NSSC Human Resources - FY15 Leave Programs Annual Report

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

February 10, 2016

NSREP-3000-0001 Established to provide timely, accurate, high quality, cost effective, and customer focused support for selected NASA business and technical services.

Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................... 3 Leave Programs Overview .............................................................. 3

Voluntary Leave Bank Program........................................... 5 Overview ..................................................................................

Funding the Leave Bank.................................................................

Approval Process .........................................................................

How Far has the NSSC Come Since the Inception of VLBP? ........................

5 5 5 6

Voluntary Leave Transfer Program ..................................... 8 Overview .................................................................................. 8 Approval Process ......................................................................... 8 How Far has the NSSC Come this Year with VLTP? .................................. 9

Advanced Sick Leave ......................................................... 11 Overview ................................................................................. 11 Approval Process ........................................................................ 11 How Far has the NSSC Come this Year with ASL? ................................... 11

What Does the Future Hold for Leave Programs? ........... 12 Leave Donation Challenges and Solutions ........................................... 12 Challenge: Leave Donations Peak in Use-or-Lose Season ...................... 12 Challenge: Limited Hours Available Outside of Use-or-Lose Season ......... 13 Challenge: Forfeited Annual Leave Results in Lost Opportunities ........... 13 Solution: Encourage Employees to Donate Instead of Forfeit Leave ......... 14 Streamlining the Service Delivery Guide (SDG) ..................................... 14 New Outreach Strategy ................................................................ 14 New Leave Bank Board ................................................................. 14 Updating the NSSC Leave Programs Web Page ..................................... 14

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Introduction Leave Programs Overview “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

-Winston S. Churchill As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center (NSSC) Leave Programs Team strives to provide unparalleled service to our customers, we are always looking for ways to improve the quality of service that we provide. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2015, we focused on looking at how the Voluntary Leave Bank Program (VLBP), Voluntary Leave Transfer Program (VLTP), and Advanced Sick Leave (ASL) program overlap and require coordination with other functional areas, both within and outside the NSSC. The NSSC Leave Programs Team quickly realized that many NASA employees with leave program requests were experiencing major life events and would greatly benefit from additional information from other programs. To provide better customer service, we initiated several projects to identify which areas/information would most assist employees. We worked with other functional areas to implement the following:  Ensuring Employees Receive Counseling on Eligibility for Leave Programs when Entering Leave Without Pay (LWOP) Due to a Work-Related Injury/Illness: We found that employees who may have a Workers’ Compensation claim pending were not being advised that while the claim was pending, the claimant could participate in the VLBP/VLTP/ASL programs. The NSSC Leave Programs Team now ensures that all injured employees are counseled on the availability of NASA Leave Programs.  Educating Employees about Impact of LWOP on Benefits: The NSSC Leave Programs Team also partnered with the NSSC Benefits Processing, Retirement Services, and Workers’ Compensation Teams to develop an employee fact sheet on the impacts of LWOP on benefits when an employee is receiving Workers’ Compensation. The NSSC Leave Programs Team now coordinates with the NSSC Benefits Processing Team to ensure employees are counseled and understand the impacts of LWOP.  Counseling Employees on Disability Retirement when Applicable: We began realizing that employees were treating VLTP and VLBP as alternatives for a disability retirement. VLTP and VLBP were designed to assist employees with temporary, short-term absences who are expected to return to work. When an employee illness or injury is expected to last more than 1 year or the employee has already been on the VLTP and/or VLBP program for 1 year, the employee is provided information about applying for a disability retirement and is offered the opportunity to speak to a Retirement Counselor. The counselor will ensure the employee understands his or her benefits under a disability retirement.  Counseling Terminally Ill Employees on Living Benefits: Some employees who request to become leave recipients are terminally ill. An employee in this situation needs to be counseled on receiving living benefits if the employee is currently enrolled in the Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program as well as be advised that an NSSC Benefits Counselor can be contacted if the employee would like

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

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NASA Shared Services Center

additional information. To ensure the employee understands the benefits available to him/her, the NSSC Leave Programs Team coordinates with the NSSC Benefits Processing Team to ensure the employee receives counseling.

