Thank you all for your cooperation in submitting your daily health assessments through the Symptom Tracker. This is new for all of us, and as we learn more, we want to share with you to ensure that we are all using the symptom tracker optimally and operating off of the same definitions. Knowing everyone wants to respond to the survey in a truthful manner, let’s address the topic of contact or exposure. One of the survey questions asks if you have had contact with someone in the last 14 days who has tested positive for COVID-19 or is being evaluated for Coronavirus. In reviewing CDC guidance, there are three factors that need to be considered when determining if you have had contact with someone who has tested positive or is being tested for COVID-19: physical proximity, duration and whether the exposure was to a person with symptoms (e.g. coughing likely increases exposure risk). When determining whether you have been in contact with someone, there are obvious situations that make answering this question easy: sharing the same household, intimate relationships, family contact, etc. What may be less obvious are casual interactions with co-workers, friends, strangers, etc. The CDC states that exposure is prolonged AND close contact. Close contact would be less than six feet, and prolonged exposure would be greater than 15 minutes. Another important factor to consider when determining whether or not you have actually been exposed is if the person in question was exhibiting any symptoms at the time of the interaction. When you respond to this question, really assess what interaction you may have had and whether it would really be considered exposure based on CDC guidance. Again, the purpose of the symptom tracker is not to catch people in a lie, but instead, to help you make the best decision about your health and the health of others. We want you to respond to the questions using your best judgement, in an effort to make the campus safe for ourselves, our colleagues and our students.

As more employees begin returning to campus, please contact Nicole Ralph (nicole.ralph@llcc.edu) if you have not yet registered with the Symptom Tracker. All employees must be registered with the program and respond to the survey questions prior to coming to campus on any given day. If you are experiencing any issues using the program, please let Nicole Ralph know.

SURS recently sent out an email to current Self-Managed Plan participants regarding upcoming changes. If you did not receive this email and you are a SURS Self-Managed Plan participant, you will need to contact SURS at 1-800-275-7877. Changes include a new plan name (SURS Retirement Savings Plan), new default investment options, new investment lineup, new planning and education tools, and a new recordkeeper. SURS will be offering webinars to inform members of these changes and actions members need to take. SURS has set up a website, https://surs.org/welcome-surs-retirement-savings-plan, that summarizes these changes and has links to register one of the webinars. Employees in the Self-Managed Plan who plan to retire between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2020 should contact SURS to learn how these changes may affect them. Any questions about these changes or how it may affect you will need to be directed to SURS.

Thank you all for your cooperation and patience as we begin the process of moving faculty, staff and students back to campus as safely as possible. This is new to all of us, and we are constantly learning, adapting and evolving as things change, what sometimes feels like minute to minute. Some adaptations regarding Symptom Tracker are documented below:

Registration Emails

Registration emails were deployed June 11 to those employees who we were informed would be working on campus, whether full time, sporadic or on a rotation, during the month of June. The registration email address was provided so that you would know the email was legitimate. Symptom-tracking@hc360.io is not a phishing or spam email. The link in the email expires after eight hours, so a fresh registration email will be pushed out daily to those who have not yet registered. If you do not receive this email and know you will be on campus at any point during the month of June, please email Nicole Ralph to be added to the system.

Appropriate Responses to Survey Questions

The questions in the survey will be asking you to identify whether or not you are experiencing certain symptoms. We know that some employees may experience these symptoms regularly or sporadically due to pre-existing health conditions. When responding to these questions, please keep your baseline health condition(s) in mind. If you have asthma that comes with a persistent cough, you will respond to the question about the cough based on what would be considered a new or different experience you are having with your baseline cough. If you experience seasonal allergies, you may have a sore throat one morning due to your allergies flaring up. Again, you’ll only want to report a sore throat if it is a new and different sore throat from what is your baseline for that particular health condition. These are just a few examples. We are asking you to self-report in a truthful manner, but it is not the intent for you to report symptoms that are normal for you based on underlying health condition(s) you may have. We need your help in creating a safe working and learning environment and being vigilant with your health is critical to that. You know your body best, so please self-report symptoms truthfully, while taking these factors into consideration. The intent of this tool is not to catch you in a lie but to help you be accountable to yourself regarding your health, for the sake of your co-workers and students. If you would like to talk through your specific circumstances in more detail, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Nicole Ralph.

