HRMS Message Archives

Update

I-9 Express, E-Verify, and the Federal Government Shutdown: You do not need to make any changes to your I-9 process due to the E-Verify service interruption during the federal government shutdown.

During the shutdown, the E-Verify system will not accept new I-9 form submissions. However, I-9 Management service will continue to hold I-9 forms in queue. Employees may work even though they do not yet have a status of "verified." Continue to ensure that both sections 1 and 2 of the I-9 form are completed on or before the first day of employment.

Once E-Verify is reinstated, the I-9 Management service will submit pending E-Verify cases. You do not have to track the status of the shutdown or resubmit cases. After the E-Verify system is running again, please continue to monitor your E-Verify open cases to ensure they are being handled in a timely manner.

Please email or call the OHR Contact Center with any questions at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, 800-756-2363).

Update

Minimum Wage Increase: As of January 1, the minimum wage in the state of Minnesota was increased to $9.86 an hour for large employers. To reflect that change, on Friday, December 28, OHR centrally updated more than 3,100 records that were below the new minimum wage. A Data Change/Special Circumstances row effective 12/24/18 was inserted into job data to increase the hourly rate to $9.86 for affected employees.

Reminder

Check Your Offer Letters to New Hires for Correct I-9 Link: The OHR Contact Center occasionally gets calls about newly hired employees who can't access I-9 Express to fill out their I-9 information. Often it's because the offer letter they received gave them the wrong link to the site. Please make sure your unit's offer letters have the correct I-9 link. "I-9 Process Template Letters" for the various bargaining units, which have the correct link, can be found on the OHR website here: https://humanresources.umn.edu/supervising-u/template-letters. Units should use these templates as the basis for their offer letters.

Procedures

I-9 Processing With New MN Driver's License: The new Minnesota driver's license continues to be acceptable for use as a Form I-9 List B document, notwithstanding the notation "Not acceptable for official federal purposes." According to the USCIS, a driver's license with this type of notation is an acceptable List B document since it contains a photo and identifying personal information. The notation simply indicates the license "does not meet the standards for the issuance and production of a compliant card under the REAL ID Act."

USCIS also specifically says an employer may not ask an employee to provide a different List B document and that acceptance of this driver's license does not support a conclusion that the employer had actual or constructive knowledge that the employee was not employment authorized.

Since Minnesota has now brought its new driver's license into conformity with the REAL ID Act, this will be an increasing occurrence.

Holiday Schedule

Payroll Close Deadline Changes the Week of Christmas: Our last payroll close of the year falls during the week of the December 24–25 University holiday. Due to these holidays, and the January 1 holiday the following week, we are making these changes to the payroll close schedule:

4:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 26: Time and absence validation deadline (normally noon Wednesday)

8:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 26 : Job data and additional pay deadline (normally 4:30 p.m. Wednesday)

1:00 p.m. Thursday, December 27: Payroll Update deadline due to a one-day close

Please email or call the OHR Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, 800-756-2363) with any questions.

New Procedure

New Process for Retirement Deductions When Employees Terminate: The University is changing the way it takes deductions for certain retirement plans when employees leave the University or become ineligible for the plan. Beginning January 1, the University will not take deductions or deposit contributions after the date an employee is ineligible for the plans, either through a change of job or job status, such as termination of employment. The last contributions will be made on the paycheck immediately before such a change. (Currently deductions continue to be made from any paycheck sent to them after they leave their job.)

The impacts on the different plans are described below. The change affects only these plans.

For the Faculty Retirement Plan, Optional Retirement Plan (ORP), and 457 Retirement Savings Plan, employee and University contributions will end on the pay period before a change in eligibility status. For example, if a faculty or staff member resigns effective January 4, 2019, their last deductions and contributions will appear on their January 2 pay statement.

In addition, employees in the ORP and 457 plans will no longer be able to defer their vacation payouts into the plan after their last day of work. They will need to modify their contributions so they are deducted from their regular paycheck before their last day.

Why this change is happening: The University is making this change as part of a broader project to make benefit changes more consistent: Any benefit or status change that affects an employee's benefits will be reflected either on the first paycheck following the change (such as Open Enrollment deductions taking effect on the January 2 paycheck) or on the last paycheck before the change, as described above. This will make it easier for employees to understand when their benefit deductions stop and start and reduce the chance for errors.

If you have questions about this change, email the OHR Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or call 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, 800-756-2363) and press option 1.