Ensuring Employees Who Apply for Disability Retirement are Not Using ASL: The NSSC identified that some NASA employees who applied for a disability retirement also requested ASL. Regulations set forth by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) specifically prohibit an employee from receiving ASL if the employee does not intend on returning to work. The NSSC Retirement Services Team now coordinates with the NSSC Leave Programs Team to ensure employees who have submitted an application for disability retirement are not approved for/using ASL. This new process avoids the possibility that the employee will be indebted for sick leave if his/her disability retirement application is approved.

The NSSC has made great strides during FY 2015 for all leave programs. Some additional notable accomplishments include:  Participating with the Agency’s Office of Human Capital Management (OHCM) to revise the VLTP chapter in NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 3600.1 Attendance and Leave.  Coordinating with OHCM to prepare for a shutdown furlough, ensuring employee’s timecards would be coded correctly in the event there was a furlough and employees were on LWOP or were leave recipients.  Transitioning to ServiceNow and developing Functional Details that will streamline reporting to OHCM. With the notable accomplishments for FY 2015, the NSSC Leave Programs Team is pushing forward for an even more successful year in FY 2016. For more information on upcoming FY 2016 activities, refer to the What Does the Future Hold for Leave Programs? section.

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Voluntary Leave Bank Program Overview VLBP is a benefit available to all NASA employees who meet the eligibility requirements and are current members of the Leave Bank. Almost all employees will experience a medical emergency at some point in their career, and many employees will not have enough leave to cover their expected absences.

If it is anticipated that the employee would be in a nonpay status for at least 24 hours due to the medical condition, VLBP is designed to cover at least part of the absence. Nearly 10 percent of Leave Bank Members have become leave recipients and have benefited by not losing income during a medical emergency.

Since the inception of VLBP in FY 2014, the program has approved nearly 20,000 hours to be transferred to the leave accounts of NASA employees affected by personal and family medical emergencies. Without this program, many employees would have suffered a financial burden due to medical conditions or family situations outside of their control. From the program’s inception through September 30, 2015, the Leave Bank Board had approved nearly 140 requests for leave.

Funding the Leave Bank The Leave Bank is funded 100 percent by leave donated from NASA employees through the following:  

Annual membership “fees” (one pay period of an employee’s earned leave) required to be a VLBP member Gift donations

In FY 2015, 383 NASA employees generously provided gift donations totaling just over 13,000 hours. These hours have been used to help employees who are experiencing (or for whom a family member is experiencing) cancer, pregnancy, surgery, broken bones, and much more. In addition, membership contributions totaled just under 9,000 hours being transferred to the Leave Bank.

NASA ended FY 2015 with just over 23,000 hours in the Leave Bank. Since any remaining Leave Bank hours are maintained (and not subject to use-or-lose requirements), these hours will be used to fund the program in future years.

Approval Process To be an approved VLBP leave recipient, the employee must be a member of the VLBP and demonstrate he/she or a family member is experiencing a medical emergency, which requires the employee to enter a nonpay status for at least 24 hours or equivalent proration for part-time employees. All leave recipient requests for VLBP are to be submitted by the employee or his/her representative through the Web-based Time and Attendance Distribution System (WebTADS). If the employee or authorized representative cannot access WebTADS, the NSSC can assist with submitting the request on the employee’s behalf through other

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

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means. The employee is required to submit medical documentation to support his/her request, which is reviewed for eligibility only by the NSSC. Once the NSSC determines that the employee meets the eligibility requirements of the program, the request is sent to the Leave Bank Board for a decision. To ensure consistency in the decision process, the Leave Bank Board is not supplied with any medical documentation.

