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Welcome to COS!
Thank you for joining the Center for Open Science (COS) team. COS is a technology start-up with a non-profit agenda. It is a dynamic, innovative, aspirational, high-energy organization that aims to serve the scientific community. COS seeks to integrate and/or collaborate with other projects, organizations, and infrastructures rather than competing or reinventing. We put the values we preach into action daily and aim to be an employer of choice by engaging in open communication, having well defined values, and a strong team. COS’s most precious asset is you - the staff. Together, we will build state of the art tools and help to improve scientific practices.
Sincerely,
Brian Nosek Executive Director
The Center for Open Science (COS) was founded January 15, 2013. COS aims to increase the openness, integrity, and reproducibility of scientific research. We achieve this mission through three primary activities:
- Developing, maintaining, and connecting infrastructures that support the research workflow and enable open practices.
- Building a community of developers, scientists, and scientific stakeholders around open practices.
- Conducting metascience research to improve the empirical evidence for the state of scientific practices and evaluation of means to improve those practices.
The COS Team meets daily (M-F) at 9:00 AM for company announcements. Everyone then splits into brief functional team scrum meetings for individual updates. Each staff member shares their main priority for the previous day, the current day, and any barriers preventing progress. The team meeting and scrum meetings are important to attend.
Catered Lunches: On Tuesdays at 12:30 PM COS offers a catered lunch to the staff. Most lunches have a presenter or a planned topic of discussion. Please remember to fill in the food restrictions field in Zenefits.
Digital technologies enable high connectivity at a distance. However, many of the COS projects benefit from real-time face-to-face contact whenever feasible. As such, the standard expectation is for team members to be present in the office during ordinary business hours.
COS offices will be accessible to full-time, regular staff at all times - even during non-standard business hours. All full-time COS staff will receive an access card to Suite 500 for accessing the Omni Downtown Business Center during non-business hours. Notify the Human Resources Specialist if a pass is lost or broken. Initial access cards will be provided and paid for by COS, but replacement passes will be the responsibility of the employee ($15 per pass). All full-time, regular staff must have a valid and working access card in order to support operations of COS. The last full-time employee to leave the office is responsible for making sure the front and back doors are locked and the security system is re-armed. (Note: this card is also used for parking at the Omni parking garage). If you encounter difficulties with the alarm system, contact information is located on the key panel for the appropriate staff members; immediately call the staff members listed to notify them.
COS offices are located in the Business Center of the Downtown Omni Hotel which is within walking distance to the historic Charlottesville Downtown Mall. The area boasts variety of locally owned restaurants, shops, bars, and music venues and is the social and commercial center of Charlottesville. This prime location provides lifestyle value to the staff and is convenient for visitors to work with COS and enjoy the pleasures of Charlottesville.
Staff can dress how they wish, following reasonable community standards for appropriate attire. For example, there will be frequent visitors. COS is a casual, high-performance environment, but not an unkempt one.
We encourage digital signatures, scanning receipts, and digital communication. There is little reason or value in using paper when digital technologies allow duplication, extra security options, and easy sharing. COS uses Google Drive for storing and sharing documents.
The COS refrigerator and kitchen cabinets are fully stocked with the staff’s favorite snacks and beverages. If you notice the kitchen is out of something, indicate this on the OSF project: osf.io/ducxj for ordering. If you have any special requests for snacks or beverages, let the Events and Facilities Coordinator know.
Wednesdays are left over days – many times there will be leftovers from Tuesday’s catered lunches. Help yourself or take some home with you. Remember: if you’re the last person to eat left-overs, make sure to put them away and clean up.
Also, as a community kitchen, each member of the community is responsible for its cleanliness. When the dishwasher is full but dirty, start it. When the dishwasher is full but clean, empty it. Do not leave food or dishes on the counter, in the sink or around the office.
