Despite legislation dying during 2024 session, Idaho policy limits remote work for state employees

Idaho state government agencies must ensure only 20% of their workforce is out of the office, under a new policy limiting remote work implemented this spring.

That follows proposed bills in the Idaho Legislature to create policies limiting remote work in Idaho Code.

The Idaho Division of Human Resources on March 31 implemented a new policy limiting remote work, agency administrator Janelle White told the Idaho Capital Sun in an email.

The policy, created in January, requires agencies to ensure no more than 20% of their permanent workforce scheduled to work on a day are out of the office. The rule doesn’t apply to employees doing field work. The policy allows for a rural exemption, which applies to eligible employees who have telework permission by an agency and live at least 50 miles away from their agency’s closest office in Idaho.

White said the policy applies to all state agencies that report through Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who she said decided to enact the policy, working with staff, state legislators and the Idaho Division of Human Resources.

“We wanted statewide consistency and in that consistency to achieve balance between in-office work to promote teamwork and idea-sharing and remote work to promote work/life balance,” White wrote. “… The overall percentage gives flexibility for agency directors to determine what is most appropriate for their agency while also maintaining consistency statewide.”

Other elected officials may be pursuing their own policies, she said.

The policy change had minimal impact on employees and turnover hasn’t appeared to swell, she said.

“While the change was unwelcome for some state employees, most were minimally impacted and we have not see(n) a major spike in turnover,” White wrote. “Our governor believes in making Idaho the place where our children and grandchildren choose to stay and his family-focus applies to our state employees as well. Our goal with this new policy is to be able to continue to recruit and retain excellent state employees through work/life balance while staying focused on our core mission as public servants.”

To telework under the new policy, employees must get permission from their supervisor and agency. Before working remotely, employees must receive telecommuting training, the policy says.

Telecommuting, the policy says, is not an employee right. Agencies have discretion about remote work use and telework use “can be terminated at any time without notice,” the policy says.

Remote work for state agency employees

Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, said complaints from constituents prompted the legislation to limit remote work this year, Senate Bill 1261.

Even now when he calls a state agency, Guthrie said, it’s difficult to talk to someone.

“This is not as good as talking face to face,” Guthrie told the Idaho Capital Sun in a phone interview. “And anybody that says different, we just have to agree to disagree, because it’s not the same. And it’s the same with people in an office. When you’re having to connect to somebody at home, and they’re doing laundry or watching kids or the dogs barking or whatever, and they’re distracted. And that’s what happens. It’s not as good of quality interaction as face to face is. … Or even on the phone, where somebody is in an office and has access to all their data and all their information.”

Guthrie said legislators worked with the governor’s office last summer on Idaho’s policy limiting remote work.

Remote work rates varied by agency, White said, but some agencies had as much as 30-40% of employees working remotely.

At the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, which has more than 2,900 employees, 37 employees mentioned telework in their exit interviews or to human resources representatives, said health department spokesperson AJ McWhorter.

That’s about 20% of exit interviews for this fiscal year, McWhorter said. The fiscal year ends in June.

The agency’s total classified employee turnover rate from July 2023 to April 2024 was 13.3%, slightly lower than the previous year’s 14.6% turnover rate, according to data provided by the health department.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has spent about $124,000 in operational costs to return staff to the office, but expects the final cost to be around $300,000, McWhorter said. None of the costs were to acquire additional space, he said.

Legislation limiting government employees didn’t move forward

When the policy was created, that stalled out this year’s bill to limit remote work, said House Speaker Mike Moyle, who sponsored the bill, Senate Bill 1261.

The policy is essentially the same as the bill’s proposed policy, Moyle told the Sun. The bill sought a 15% cap on employees working from home.

“But when the governor came out with his policy, which was basically the same as the bill, that’s kind of what stalled it out,” Moyle told the Sun in a phone interview. “ I think the intention was to wait to see how the policy works, and then try to codify it next year. The issue is not going away.”

Toward the end of the 2023 legislation session, lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 1191 that also sought to limit remote work. That bill, like Senate Bill 1261 this year, didn’t pass the Legislature.

The Idaho Division of Human Resources worked closely with the Legislature to understand why it brought legislation limiting remote work, White said. Some of the feedback was to ensure that when Idahoans call state agencies, their phone calls are answered with limited background noise, like dogs barking, and to avoid technology issues, like poor internet connectivity, she said.

“Many of their concerns were valid, and we felt updating our policy to clarify expectations in telecommuting practices would mitigate concerns without the need for legislation,” White wrote.

The new policy has similarities to Senate Bill 1261, incorporating the same feedback for the bill, but was not modeled off it, White said.