The state has identified 609,016 cases of COVID-19 as of today, with 599,352 of these patients no longer required to be isolated. 7,648 deaths have been reported. For more information on the current situation, visit the Minnesota Department of Health website.
At the bottom of this email, you will find Met Council workforce statistics related to COVID-19 leave that have been reported to the Employee Resource Center.
Do you have thoughts or concerns on the content or frequency of these COVID-19 update emails? We would love to hear your feedback through the online COVID-19 form, so we can make sure these emails are providing the most useful and timely information to staff.
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At a glance
What you need to know this week:
- The updated Telework Procedure was published this week.
- The Telework Transition Team has shared the high-level timeline and approach for returning teleworking employees to onsite work starting this fall.
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We do not expect that all returning teleworkers will report onsite the day after Labor Day. The transition phase begins in September, and the teleworker's new schedule should be implemented by the middle of October. Departments will provide general direction, and employees and managers will work together on their individual schedules.
- Metro Transit service changes, including a return of some express routes, are taking effect Aug. 21.
- Please continue to share your questions and concerns related to the pandemic and onsite work procedures and logistics using the online COVID-19 form.
Read on for more about these updates.
New Telework Procedure published
This week, leaders published the Met Council's updated Telework Procedure. The procedure provides guidelines around employment conditions, supervisor and employee expectations, data and security, and telework location.
With the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees had to begin teleworking overnight, forcing many of us to learn and adopt new technology and new ways of working together. We learned on the fly and with the hard work of staff across the organization – working onsite and remotely – the Met Council maintained a high quality of work and service.
As teleworking employees begin to transition out of COVID-19-imposed remote work after Labor Day, the updated and expanded Telework Procedure will help guide this shift. With this new procedure, the Met Council is making remote work more widely available, using a combination of fully onsite, remote and onsite (hybrid), or fully remote as accepted and supported employment practices for many positions.
Review the new procedure in Policy Central.
Tools and forms associated with the new procedure are in development and will be linked in the procedure very soon. An online training on the new Telework Procedure will be available soon through Learn, and this COVID-19 newsletter and a MetNet FAQ page will also be used to provide details and answers to questions employees have around the new procedure and the broader telework transition.
Telework transition: Timeline and approach
The Met Council is putting guidelines together and assessing onsite logistics for bringing employees back to the office who have been working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The transition from COVID-19-imposed telework will begin in earnest Sept. 7 but is expected to take place over several weeks. A new Telework Transition team kicked off this month to provide Councilwide resources, communication, and guidance and is pivoting from where the COVID-19 Planning Team left off.
Over the next year, the Met Council will engage in a hybrid work model with a phased-in approach and several points for evaluation and adjustment:
- Preparation = July – August 2021
- Division/department leadership determine general telework direction.
- Departments begin creating initial onsite, hybrid (a combination of onsite and remote), and telework schedules. Determine employees’ "primary" work locations and plan for suitable workstations.
- Phase I: Transition = September – November 2021
- Required Work Unit Telework Plans completed, employees and managers sign a telework agreement, and the new schedules for all teleworking employees implemented by mid-October.
- Identify issues regarding technology, space, and department communication and service delivery.
- Phase II: Revise and refine = December 2021 – February 2022
- Conduct formal check-ins with staff, team, and customers. Division/department leadership reviews and refines plans.
- Continue to address technology and space issues.
- Phase III: Normalizing = March – May 2022
- Keep working, revising, and collecting information to make improvements.
- Phase IV: Formal review = June – August 2022
- Formal review with employees and management is facilitated by Human Resources, the Telework Transition Team, and Council business representatives.
- Update procedures and make changes identified in the formal review.
For more information at this time, teleworking employees may review the email sent earlier this week to managers and supervisors with direct reports to help them plan for this fall with their teams. Continue to watch your email, MetNet, and our employee newsletters for information on facilities, technology, planning, and more. MetNet will be updated in the next week with focused information on the telework transition. Town halls with Q&As for teleworking managers and employees will also be held in the coming weeks.
Telework transition: Expectations for September
We do not expect that all returning teleworkers will report onsite the day after Labor Day. Employees, managers, and department leaders will work together to define their new work schedules and determine when they will go into effect.
The transition phase begins in September, and the teleworker's new schedule should be implemented by the middle of October.
Each department will set expectations for when employees should return within this window. Then, each teleworking employee will determine with their manager the exact date they will start their new schedule, and the work plan and effective date will be defined in the signed telework agreement.