We are an Apple shop and most of our staff use laptops. Some desks are equipped with 27” monitors for expanding the digital workspace. If computing availability is not meeting your needs, discuss with the Human Resources Specialist to ensure that you have the computing resources needed for success.
Full-time, regular employees will be provided with a parking pass if needed. Because of limited parking and cost, full-time, regular employees are encouraged to use alternative transportation instead of requesting a parking pass if possible. Part-time, regular; full-time, temporary, and part-time, temporary employees will not have access to parking passes, and should likewise make use of bus routes, walking, and other modes of transportation. The Charlottesville City Transit system offers access to much of the area and all routes converge at the Downtown Mall, right near the COS offices. Please take a look at the map, and see how this will work for your transportation needs. For non full-time, regular employees, COS can reimburse for monthly bus passes if needed. Bike parking is provided on the top level of the Omni parking garage.
COS encourages employees to reduce their impact upon the environment and live a healthy lifestyle. Employees can help the environment and their health by using alternate modes of transportation for commuting to and from the office, and simultaneously address limited available parking in the area.
Employees who are eligible for a parking pass but decline to receive it can claim a bicycle commute or mass transit reimbursement of up to $20/month. This provides reimbursement for bicycle use and maintenance expenses or bus transit passes. Those that decline a parking pass may also use daily parking validation at the Omni up to 2 times per month for inclement weather or other disruptive situations, and up to $20/month for occasional taxi/Uber use when working in the office beyond a normal work schedule and needing a safe ride home. Reimbursement follows standard procedures.
COS prioritizes the health and well-being of its staff, and also needs staff members to be at their peak performance capacity when traveling for meetings or to give presentations. Long distance travel can negatively impact well-being and performance. As such, default practice is to send COS staff on economy class seats for domestic and international travel that is less than 7 hours flight time, and business class seats for international travel that is more than 7 hours flight time (plus Hawaii and Alaska from the east coast). This policy may not apply when business class travel is explicitly barred by the funding source.
Business class seats are a considerable additional expense (often 300% more than the economy fare), and COS has a responsibility to be a good steward of its resources. As such, upgrades to business class will be approached judiciously with the following principles to manage costs.
Travelers will seek affordable airfare options for all travel, but are encouraged to accumulate frequent flyer status on a single, preferred airline (travellers may choose the airline that best fits their common travel needs) Frequent travelers that achieve higher status will earn miles for, but also more frequent “free” upgrades to business or first class travel Frequent flyer miles earned are for the travelers’ personal use For most frequent flyer programs, automatic upgrades are given to frequent travelers for domestic flights when they are available Some frequent flyer programs also give vouchers for global upgrades for very frequent travelers (e.g., 100,000 miles on United in a year earns 6 global upgrades for the following year). These vouchers are applicable to certain ticket classes and are usually transferable to other travelers. COS’s very frequent travelers may earn this status. COS requests that its very frequent travelers apply these voucher upgrades to COS international flights by him- or herself or to other COS staff for their international travel. This way, COS would have a substantial investment for some international travel, but make this policy more sustainable by making efficient use of the status bonuses earned by frequent travelers. If a frequent traveler has a significant portion of personal travel that contributed to earning free global upgrades, then he or she could proportionally distribute those upgrades for personal and business travel. For example, if 6 global upgrades were earned and 33% of the travel was personal, then 2 of the upgrades would be for personal use. Maintenance of this policy is contingent on effective application of cost efficiency strategies. Without that, it is unlikely that this could be maintained on an ongoing basis. As an alternative strategy to the above, COS will explore cost saving opportunities via business accounts with one or more airlines.
COS staff has access to the gym facilities at the Omni. This includes access to all exercise equipment, showers, whirlpool, and indoor and outdoor pools. Up to two COS staff can use the facilities at a time. Per an agreement with the Omni, if the gym is in heavy use by hotel guests, then COS staff would select another time to workout.
The Events and Facilities Coordinator keeps the gym passes in a small notebook complete with a sign in/sign out sheet to ensure the passes are never misplaced. Be sure to return the pass when you are done using it.
