If you decide to recommend either R & R or Hardship Pay for internal TDYs (and here’s a link to the criteria you should think about when making that decision), you then have to decide on the following details of each, and include the specifics in your recommendation to the CR and/or RD.
Details of R & R
Generally, R & R for internal TDYs means that CRS pays for transport home (only) and gives some additional leave days. Usually CRS does not provide any per diem or hotel costs in addition to those required to get the person home. However, every situation is different, and your situation might require a different policy.
Before recommending a policy, you must determine the details and think about the consequences of the details on the program. Make sure you understand the financial and staffing implications of your policy before you recommend it. Specifically:
- How often will R & R occur? Once every 6 weeks? Every two months?
- How many work days will each staff person get for R & R? Will that include travel time or will they get additional days for that? Will they be allowed to attach additional vacation days to the R & R?
- What destinations are approved? Only travel to the home of record, or to other places in the country as well?
- Will the staff person receive per diem, other travel benefits?
- What will it cost? (use the average cost of one trip multiplied by the number of trips you expect people to take).
- Will CRS provide administrative staff time to assist staff in arranging travel or should staff arrange the travel on their own?
- Will our institutional donors pay for it or will we have to use unrestricted funds to pay for it?
Details of Hardship Pay
- How much will the hardship pay be?
- How will you determine who gets it and who does not?
- How and how often will you distribute it (Weekly? With salaries? One time cash payment?)
- For how long or under what conditions will people receive it?
- When will it end and how will you manage that process?
- What will it cost in total?
- Will our institutional donors pay for it or will we have to unrestricted funds to pay for it?
When you’ve determined the details of the policy you’ll be recommending, you can recommend the policy to the CR and/or RD. If they approve it, you’ll move on to implementing the policy.