NSF headquarters in Alexandria VA Image: JHVEPhoto/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has said the National Science Foundation’s plans for returning to the workplace employees who had been put on telework due to the pandemic are “reasonable, prudent, and consistent with best practices as well as federal and state COVID-19 related guidance on reopening businesses.”
The assessment was the most positive to date among the reports emerging from the IGs of a number of agencies who were asked by the House government operations subcommittee to review such policies.
It said that once the pandemic was declared, the NSF “instructed all telework-ready employees to telework to the greatest extent possible and to follow the CDC’s COVID-19 guidance to prevent illness and recognize symptoms” and followed OMB guidance, as well.
“We determined NSF’s plans and actions aligned with this directive. Despite restricting access to its headquarters building, NSF continued to successfully execute its mission through telework and virtual grant review panels,” it said. That included successfully responding to a surge of inquiries and correspondence associated with Rapid Response Research awards and the funding of more than 400 such projects, ranging from modeling the spread of COVID-19 to developing new materials for medical masks.
It added that the shift to telework was aided by a widening of that program in 2019 in response to closings for repairs of public transit stations near NSF headquarters.
The agency currently is in the middle level of a three-level return plan in which employees may work in the building on a voluntary basis with a maximum daily occupancy of no more than 25 percent, it said, and there currently is no projected time for a full return.
It added that in a series of three employee surveys over the spring and summer substantial majorities of employees said they felt they had been strongly supported and that communication from the agency had been helpful; in the most recent, nine-tenths responded positively to the item “I feel NSF is handling this situation as well as can be expected.”
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