Process Update

How to Complete I-9 Section 3 for Citizen Rehires: If you rehire an employee within three years of the date that a previous Form I-9 was completed, you may either complete a new Form I-9 for your employee or complete Section 3 of the previously completed Form I-9.

Unfortunately, a system functionality issue in I-9 Express doesn't allow you to complete section 3 when an employee is rehired in the same location, although you can with a different location. (To change a location in I-9 Express, send a request to the OHR Contact Center, as it can only be changed centrally). If you are rehiring a citizen or permanent resident in the same location within three years of the previous I-9 date, you have two options:

Option 1: Complete a new I-9.
Option 2: Complete Section 3 on paper and upload it into I-9 Express:

1. Search for the employee and open their employee detail page.
2. Click on Upload Paper I-9.
3. Enter the information from the original I-9 when it asks for the documentation reviewed.
4. Select Edit Data and enter the Section 3 information on the screen. This is so the Section 3 information shows up in the online data and not just on the uploaded paper form.

We also recommend reviewing the general USCIS instructions for completing section 3, which can be found here: https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/complete-correct-form-i-9/completing-section-3-reverification-and-rehires.

New Procedures

Changes to Delegations of Authority: As of August 27, delegations of authority (DOA) at the University changed from pointing to an individual (internet ID) to the position number they hold in HRMS. The following actions may impact the delegations data when updating a position.

1. Increasing a headcount on a position that has delegations of authority. Because delegations are tied to a position number, if you increase the headcount for that position number (for example, from one to two) all incumbents will automatically have all the delegations associated with that position number. In this case, we recommend two steps:
   1. View the Delegations Library to see if any delegations are attached to the position number. If not, enter the headcount.
   2. If delegations are attached to the position number, contact the DOA specialist to see if any special measures need to be taken before increasing the headcount.
2. Instead of filling an existing position number when there is a vacancy, a new position record is created for the next incumbent. Delegations are tied to the original position number. The DOA specialist can transfer all the delegations to the new position number. Please email the specialist for your collegiate or administrative unit in these cases.
3. The "reports to" position number on the position management record is incorrect. All delegations flow through management lines (for example, from the president to the executive vice president to the dean). If the "reports to" position number doesn't reflect managerial lines, it will prevent the DOA specialists from establishing correct subdelegations.

Please contact your unit's DOA specialist if you have any questions. They will be monitoring these actions through routine reporting.

Procedures

Retaining I-9 Documents: We'd like to clarify the document retention rules we follow for I-9 processing. Since we participate in E-Verify, you must upload to I-9 Express a copy of any document any employee presents that triggers photo matching. If an employee presents one of the following documents:

• U.S. passport/U.S. passport card
• Permanent Resident Card (Form I-551)
• Employment Authorization Document (Form I-766)

the document should be scanned (front and back) and uploaded in I-9 Express. Do not keep a paper copy.

While you can of course accept other documents, copies should not be retained. Retaining unneeded documents can actually present a compliance issue, as USCIS regulations require that retention of supporting I-9 documentation be uniform for all employees.

Update

New 'Fluid' Job Search Site Brings Some Changes for Applicants: With the successful introduction of the new "fluid" technology to the U's job search pages a couple of weeks ago, which creates a more mobile-friendly experience for job seekers, we wanted to highlight three key changes to the site:

• The area where applicants upload and view their résumé and cover letter is now called My Job Applications (it was formerly My Activities). New job postings will refer to My Job Applications, but we encourage unit recruiters to change current job postings to reflect the new title.
• Applicants now see "Submitted" as their application status for any positions to which they have applied. (Previously the status was listed as "Under Review.") This change was part of PeopleSoft's new fluid technology. There are no plans to change back to the previous language at this time.
• Job codes will be added back to all job openings in mid-December. We apologize for any confusion this has caused.

Overall, the new site has been well received. Please continue to share your feedback with us at ohr@umn.edu or by calling the OHR Operations Contact Center at 4-UOHR (612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363).

Resources

Report Helps Units Identify Missing or Incomplete I-9s: The I-9 Needed query was developed to help units maintain I-9 compliance. It is available in the Reporting Center under Pay/Time Queries. We strongly suggest that department I-9 administrators run the I-9 Needed query daily or at least every three days. If an employee appears on the report, corrective action is required.