Rather, the Leave Bank Board is only supplied with the number of hours requested, the number of hours currently in the Leave Bank, and information regarding the employee’s previous VLBP usage. The Leave Bank Board determines the number of hours to provide the employee.

The Leave Bank Board consistently approves all or a portion of the leave requested to be donated for more than 95 percent of all requests. In FY 2015, the Leave Bank Board approved 87 requests, which transferred nearly 10,000 hours (over 4 work years) to the leave accounts of NASA employees. The following chart illustrates the number of approved VLBP recipients by month:

How Far has the NSSC Come Since the Inception of VLBP? The NSSC has taken great strides to enhance VLBP. There are many notable accomplishments, which can be attributed to changes that have taken place throughout the year.

FY 2015 was a great year for VLBP. Program awareness is steadily increasing throughout NASA, and more employees are participating this year than last. This is demonstrated through the following notable changes since FY 2014:  52.7 percent increase in memberships  23.1 percent increase in hours received as gift donations  17.8 percent increase in number of employees submitting gift donations

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

The Leave Bank Board has the responsibility of maintaining a sufficient balance of leave to ensure the Leave Bank hours maintained are sufficient to cover as many emergencies as possible. For this reason, the NSSC has been partnering with supervisors, employees, and Center Human Resources (HR) Offices to explore all options available to employees outside of VLBP. Some of the considerations include:      

Exploring telework options.

Modifying work schedules.

Exploring reasonable accommodations.

Exploring disability retirement, optional retirement, etc.

Participating in VLTP. Participating in ASL.

By working with the employee’s supervisor and HR Office, the employee may need fewer hours from the Leave Bank than the employee initially anticipated, which has led to a decrease in the amount of hours required and potentially allows the employee to have accrued annual or sick leave to use.

Overall, the implementation of VLBP has been a success. In the past, the only option was to request other Federal employees donate leave through VLTP, but now an employee can invest a small amount (one pay period of leave accrual per year) to be a VLBP member. This has given employees the peace of mind knowing that there are options available to them in the event they experience a medical emergency, without having to share their circumstance with others in hopes that someone will donate leave. One of the benefits realized from VLBP is for new employees who may not know Federal employees who can/will donate to them and/or for those employees who are not comfortable asking for donations now have the option to receive leave from the Leave Bank by becoming a member.

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Voluntary Leave Transfer Program Overview VLTP is a benefit available to all NASA employees who meet the eligibility requirements of the program. Unlike VLBP, there is no membership requirement. The eligibility requirements for the VLTP are the same as the VLBP, so employees can receive leave donations from both programs concurrently.

Almost all employees will experience a medical emergency at some point in their career, but will they have enough leave to cover their absence? VLTP is a program that employees can leverage to assist them in obtaining the leave they need.

The NSSC began administrating VLTP in FY 2007. Since then, NASA employees have donated more than 340,000 hours, helping over 1,000 NASA employees who were experiencing medical emergencies.

Approval Process To be an approved VLTP leave recipient, the employee must demonstrate he/she or a family member is experiencing a medical emergency, which requires the employee to enter a nonpay status for at least 24 hours (equivalent proration for part-time employees). All leave recipient requests for VLTP are to be submitted by the employee or his/her representative through WebTADS. If the employee or authorized representative cannot access WebTADS, the NSSC can assist with submitting the request on the employee’s behalf through other means.

The employee is required to submit medical documentation to support his/her request, which is reviewed for eligibility by the NSSC. If the employee meets the eligibility requirements, the request is then forwarded to the employee’s supervisor for approval or denial. Requests can be denied for a variety of reasons, including the supervisor approves alternative options such as telework or a modified work schedule, the employee may have initially requested a longer period than the medical documentation supported, the employee may not meet the eligibility requirement of going 24 hours LWOP, etc.

