Once a pandemic-era necessity, working off-site is now permanent option for many Sandians in response to evolving mission needs

As the world grapples with the aftermath of the pandemic, organizations everywhere are striving to creatively adapt to a new work environment, and Sandia is no different. To meet changing work expectations, Sandia now offers permanent telecommuting and remote work options for some employees.

Numerous reasons for the shift

Building a hybrid work environment is a priority to Labs leadership, as defined as the fourth goal in the 2023 Strategic Plan. According to Sandia Hybrid Work Team program communications specialist Lyndsy Ortiz, three main goals have been driving Sandia’s efforts: to ensure Sandia’s ability to attract and retain a strong workforce by offering flexible work schedules; to meet NNSA expectations for adopting hybrid work; and to ensure modern, efficient, timely and compelling infrastructure that meets the national security mission by renovating and replacing aging, unused office spaces.

Prior to COVID-19, only a few hundred Sandians were employed off-site or had telecommuting agreements. Now, the goal is for 30% of the workforce to be remote, meaning they rarely come on-site and in many cases, live outside the state, or telecommuting, defined as having a home office but being on-site part-time. Sandia is rapidly advancing toward that milestone: earlier this year, the Labs had 1,700 full-time telecommuters, 1,100 part-time, also known as hybrid, telecommuters, and 1,200 fully remote workers across the country.

“This is not a question of whether we’re going to pursue a hybrid and remote environment; it’s a question of how we are going to do it,” said Director Krista Smith, whose organization has been responsible for shepherding the Labs’ transition to hybrid work.

The move is strategically mission-focused, with a goal of attracting and retaining qualified employees, and remaining competitive in today’s work environment. Advocates say it offers a better work-life balance with greater flexibility, in part due to reduced commute times. Employees have reported greater satisfaction, with fewer interruptions and greater productivity, and have more opportunities for wellness, whether preparing healthier lunches or spending more time outside.

Massive undertaking

Facilities project manager Clint Moore said there have been three milestones for hybrid work environment success: evolving information technology infrastructure and services to accommodate hybrid work; creating remote hubs capable of executing classified work; and fostering Sandia’s cultural transition to a long-term hybrid work model.

To work more cohesively, owners of each Labswide Goal 4 Hybrid Work milestone have been collaborating through an advisory board and an action council, with a broad range of stakeholders, including information technology, human resources, supply chain, emergency management, environmental safety and health, culture, training, communications and cybersecurity.

“We meet up at least monthly with each senior manager member of our action council,” Clint said. “We are also in regular communication with leaders from across divisions who have answered the call to be champions for hybrid work.”

New possibilities for classified work

Sandia is navigating the challenge of finding new options for classified work. Jen Gaudioso, leader of the remote hub strategy and member of the Sandia Hybrid Task Force, has been working to set up secure hubs around the country.

Using a series of criteria for secure mission work, Sandia identified three potential sites, including Sandia’s Minnesota site, which is currently designated for specific programmatic work but could be expanded for broader use.

Additionally, after previous collaborations proved successful, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was chosen as a potential site, partly because it is also a DOE lab. The task force is working on reciprocal arrangements where Sandia employees could access their Seattle and Richland, Washington sites while allowing Pacific Northwest employees access to Sandia sites in Livermore, California, and New Mexico. The third exemplar, Texas A&M University, is attractive due to its existing classified workspace, and having Sandia employees on campus could help with recruiting efforts.

The first three sites are expected to be ready for Sandia employees by the end of 2023. Additional sites are possible in the future, but progress is purposefully slow.

“We are going slowly and intentionally to ensure that these sites will be enduring and not have to be pulled back two years from now,” Jen said. “Our crawl, walk, run strategy has been understandably frustrating for many people, but it’s important that we get it right.”

Making room

Space constraints are another important factor. Even before the pandemic, Sandia sites were reaching a critical mass; it was difficult to find parking spots, and nearly every office space was occupied. The pandemic accelerated talks about how to offer remote and telecommuting options, and created an opportunity to update existing facilities. Currently, nine buildings are being renovated.

According to Krista, one of the greatest challenges has been addressing the cultural changes associated with giving up individual office space.

“All of us conflate our physical space with the extent to which the organization values us, but we need to decouple that to have a more skillful conversation,” she said, adding that even if Sandia had unlimited resources to provide every telecommuter with their own office, it wouldn’t be the right thing for the taxpayer. “We have to be good stewards of the resources, and that isn’t having a bunch of vacant offices that are individually assigned.”

Sandia now offers reservable touchdown spaces where telecommuting employees can connect, as well as collaboration areas and conference rooms, and information technology support is readily available.

Matthew-Ryan Morrell, manager of strategic site planning, was a lean process engineer when he was called to help direct the Labs’ efforts to support people in their home offices, but it was clear early on that work arrangements would never be the same. As space opens, Sandia’s focus has shifted to help members of the workforce work together more intentionally.

“We are finding our balance in a good way,” Matthew-Ryan said. “This is no longer about trying to get out of a pandemic. Our focus today is finding our new rhythm and connecting. We can’t go back in the same manner. Now, we have over 1,000 people across the country who aren’t able to physically come in at a moment’s notice, so it’s a lot harder to get everyone together, and we need to be intentional about how to do that.”

Intentional collisions

Like countless other companies around the world, Sandia is experimenting with creative ways to maintain teamwork while not physically being in the same space for long stretches of time.

“We have to make collisions more intentional when people are on-site,” Krista said. “We are sharing best practices across management and learning from each other, because the whole world is facing this change.”

One such connection that could be uncomfortable, but Krista emphasized that Sandians must get used to, is being able to answer direct questions about time management.

“We need to be able to have more difficult conversations about what is and isn’t working around employees’ schedules,” she said. “We need to be able to get better and more specific about setting expectations about productivity and what a solid workweek looks like. And to have people not get insulted when a manager brings up that question. We’ve got to grow the courage to have those conversations.”

Recognizing that everyone is on this learning curve, Clint said he and his team are working on a menu of options to help managers find more ways to connect. He said managers should try to meet weekly with the whole team, encourage people to have their cameras on and make it a priority to incorporate fun activities that foster personal relationships.

All these changes come with understandable growing pains, but already benefits are being realized, and qualified applicants who would not consider a move to New Mexico or California are now considering working for Sandia.

“As an experiment, we have posted identical job postings, with the exception of being on-site or remote possible, and continued to keep those up. We regularly saw 200 percent more qualified applicants to the remote positions, so it’s not just applicants, but qualified applicants, who made it through the initial HR screening,” Jen said. “So clearly, we are reaching more people. We are very optimistic about the future.”