The query can be run by department ID or ZDeptID. It pulls all active employees who have missing I-9s in PeopleSoft, meaning an I-9 has not been successfully uploaded or entered into PeopleSoft.

The first step is to check I-9 Express to see if there is a completed I-9 for the employee. If not, an I-9 must be completed as soon as possible, and the employee must be told to stop working until they have completed their I-9. Refer foreign nationals to the OHR Contact Center to schedule an I-9 appointment.

If you find a completed I-9 form in I-9 Express, the employee appeared on the query because the I-9 was not successfully uploaded or entered into PeopleSoft due to a data error. In that case, please correct the record for the following data errors:

• Job Data is missing
• SSN is missing from PeopleSoft or I-9 Express
• Either the SSN or Employee ID are missing in I-9 Express
• SSN does not match between PeopleSoft and I-9 Express
• Employee number does not match between PeopleSoft and I-9 Express
• Date of birth does not match between PeopleSoft and I-9 Express

If you can't determine why the employee is on the report, please email or call the OHR Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, 800-756-2363) for help. You will need to provide the employee number, employee name, and hire date.

Update

New Location for Access Request Form for I-9 Express: The access request form departments use to request I-9 administrator access to I-9 Express has a new location. It has moved from OIT's Provisioning and Requests web page to the ServiceNow Request Catalog at https://umnprd.service-now.com/catalog_home.do?sysparm_view=catalog_default.

Resources

New Analytics Dashboard Shows Job Code Average Salary Using NHBR: OHR Operations' HR Analytics team has released another in its continuing series of data dashboards—Employee NHBR Job Code Average Salary. The new dashboard calculates the average and median salary, as well as each individual employee's salary, for a P12, P10, and P09 pay group situation. All the values are calculated using the recently introduced employee normalized hourly base rate (NHBR). The report can be run by job code and HR department hierarchy for any date from April 6, 2015, to today.

The dashboard replaces the existing Job Code Average Salary UM Report, which will be removed from the Reporting Center on December 31. The new dashboard will provide a more accurate picture of compensation, with data based on normalized hourly base rate (NHBR). NHBR is an hourly compensation value that allows for comparison regardless of pay group, compensation frequency, standard hours, additional pay, etc. Breaking down pay into an hourly rate is the best way to compare pay because it provides a common baseline for comparison that excludes other variables.

Because of this change in how the Job Code Average Salary is calculated, you may find some differences from the results displayed in the previous Job Code Average Salary report. While neither value is incorrect, the Compensation team believes the new NHBR calculation presents a more accurate picture.

The Employee NHBR Job Code Average Salary report is now available in the MyU Reporting Center. In MyU, navigate to Key Links > Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Human Resources > Employee NHBR Job Code Average Salary.

Records Update

State Minimum Wage Set to Increase to $9.86: State officials recently announced that Minnesota's minimum wage will increase by 2.5% to $9.86 an hour for large employers beginning January 1, 2019. The minimum wage is now $9.65 an hour. All University of Minnesota employees, including student workers, must be paid at or above this rate no later than January 1. The Office of Human Resources will process required pay increases centrally, using an effective date of December 24, 2018. These changes will appear on the January 16, 2019, paychecks. We wanted to make you aware of this change now so you can begin to assess the potential impact to your collegiate or administrative unit.

Reminder

Processing Reimbursements for Moving and Relocation Expenses: As year-end approaches, please remember that all reimbursements for moving and relocation expenses for 2018 must be reported as taxable in this tax year, whether the employee is paid via Payroll Services or Accounts Payable. The last payroll of 2018 is the pay period ending 12/9/18 (pay date 12/19/18). As a reminder, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased the taxable nature of these payments, removing all exclusions from taxation.

If the payment is made through Payroll Services (using the code MRL), taxes are collected at the time of payment. The payment must be processed no later than the pay period ending 12/9/18 to be paid and reported in time.

If the payment is made through Accounts Payable, the amount of the payment is reported to Payroll Services, added to the employee's pay as taxable income, and the appropriate taxes (federal, state, Social Security, and Medicare) collected. Payments through Accounts Payable must be paid to the employee no later than 12/7/18 to be reported on the last pay of the year, which means the payment must be entered in EFS and approved no later than 11/30/18.

All moving and relocation reimbursement expenses received after PPE 12/09/18 will be grossed up for taxes (federal, state, Social Security, and Medicare) and charged to the department. The amounts and grossed-up taxes will be included on the employee's 2018 W-2.