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

In FY 2015, the NSSC approved 163 VLTP recipient requests, which allowed the transfer of just over 36,000 hours (18 work years) to the leave accounts of NASA employees. The following chart illustrates the number of approved VLTP recipients by month:

How Far has the NSSC Come this Year with VLTP? One of the challenges that the NSSC encountered this year was with regards to obtaining sufficient medical documentation on the employee’s first attempt to verify program eligibility for VLBP/VLTP. Often times, the medical documentation did not indicate an end date or follow-up date or the number of hours and days that the employee would require to be on leave. The medical documentation received was very inconsistent and often times just too vague to document the employee’s eligibility to be on the program. To overcome this issue and to assist employees with submitting sufficient medical documentation on their first attempt, the NSSC Leave Programs Team developed a template that mirrored the Family and Medical and Leave Act (FMLA) form. The information found on that form is sufficient to document the employee’s eligibility to participate as a VLBP/VLTP/ASL leave recipient. The template has been completed; however, the form is still pending action from OHCM and the NASA Office of the General Counsel to develop a privacy act statement to include on the template before it can be implemented for Agency-wide use.

We also encountered some inconsistency in how Centers were notifying the NSSC of approval for an employee to remain a VLTP recipient for more than 1 year. The NSSC requires notification from the Center HR Director (HRD). Some Centers would e-mail a decision while other Centers would call with a decision. To ensure consistent application across the Centers and to streamline the NSSC process, a template was developed that Centers could complete to approve/deny an employee’s request to remain on VLTP for more than 1 year. The template includes considerations for the approving official, reiterates that the intent of the program is not for long-term illnesses, and covers alternatives that can be considered.

Some of the alternatives include considering telework, alternative work schedules, reasonable

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

accommodation, etc. This template has been completed and is starting to be implemented at the Center level.

Another inconsistency was with regards to how Centers notified the NSSC of the approval/denial of an employee who wished to donate more leave than allowed for that current leave year. The NSSC would receive a verbal approval in some cases or an approval via e-mail in others. To ensure consistency in communications and processing, the NSSC developed a template for Centers to complete that addressed when it is appropriate to approve this type of request. This template has been completed and is starting to be implemented at the Center level.

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Advanced Sick Leave Overview An employee can request ASL for the same reason(s) they would request sick leave. This program has been very helpful for employees who have insufficient sick leave balances, and do not meet eligibility requirements to participate in VLTP or VLBP. ASL can be requested for routine sick leave use such as a medical appointments, attend a family member’s medical appointment, etc. Unlike VLBP and VLTP, employees become indebted to the Government and will need to pay back the advanced sick leave hours used.

Approval Process To request ASL, an employee must provide the NSSC with medical documentation to support their request and submit an official request through WebTADS. If the employee or authorized representative cannot access WebTADS, the NSSC can assist with submitting the request on the employee’s behalf through other means. The NSSC will review the documentation for eligibility and approve or disapprove the employee’s request. If the request is approved, the employee will have the applicable number of sick leave hours available for use.

How Far has the NSSC Come this Year with ASL? The NSSC has promoted the use of ASL for employees who request to be a leave recipient under VLTP and/or VLBP. ASL complements these two programs very well. The use of ASL ensures that an employee does not enter an LWOP status while waiting for leave donations, but still allows the employee to take advantage of both VLTP and VLBP simultaneously. ASL can be used while an employee is waiting for leave donations, and if leave donations are later received, the donations will be credited retroactively. Essentially, ASL bridges a gap employees may experience due to lack of donations and processing timelines. If approved for VLTP and/or VLBP, the donated hours can be effective retroactively and restore any ASL that the employee used. In addition, the eligibility requirements to be approved for ASL are less strict, and if approved, employees do not have to rely on outside donations.

For FY 2015, 211 NASA employees were granted ASL.

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

What Does the Future Hold for Leave Programs?

Leave Donation Challenges and Solutions The NSSC has identified several challenges with regards to leave donations and the ability for NASA employees to receive assistance when needed. If additional measures are taken to educate employees of the benefits of donating leave instead of forfeiting it as well as exploring all leave options, more employees will be able to receive assistance.

