establish a firm baseline of what distribution work would look like for each agency.

“We are working with all of the other state agencies to make sure we have covered these basic expectations,” Warren said.