Reminder

Use Reports to Track I-9 Status: Keeping track of where new hires are in the I-9 process can be a bit complex. Reports are a great way to help you monitor the I-9 status of faculty, staff, and student workers. Remember to use all the reports at your disposal to monitor compliance to the day-one I-9 standard.

• The I-9 Management Report User Guide gives step-by-step instructions for using all reports available in I-9 Express.
• The I-9 Reports Grid is a handy chart with descriptions and parameters for reports both in I-9 Express and the MyU Reporting Center, including how to find them and how often you should run them.

You can find links to these resources on the new I-9 page of the OHR website via this path: Supervising at the U > I-9 Employee Eligibility Verification > I-9 Resources.

Employment

U Job Search Pages Get a New Look: The Office of Human Resources has introduced a new "fluid" technology to the U's job search pages that makes it easy to search for jobs anywhere—from a smartphone, tablet, or computer. This is a much-needed function that will move the University forward in meeting applicant needs. The revised pages provide a search experience consistent with tested design principles known to appeal to applicants. One change to note: The My Activities section changes in the fluid environment to My Job Applications.To see the new fluid pages at work, visit OHR's Find a Job page and click on the Current U Employees button.

Data Analytics

Headcount Snapshot Dashboard Now Includes Fall 2018 Data: OHR Operations' HR Analytics team has updated the Employee Headcount and FTE Snapshot dashboard to include fall 2018 snapshot data (FY19 pay period 9). "Snapshot" data shows information as it appeared on a specific date. The data in this dashboard will not change; if something has since beendeleted or corrected in the original database, the changes will not show up in this history.

The enhanced Employee Headcount and FTE Snapshot report is now available in the Reporting Center. In MyU, navigate to Key Links > Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Human Resources > Employee Headcount and FTE Snapshot.

Procedures

New Process for Becoming I-9 Administrator Begins This Week: Beginning Thursday, the process for becoming a department I-9 administrator and gaining I-9 administrator access in I-9 Express will change. Prospective I-9 administrators will need to complete training through Training Hub and submit an Access Request Form (ARF) in ServiceNow to gain access to I-9 Express. On the I-9 Express ARF, they should indicate what department they are requesting access for; access will be granted only to employees in that department. The ARF process will require applicants to complete training and get approval from both the employee's supervisor and the department security contact. This change will not affect current I-9 administrators.

Hiring

Do Your Student Workers Have Unused Work-Study Funds?: With fall student hiring activity slowing down, we want to remind you to take advantage of any work-study funds your student workers may have available. Recent University work-study reports show there are student workers who have work-study funds that are not being used.

You can use the Employed Student With Unused Work Study Awards query in the Reporting Center to identify any student worker in your unit who may have a work-study award that is not being used. If one of your student workers appears on the report, talk with them about using their award and complete the work-study placement panel. You will begin receiving the partial reimbursement of the student's earnings once the placement panel is completed. The work-study placement panel is part of the appointment entry process. See this Work Study Placement job aid for details, or find it on the A-Z Materials Tools page of the HRMS Instruction site.

Contact Student Employment Programs at stdtempl@umn.edu or 612-626-8606 if you have questions.

Analytics

Access Request Form for HR Analytics Now Available: The Access Request Form (ARF) for requesting access to HR Analytics ad hoc reporting is now available. Ad hoc access allows users to create custom data queries and dashboards for their specific unit populations. As a reminder, you will need to complete two course prerequisites before submitting an ARF: 1) "Working with Employee Data (OHR060)" and "UM Analytics: Creating Basic Analyses and Dashboards (EUS132, EUS133, or EUS134)."

When filling out the online ARF, select Additional Applications & Data Warehouse Tables > Additional Applications > UM Analytics. Under "AUTHOR ACCESS—Select the area or type of UM Analytics data needed," select "Human Resources—Public."

Analytics

Employee Normalized Hourly Compensation Dashboard Has Been Enhanced: The new Employee Normalized Hourly Base Rate (NHBR) dashboard, introduced last week, has been enhanced to allow the data to be viewed by Job Code Family Reporting Group as an additional option. If you previously included the dashboard in your favorites, you will need to click "Add to Favorites" to bookmark the new report, as the previous link will no longer work. The Employee Normalized Hourly Base Rate dashboard lets users compare pay according to a common hourly baseline, regardless of pay group, compensation frequency, standard hours, additional pay, and so on.