COS is committed to the well-being of its staff. To honor this, COS allows flexible hours for medical appointments (doctors’ visit, dentist appointment and other necessary appointments to maintain well-being). Appointments and time out of the office must be communicated with your team. COS also supports flexibility in work scheduling. If such flexibility is required (e.g., to support travel-heavy positions), employees must address alternative scheduling with their direct supervisor and, if such alternative scheduling occurs consistently for more than two weeks, be discussed with the Human Resources Specialist.
Upon hire, all full-time COS employees receive fifteen (15) days of “Paid Time Off” (PTO). Starting on a staff member’s 3-year anniversary, they will receive 18 days of PTO, and starting on a staff member’s 5-year anniversary, they will receive 20 days of PTO. Upon termination, all unused PTO will be forfeited. PTO is not accrued and has no cash value.
Staff must receive manager approval for PTO and indicate the time off on their COS calendar. When scheduling PTO, staff must “invite” their their manager to the event; if the manager accepts the invitation, this indicates the PTO is approved. If the invitation is declined, the PTO has been declined.
All staff who cannot work due to an illness or emergency should notify the Human Resources Specialist and their team lead. Any absence due to an illness for more than 3 consecutive days will require a note from a doctor providing justification for not being in the office. Failure to provide this will be considered a voluntary separation from COS. Any absence for two (2) consecutive days without proper notification will be considered a voluntary separation from COS.
Hourly staff members are responsible for submitting their timecards on time for payroll processing. Staff who do not meet these requirements will not be paid for their unrecorded time until the next pay period. All overtime hours must be recorded and pre-approved by your manager. Hourly employees will be added to paycheckrecords.com upon hire, and be sent an email with details and temporary password to log in. If you have missed hours, or need a password reset, please notify the HR specialist. If you are sick, or need to make a schedule change, please notify the HR specialist. For more detailed information about time card due dates and corresponding pay periods, reference your welcome email from Zenefits.
COS employees may require additional time off in order to deal with a life changing event. To offer support in these circumstances, COS offers paid leave for up to three (3) months to all full-time, regular employees to care for their child after birth, after or during the adoption process, or to care for their spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition. All part-time, regular staff will be offered a three-week stipend plus an additional 9 weeks unpaid for the same circumstances. All leave must be taken in the first year after the birth or adoption or the year in which they are caring for their family member. Leave can be taken for second and subsequent children. However, employees are not eligible for another (3) month period of leave unless the expected date of delivery or adoption is at least 12 months after your return to work from a previous period of parental leave.
COS employees may request an extended remote work arrangement in order to deal with a life changing event. Example events include temporary relocation to care for a family or friend with a serious health condition, relocation with a spouse who takes a new job elsewhere, or a change in family circumstances making daily commutes to COS impractical. To offer support in these circumstances, COS offers the flexibility to work from different geographic locations with some basic requirements. Employees must commit to participate remotely in daily team scrums, have reliable Internet access to participate in video conference calls as needed, commit to work within mostly normal Eastern business hours schedule, and commit to be in the office to meet with the team in-person at an interval agreed upon with their supervisor. Remote work arrangements will typically begin as a 6-week trial period with a formal review and decision whether to extend and if any changes to the agreement are necessary. All part-time and full-time regular staff are eligible, though the responsibilities of some positions require being on-site. COS will aim to be flexible and accommodate requests when possible. Employees are responsible for providing their own remote work space and equipment, beyond their COS-provided laptop. COS expects that costs to accommodate a work space, such as personal Internet access or cell phone costs for connecting with those in the office, a large screen display, or renovations for the home office, will be the responsibility of the employee. Any costs associated with remote work that are expected to be covered should be discussed in advance to ensure alignment between employee and organization expectations.