Share your questions and concerns
We appreciate your patience with this process and continue to welcome your questions. As the planning teams create guidance and put together comprehensive information for all employees, it would help us to know what your concerns and questions are related to onsite work procedures and logistics and returning teleworking staff to our facilities. Please send us your thoughts using the online COVID-19 form.
Metro Transit service changes
Metro Transit General Manager Wes Kooistra recently addressed the service changes taking effect in August to respond to changes in demand as more people throughout the region are traveling and many begin to return to onsite work.
Since the start of the pandemic, many of our commuter-oriented routes have been suspended or offered fewer trips than usual.
Today, as more people begin returning to their offices, we are preparing to bring back some of those express routes that haven’t been operating and to add more trips to select others serving northern suburbs. These service changes will take effect in August and are explained in more detail here.
Read the full message and review the Aug. 21 service changes on MetroTransit.org.
Continue safe practices onsite
The Met Council no longer requires employees and visitors to wear face coverings, practice physical distancing, or participate in temperature screening at our facilities. It’s important to recognize, though, that these requirements being lifted does not mean the pandemic is over.
Everyone should continue these safety and health practices when onsite to prevent the spread of COVID-19:
- Stay home if you’re sick.
- Get tested if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or think you may have been exposed to COVID-19. Stay home if you tested positive for COVID-19, and contact your manager.
- Wash your hands often.
- Clean your work space frequently.
You may continue to wear a mask if you choose to. In addition, to protect yourself, you are encouraged to continue to wear a mask if you are unvaccinated, cannot be vaccinated, have people in your home who cannot be vaccinated, or otherwise you or members of your household are at risk.
Remember, when interacting with others, you should not assume anything about their vaccination status or health situation based on whether or not they are wearing a mask. Employees, customers, or visitors who arrive onsite wearing face coverings should be treated with respect.
Employees should never ask their co-workers about private, personal medical information, including their COVID-19 vaccination status. Be considerate and respect individual privacy.
Tools to help you find vaccination opportunities
As of Tuesday (July 20), 3,118,635 Minnesotans had received at least one vaccine dose and 2,969,903 people had completed the vaccine series. For up-to-date information on vaccine availability and distribution, visit the Minnesota Department of Health vaccine dashboard.
Our progress so far – and our path forward – relies on Minnesotans getting the vaccine. The vaccines are free, safe, and effective, and all Minnesotans age 12 and over can get one right now. Many sites are now offering walk-in appointments.
Check out these tools to find vaccine appointments:
Important reminders related to the vaccine:
- For the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to last longer and be most effective against variants, two shots are required. If you’ve missed your second dose for any reason, get it as soon as possible.
- It takes at least two weeks from the final vaccine dose to develop immunity.
- Even after you are fully vaccinated, you should continue to follow safety recommendations by public health officials and get tested if you are showing symptoms of COVID-19.
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Continue testing to stop the spread of COVID-19
Anyone who is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should immediately contact their health care provider and seek testing, regardless of their vaccination status. How to get a COVID-19 test:
Check the MetNet pages, FAQs
For the most current information related to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit the MetNet page and be sure to review the FAQs for staff and managers. They are updated as we have new information to communicate.
For Metro Transit work instructions and daily updates on new COVID-19 cases reported at each worksite, visit the Metro Transit MetNet page. For job aids and facilities updates for Environmental Services related to COVID-19, visit the Environmental Services page.
If you have questions, talk to your manager or supervisor or submit a question or concern in the online COVID-19 form.
Check out the latest issues of our internal newsletters:
For those who cannot easily access MetNet and/or would like a printable PDF of the FAQs, here are the most recent versions of these pages:
Met Council workforce statistics
The following statistics related to COVID-19 have been reported to the Employee Resource Center. The "active positive COVID-19" number is the number of employees who currently have a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. The "cumulative" number marks the total number of employees who received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis since the pandemic began. The second table breaks down the positive cases by division for Community Development (CD), Environmental Services (ES), Metro Transit (MT), Metropolitan Transportation Services (MTS), and Regional Administration (RA).
Employees with positive COVID-19 diagnosis:
| |
Councilwide |
| Active positive COVID-19 |
13 |
| Cumulative COVID-19 since onset |
540 |
Employees with positive COVID-19 diagnosis by division:
These division numbers are reported by Human Resources weekly. This table reflects changes since the last update email.
|
Division
|
New cases |
Total to date |
Returned to work |
Current active |
|
CD
|
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
| ES |
0 |
83 |
81 |
2 |
| MT |
1 |
442 |
431 |
11 |
| MTS |
0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
| RA |
0 |
12 |
12 |
0
|
| Total |
1 |
540 |
527 |
13
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