Update

Biweekly Payroll Encumbrances Are Not Available: Due to system processing delays, biweekly payroll encumbrances processed on the evening of Wednesday, September 26, will not be available on financial reports until tomorrow, September 28. Payroll encumbrances on financial reports are current through Monday, September 24.

As always, updated payroll encumbrance data is available within HRMS via the online inquires UM Encumbering by Combo Code or UM Encumbering by Employee ID. Navigation in HRMS: UM Payroll Accounting > UM Encumbering

Schedule Change

One-Day Close Due to Columbus Day Holiday: Next week's payroll close will be a one-day close due to the Columbus Day mail and bank holiday on Monday, October 8. The Payroll Update deadline will be Thursday, October 4, at 1:00 p.m. We need to do a one-day close when there is a banking and mail holiday that lands between the payroll close and the payday in order to get printed checks (which constitute about 5% of employees) in the mail a day earlier. With this in mind, please continue to encourage your employees to sign up for direct deposit!

Update

Direct Retro Distribution Processing Delayed: Due to the timing of the biweekly payroll processing and system upgrade activities over the weekend, all retro distributions that were entered on Friday, September 21, were not processed in the system until this morning. Retro distribution activity will be posted to the general ledger tonight and available in UM Reports on Tuesday, September 25.

Reminder

Tips on Getting the Best Service From Payroll, Benefits : OHR cares about customer service, and we want to make sure employees get quick answers to their HR questions. Please remind your faculty, staff, and student workers that questions about payroll, benefits, graduate assistantships, or other topics are best answered by emailing or calling the OHR Contact Center. Because staff in the Contact Center are usually on the phone with employees, in-person visits could result in wait times.

For general questions, employees can reach the Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, 800-756-2363). For benefits questions, they should press Option 1 whencalling 4-UOHR, or email benefits@umn.edu.

For employees who need to visit Payroll Services in person to pick up off-cycle or disbursement checks, or for I-9 or tax treaty processing, please remind them that Payroll hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.

Resources

How to Get Access to HR Analytics: As of August 30, the first group of HR Analytics users were granted ad hoc reporting access to HR Analytics. Ad hoc access allows users to create custom data queries and dashboards for their specific unit populations. To get this access, HR Analytics users must first complete the "Working With Employee Data (OHR060)" and "UM Analytics: Creating Basic Analyses and Dashboards Using HR Data (EUS134)" courses (or an equivalent Finance or Student course). After completing the course series, users submit a UM Analytics access request form (ARF), which must be approved by their unit. The next session of "UM Analytics: Creating Basic Analyses and Dashboards Using HR Data" is October 18 in the Humphrey Graduate School of Public Affairs, Room 50. You can register for both courses via Training Hub.

Update

Foreign National Employees Must Now Make Appointments for I-9 Help: Foreign national faculty, staff, and student workers who need to complete an I-9 must make appointments once again by emailing or calling the Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363). Walk-in services ended on September 5. International employees and student workers with appointments can visit the Foreign National Help Desk in Payroll Services, in the Donhowe Building, Room B20 (basement level), 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. Appointments are available between 8:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.

Update

Clarification on Foreign National Employees and I-9 Timeliness: As you know, establishing work eligibility for foreign national faculty, staff, and students is a complex intersection of immigration laws. We're doing further research on this issue to ensure that we offer you the best guidance to address multiple federal requirements. In the meantime, here is some clarification on our earlier instruction about I-9 timeliness with foreign national employees and student workers.

Please do not change the start date in the cases where you have:

• A graduate student on an F or J visa who has an assistantship
• A J-1 scholar employed by the U of M anywhere in the system

Changing the start date of these international employees could negatively impact their non-immigrant status. We do not want to put their eligibility at risk.

We still want to urge colleges and units to support these employees and student workers in completing their I-9s as quickly as possible, though there are some instances in which, due to logistics, it is simply not possible to meet this expectation by their first day.

For foreign national F-1 visa holders working in other areas, without tuition benefits, please continue to follow the instructions to delay a start date if they are not able to complete their I-9 on or before their first day of employment.

We'd like to add that, while the University standard for I-9 timeliness is new, the process has not changed. You can continue to advise incoming foreign national employees and student workers about the steps of the process as you have done in the past, while including the new timeliness standards.