The following U.S. holidays are observed by COS and do not count against Paid Time Off credit for full-time and part-time regular employees: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. We support cultural and community diversity. If employees celebrate holidays that are not listed above, COS will provide a floating holiday option.
Full-time regular and part-time regular staff will be paid for up to five (5) days to attend the funeral of a family member. If additional time-off is required, it is possible to arrange with the COS management team. All other requests for time off in relation to bereavement will be decided on a case by case basis, as needed.
All staff members will be excused with pay for five (5) days if called to serve jury duty.
COS offers health, dental, and vision insurance for employees their spouse, and dependents. Coverage will begin on the first day of the subsequent month in which employee is hired (i.e., hire date 06/15 - Insurance coverage will begin 07/01).
COS covers 100% of employee premium and 50% of all dependent coverage costs under the base plan. COS offers the option to buy up into the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Healthkeepers Platinum OAPOS and Platinum PPO plans. Employees will be responsible for paying cost difference between the two plans for both their individual coverage and any dependents under the Platinum OAPOS and Platinum PPO plans. These costs will be deducted from the employee’s paycheck pre-tax on a bi-monthly basis.
Open enrollment for the health insurance plan is in November of each year.
Upon separation from COS, COBRA is extended for a maximum of 18-months/1.5 years. Under this continuation, former full-time and part-time regular employees can remain on the COS insurance plan, but are responsible for paying for the entire health insurance premium for themselves and their dependents by the 15th of each month. All payments will be managed through Zenefits. Additional information will be supplied during the time of separation through Zenefits.
COS will cover 100% of full-time employee and all dependent premium costs under Anthem’s Blue View Vision plan and and 50% of all dependent premium costs. Vision insurance coverage will begin on the first day of the subsequent month in which employees are hired (i.e., hire date 06/15 - Insurance coverage will begin 07/01).
Open enrollment for vision insurance is November of each year, with an effective date of December 1st.
COS will cover 100% employee premium costs under Anthem’s Blue View Vision plan and 50% of dependent and spouse premium costs.
Open enrollment for vision insurance is in November of each year with an effective date of December 1st.
Dental Insurance (full-time and part-time regular employees).
COS will cover 100% of employee premium costs and 50% of spouse and dependent coverage under the Guardian Dental Insurance plan. These costs will be deducted from the employee’s paycheck pre-tax on a bi-monthly basis.
COS full-time regular, and part-time regular employees are immediately eligible to participate in the company’s 401(k) plan. COS offers a matching contribution of 100% up to 3% of pay and another 50% up to 5% of pay (the full match will be 4% if participants elect to defer 5%).
Full-time regular and part-time regular employees will be automatically enrolled into the plan at a traditional, elective deferral rate of 6%. Employees are able to modify their elective deferral rate at any time on the Vanguard employee portal.
Despite automatic enrollment into the plan, employees are still required to self enroll at the Vanguard website to set up their individual investment elections.
To enroll and set up your investment elections visit, https://my.vanguardplan.com/vanguard/ProtoReg.cfm. To view the current investment lineup visit, https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2QLi5K0y5KWZUhCOWRqeVh2VmM
Employees may choose to participate in the plan at anytime or to withdraw their participation from the plan at anytime.
COS will cover 100% of full-time regular employee premium costs under Vanguard’s long-term disability plan. Employees are eligible for entry upon hire date and will be automatically enrolled into the plan. Coverage will begin on the first day of the subsequent month in which employees are hired (i.e., hire date 06/15 - Insurance coverage will begin 07/01).
This manual is subject to change in accordance with the annual renewals of various benefit plans. COS maintains full discretion to add to, modify, or delete provisions of this manual at any time. COS staff will be notified of changes to this manual via a staff memo. Staff are required to stay up-to-date on information contained within the Employee Manual and Policies and Procedures Manual at all times.
This manual in conjunction with your Offer Letter and Policies and Procedures Manual forms the Terms and Conditions of your employment with COS.
Employee Name (Printed):
Signed:
Dated: