With the expectation that most employees remain remote and that campus access remains limited, we understand there may be a need to visit campus. Learn more about the policies, protocols and acceptable visit criteria.
Dr. Sharron Credle, Vice President of Organizational Learning and Development, hosted a webinar to engage Simmons employees in a conversation about best practices while working remotely.
Working Remotely Best Practices
The policy, available to all full- and part-time faculty and staff (including temporary staff), allows up to 80 hours of paid time off to be used in the case of quarantine, isolation or family care needs related to the pandemic. It will begin anew on July 1, 2020. This time can be requested via the “Time Off” worklet in Workday.
If you would like to cancel your MBTA pass, please do so in Workday. All MBTA passes will be mailed home; there will be no office pick up.
We want to remind you of the services of Simmons’ Employee Assistance Program (EAP), AllOne Health. Among many services, AllOne Health also offers three free counseling sessions to you and your family members, and that includes virtual and phone sessions. Visit the site to see what’s available to you. In the company access code line, please enter simmons. You can also call 1-800-451-1834.
Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), Simmons’ Medical Plan provider, provides the following resources:
BCBS recommends that medical participants use Well Connection, the telehealth web camera platform, for non-urgent sick visits. BCBS will waive co-share/co-payments for members with access to Well Connection for services related to COVID-19. However, regular sick visits via Well Connection still have a cost share.
Well Connection also allows BCBS medical plan participants to obtain medical or behavioral health visits — including access to behavioral health providers — from the convenience of their home. Normal co-payments and/or cost share apply. For more information, log into the BCBS Well Connect website.
Medical plan members will have access to early refills for all prescribed maintenance medications. Call 1-800-358-2227 for more information.
Technology has created a resource page with information on working with voicemail remotely, using twinning to forward your calls, Zoom tutorials, and other resources that will be useful to you. Whenever possible, links to training and help materials are included.
The Service Desk is also making extended support hours available for phone support. You can find that and other helpful information on the Technology website.
Finance is committed to continuing to record payments received and processing payments due in a timely fashion within these changing circumstances.
The Cashier Window at MCB W207 is now closed. If you have a payment that needs to be processed, address it to the Cashier Window and leave it in mailroom. If it is urgent, please also email Mark Mitchell and Judy Wong. Campus mail will be picked up at least once a week and all payments will be processed as quickly as possible.
Set up delegations in Workday to ensure coverage for any approvals or invoice/expense report entry during this period.
Review all outstanding purchase orders to ensure they’re still valid. Close out any that won’t be used or have remaining balances no longer valid. In addition, contact your supplier(s) to cancel orders or services if they won’t be needed now.
All supplier invoices for goods or services need to be put into Workday as timely as possible. Work with your suppliers to obtain copies of any outstanding invoices as soon as possible so Accounts Payable can process them. Accounts Payable will be completing settlement runs on an ongoing basis but will only settle payments by check once a week. Please urge all suppliers to provide their banking information so that they can be set up for electronic payments when possible. If you have any issues or concerns, reach out to Accounts Payable.
Accounts Payable will continue to process payments for expense reports. Enter any expense reports for out-of-pocket reimbursement or credit card purchases in Workday as soon as possible.
Review your budgets and work to clean up any negative line items. Budget transfer requests can be submitted to [email protected] and will be processed as soon as possible.
Refer to the following links for important forms. Wherever possible, documents are provided in PDF fillable forms so they can be routed via email for approvals.