As we learn more through our research, we will notify you as quickly as possible of further updates on this approach. If you have further questionson these situations, please email or call the OHR Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647; 800-756-2363).

Procedures

I-9 Receipt Rule Reminder: New employees who are U.S. citizens and permanent residents may use a receipt from an issuing authority for I-9 purposes if their document has been lost or stolen. The new hire must bring in the new document within 90 days from the date of hire. If the person does not bring in the newly issued original by the end of the 90 days, they can no longer work, and they must be terminated using the termination reason code of Employment I-9 Ineligibility (EII). To monitor employees who need to return with their new documents within 90 days, run the I-9 Express dashboard Receipt Due query.

Update

Clarification on Confirming That I-9 Documents Satisfy Federal Law: We've gotten a few questions on the language in the offer letter that states, "you must ... 3) receive confirmation from the University that your documentation satisfies the federal law requirements." Units have asked whether this confirmation means an employee can start work only when a completed E-Verify result is registered in I-9 Express. The answer is no. The employee or student worker is eligible to work as soon as both sections of the I-9 are complete. That said, it remains important to check for E-Verify issues and attend to them when they arise.

Procedures

I-9 Reminder: Social Security Numbers in PeopleSoft and I-9 Express Must Match: Please remember that the Social Security number entered into I-9 Express must match the Social Security number entered into PeopleSoft. If you findan error in either system, please email or call the OHR Contact Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647; 800-756-2363). Also, when a foreign national employee who had applied for their Social Security number upon arrival receives their card, they should bring it to their department HR office so it can be entered into PeopleSoft and I-9 Express. Please be sure to enter it in both places.

Resources

I-9 Walk-in Dates for Foreign National Employees: Through September 5, foreign national faculty, staff, and student workers who need to complete an I-9 will not need to make an appointment. Remember that all I-9 processing now takes place in the Donhowe Building, 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. Foreign national employees can complete their I-9s anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in Room 210.

Be sure to let your foreign national workers know they must bring these items with them to complete their Form I-9 verification:

1. Valid (unexpired) passport
2. Most current Form I-94
3. Form I-20 or DS-2019
4. Offer letter (for correct start date)
5. Social Security card or receipt from Social Security showing they have applied for one

Please remember that people holding only UNS appointments (fellowship and scholarship recipients) do not need to complete an I-9 form as they are not employees. Also, employees and student workers who are permanent residents should complete their I-9s in the college or unit. They do not need to come to OHR to complete their I-9s.

Reports

Two New Resources Will Help With I-9 Reports: Keeping track of where new hires are in the I-9 process can be a bit complex. Reports are a great way to help you monitor the I-9 status of faculty, staff, and student workers. Two new resources outline all the reports at your disposal and how each of them can be used.

• The I-9 Management Report User Guide gives step-by-step instructions for using all reports available in I-9 Express.
• The I-9 Reports Grid is a handy chart with descriptions and parameters for reports both in I-9 Express and the MyU Reporting Center, including how to find them and how often you should run them.

You can find links to these resources on the new I-9 page of the OHR website via this path: Supervising at the U > I-9 Employee Eligibility Verification > I-9 Resources.

Reminder

Please Ensure Schedules Are Correct: With the beginning of the fall semester, we'd like to remind unit time and absence administrators to ensure that exception hourly employees' schedules are correct in PeopleSoft.

Resources

New and Improved Employee Headcount Dashboards Now Available: OHR Operations' HR Analytics team has released its fifth in a continuing series of data dashboards—Employee Headcount and FTE by Job Code Group. The team has also added an important enhancement to a previous dashboard that shows headcount by job category.

The new job code dashboard allows any University employee to easily gather headcount and FTE totals by job code group at any level of the HR department hierarchy for any date from April 6, 2015. To find it, log in to MyU and navigate to Key Links > Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Human Resources > Employee Headcount and FTE by Job Code Group.

In addition, the previously announced Employee Headcount and FTE by Job Category dashboard has been enhanced to include an optional filter that allows a user to select which job categories will be included in the report display.

Resources

Payroll Forum WebEx Recording and Materials Are Now Available: If you missed Monday's Payroll Forum, devoted to the I-9 process, you can now listen to the WebEx recording and follow along with the PowerPoint presentation (pdf) from the meeting. The forum covered important new changes to the I-9 process, how to communicate those changes to faculty, staff, and student workers, various I-9 scenarios you may encounter, and much more. It is essential information for anyone involved in hiring and onboarding new employees and student workers.