Travel

At the time we rolled this program out, we had only seen an older version of the application that included a question asking if you had recently traveled to a COVID-19 hotspot. That question has since been removed from the survey. The LLCC guidelines document addressed circumstances related to travel. I want to clarify that traveling, whether in-state or out-of-state does not automatically require the employee to quarantine. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis, looking at things such as location (is it a current COVID-19 hotspot), for example. We are still working on how to best report and assess, and as soon as we have this worked out, we will send further communication. In the meantime, please continue to apprise your supervisor of your travel plans who can obtain further guidance.

Last week, the college began the process of gradually re-opening the campus. Many people continue to work remotely or are in between assignments. Others have returned to work on campus or at an outreach center. Some may be back full-time on campus, others on a rotating schedule or only on a day here or there. In an email dated May 27, employees were notified of a requirement to complete a daily health assessment prior to coming to campus at any time. Temporarily, you were asked to submit this assessment daily via email to your supervisor. We have now implemented an application that will be used effective June 15, 2020. For those employees who have been identified as working on campus now or in the near future, you will receive an email to your LLCC account today from HealthCheck360 requesting that you register with the application. You must register with the application prior to June 15 OR prior to your next appearance on campus. If you will be working on campus and do not receive that email tomorrow, please contact LLCC Human Resources immediately. Please review the following documents thoroughly: informational guide on the Daily Symptom Tracker application and LLCC procedure information supplementing the guide. As of June 15, this application will take the place of a daily email to your supervisor.

The initial application set up only includes employees that we know, as of right now, will be working in the month of June. If your status changes at any time, requiring you to work on campus, you must notify LLCC Human Resources prior to coming to campus to be set up in the application. Your diligence with ensuring that your status is current with us and completing the online questionnaire is necessary, in order to keep the campus a safe environment for you, your colleagues, and your families.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Nicole Ralph, associate vice president, human resources.

As a reminder, benefit open enrollment ends today, June 4. If you have already received the open enrollment checklist email, logged in and completed all of your open enrollment tasks, thank you!

All employees must complete the open enrollment checklist. Not all benefits will automatically rollover, so it is important that you follow the open enrollment checklist. You will log in to the system to access the checklist using the link provided in the email described in the Open Enrollment Process section of the information on the open enrollment process for benefit options. If you have not received that email, please check your Junk, Clutter or Other message boxes. If you experience issues with accessing the website, please email Kirsten.Taylor@llcc.edu.

Thank you in advance for your completion of these items. If you have any questions, please contact HR.

As a reminder, benefit open enrollment ends Thursday, June 4. If you have already received the open enrollment checklist email, logged in and completed all of your open enrollment tasks, thank you! For those who have not, please continue reading.

All employees must complete the open enrollment checklist. Not all benefits will automatically rollover, so it is important that you follow the open enrollment checklist. You will log in to the system to access the checklist using the link provided in the email described in the Open Enrollment Process section of the information on the open enrollment process for benefit options. If you have not received that email, please check your Junk, Clutter or Other message boxes. Several employees have contacted LLCC Human Resources because they could not access their open enrollment checklist due to user access issues. For those employees who have not yet completed their open enrollment, it is important you are able to confirm that you can access the website and see your My Tasks list. Fixing user access issues requires us to reach out to our vendor, and the fix can take a couple of days, which will delay your ability to complete your open enrollment. If you experience issues with accessing the website, please email Kirsten.Taylor@llcc.edu.

Thank you in advance for your completion of these items. If you have any questions, please contact HR.