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WARREN -- Of 72 Ohio counties that responded to Trumbull County Job and Family Services, only 13 have no remote workers, according to statistics compiled by the local agency.
After Trumbull County JFS's remote work policy was discussed by Trumbull County commissioners last month, John Gargano, JFS director, and Shelly Blosser, JFS human resources administrator, this week shared statistics on remote work at their agency and in Ohio's other counties.
In the 59 counties that allow employees to work from home, the circumstances vary from daily remote working to hybrid models to allowing remote work for special circumstances such as medical conditions or exposure to COVID-19, according to a document from Trumbull County JFS.
Ashtabula and Mahoning counties both allow some form of remote work, Blosser said.
Trumbull County JFS employs 123 people, 45 of whom are able to and choose to work from home.
More than 60 of the agency's employees are not allowed to work from home due to the requirements of their jobs, while another 24 choose to work in the office, and just fewer than 30 are new employees who must first work a full year before being allowed to work out of office.
Gargano has said that when the agency started allowing some employees to work from home early in the COVID-19 pandemic, he didn't expect it to work, but productivity has actually gone up.
The document compiled by JFS stated that the agency has been exceeding state standards for the application timelines for SNAP -- the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The state expects the rates to be 95 percent or better.
Last year, Trumbull JFS exceeded the 95 percent mark every month, sometimes reaching rates greater than 97 percent overall.
Employees who work from home have supervisory requirements, Gargano told Commissioners Mauro Cantalamessa and Denny Malloy during their Tuesday work session.
"We don't just send them home and say, 'OK, you're going to do this,'" Gargano said.
Remote employees must communicate through Microsoft Teams, a messaging application for organizations and businesses.
They also must complete a spreadsheet of their daily work and log their progress through other means, including Ohio Benefits' report system, which shows transactions, the document from JFS states.
Plus, remote employees are expected to work even if the office is closed for weather, Gargano said.
If there is a problem with productivity, an employee can be called back to the office at any time, he said.
For new employees, having the option to work remotely after a year of service can serve as an incentive, he said.
The Ohio Public Employer Labor Relations Association's 2023 conference indicated that some 72 percent of Gen Z employees left or considered leaving their jobs due to inflexible work policy and that millennials, the largest generation currently in the workforce, prefer flexible jobs with hybrid or remote work, according to JFS.
Commissioners in January unanimously tabled an internal policy that would have required all county employees under the board, including all JFS employees, to work in-person.