Challenge: Leave Donations Peak in Use-or-Lose Season Almost 82 percent of VLBP leave donations for FY 2015 were received during December and January (use-or-lose season), and about 50 percent of the VLTP donations to employees were received during this same time period. This trend of donating during the use-or-lose season is supported by historical data. The following graphs represent the total number of hours donated by NASA employees to VLTP and VLBP:

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Challenge: Limited Hours Available Outside of Use-or-Lose Season There is currently an inequality between NASA employees becoming VLTP and/or VLBP leave recipients during the months of February through October and those becoming recipients November through January. The peak leave donation time occurs during the months of November through January, with the greatest volume of donations occurring every December and January.

For employees on VLTP during February through October, they are not as likely to receive enough leave donations to cover their anticipated absence due to the low level of leave donations received during this time. The increase in donations at the end of the year is attributable to use-or-lose leave that employees will not be able to use before the end of the leave year.

For employees on VLBP from February through October, the Leave Bank Board must ensure there are enough hours to support the Leave Bank throughout the year. This is an issue that could be resolved if more employees donated leave to the Leave Bank throughout the year.

The amount of leave available in the Leave Bank directly affects the amount of leave that an employee will receive from the Leave Bank Board.

Challenge: Forfeited Annual Leave Results in Lost Opportunities Over the past 3 years, NASA employees have forfeited just over 176,000 hours (85 work years) of annual leave, which could have been donated to the Leave Bank or given to an employee approved as a VLTP recipient. Based on the VLBP usage for FY 2015 (10,000 bank hours approved), the amount of leave forfeited over the past 3 years would have been enough to fund VLBP for over 17 years!

By analyzing the historic data, it appears that some Centers forfeit substantially more annual leave every year than others. Over the past 3 years, more than 50 percent of the forfeited leave was from two Centers. The following chart displays the number of hours of forfeited annual leave over the past 3 years by Center:

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Leave Programs FY 2015 Annual Report

NASA Shared Services Center

Solution: Encourage Employees to Donate Instead of Forfeit Leave One solution to receiving more donated leave for employees during the months of February through October is to encourage the employees who are forfeiting their annual leave at the end of the year to donate to VLTP or VLBP throughout the leave year. Centers that have been identified to have a balance of leave forfeited more than the average rate will be a target market for NASA to leverage for leave donations.

When a Center has drastically larger amounts of forfeited leave, there is a high possibility of an underlying cause. If the underlying cause can be identified and addressed, employees should be able to use more of their annual leave to achieve a better work/life balance and potentially increase the amount of leave donated to VLTP/VLBP for employees in need. In addition, the NSSC will be coordinating with OHCM to develop outreach activities for the months of February through October when the donations are at their lowest points.

Streamlining the Service Delivery Guide (SDG) The NSSC Leave Programs Team is in the process of updating the SDG to reflect changes related to the transition to ServiceNow. The NSSC Leave Programs Team anticipates the release of the new SDG by May 2016.

New Outreach Strategy At the start of FY 2015, the NSSC was still educating NASA employees about the benefits of the VLBP and how the program functions. Now that VLBP has been established for 2 years, the outreach strategy will transition to focus on promoting VLBP rather than educating employees about VLBP. The first step to this transition has been implemented, with the NSSC On-Boarding Team now notifying all new employees of their eligibility to be a VLBP member and providing assistance to employees who wish to enroll as members in the program.

New Leave Bank Board Each leave year, the Leave Bank Board members change. In leave year 2016, the VLBP Leave Bank Board will include a chair person from OHCM, an HRD, and a labor representative.

Updating the NSSC Leave Programs Web Page Changes are already underway to update the current NSSC Leave Programs Web page. The new page will feature separate sections for employees, supervisors, HR, and references for the different types of leave. The NSSC Leave Programs Team anticipates the release of the new Web page by August 2016. The Web page will be viewable at: www.nssc.nasa.gov/leave.

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