Resources

I-9 Walk-in Dates for Foreign National Employees: From August 22 to September 5, foreign national faculty, staff, and student workers who need to complete an I-9 will not need to make an appointment. Remember that all I-9 processing will now take place in the Donhowe Building, 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. Foreign national employees can complete their I-9s anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in Room 210.

In addition, foreign national faculty, staff, and student workers may need to visit the Social Security Administration, which will have special hours at International Student and Scholar Services, 190 Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 301 19th Avenue S., on the West Bank:

August 23, Room 15, 8:00–9:00 a.m.
August 27, Room 27, 8:00–9:00 a.m.
August 30, Room 15, 8:00–9:00 a.m.

OHR representatives will also be present in the morning on those days to complete Form I-9 verification.

Be sure to let your foreign national workers know they must bring these items with them to complete their Form I-9 verification:

1. Valid (unexpired) passport
2. Most current Form I-94
3. Form I-20 or DS2019
4. Offer letter (for correct start date)
5. Social Security card or receipt from Social Security showing they have applied for one

Training

Ever Wonder Why We Use E-Verify as a Part of Our I-9 Administration?: The E-Verify Workflow Process Summary Guide (you must be signed in to E-Verify to view) is designed to educate clients on the E-Verify program and to provide instructions on how to send cases to E-Verify, close cases, and monitor issues using the Equifax Workforce Solutions I-9 service. The document also includes a list of all E-Verify statuses, as well as frequently asked questions.

Resources

OHR Website Has a New, Central Location for I-9 Information: As part of the University's continuing efforts to fully comply with federal I-9 regulations, the OHR website has been updated with new or added I-9 materials. In addition, I-9 information is now collected in one place: On the OHR site, click Supervising at the U in the top navigation headings, then in the left navigation click on I-9 Employee Eligibility Verification. The information has been updated to reflect revised University policy, which now requires the I-9 process to be completed for all new hires,including student workers, by the end of their first day of work for pay. That includes completing Section 2 of the I-9 form by presenting documents confirming the faculty, staff, or student worker's identity and eligibility to work.

Be sure to bookmark the pages for future use. For units using your own intranet sites to convey I-9 information, please upload the new materials to your site or direct people to the OHR I-9 site.

Training

Ordering a Background Check? There's Now a Job Aid for That: Earlier this year, as part of OHR's process improvement efforts, we changed the process of requesting background checks so that units can now order them directly, which saves time and eliminates duplication of work. As a reference for this new procedure, we now have a new job aid: Ordering Background Checks and Verifications. (It is also available on the Recently Updated Materials page on the HRMS Instruction site). The job aid gives step-by-step instructions on how to enter background check requests directly into the General Information Services system.

Resources

Fall Planning Guide Is Here: The "HR Fall 2018 Planning Guide for HR Leads and HRMS Users" is now available on the HRMS Instruction website under Recently Updated Materials. As we begin a new school year, the planning guide contains tips and reminders to keep the HRMS system running smoothly. Topics include position management, recruiting, appointments, benefits, time and absence, and payroll accounting.

Meeting

Reminder: Payroll Forum on I-9s Set for August 20: This quarter's Payroll Forum is scheduled for Monday, August 20, from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in Bruininks Hall, Room 412. As in previous years, the August Payroll Forum will be dedicated largely to the topic of I-9 employment eligibility verification compliance. We strongly encourage all staff involved with I-9 processing to attend, as we will be discussing process changes, new tools to support compliance, and increased monitoring, in addition to the I-9 compliance basics we discuss every year.

Training

New Form I-9 Training Now Available: The "I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification" course, a new training for I-9 administrators at the University, is a webinar-on-demand provided by Equifax. The webinar covers the details of completing Form I-9 sections 1, 2, and 3 and also discusses using the I-9 Management dashboard in the I-9 Express system. This training is required for I-9 administrators who do not yet have access to I-9 Express. For those who already have I-9 Express access, the training is a highly recommended review and demo. When you register for the training through Training Hub, you will receive a confirmation email with a full list of topics with time stamps.

To get access to I-9 Express, new I-9 administrators will need to completethis course and have their HR Lead send approval for access to ohr@umn.edu.

Resources

New and Updated Materials Can Help With I-9 Compliance: In our continuing efforts to fully comply with federal I-9 regulations, Operations has several new or updated materials available:

1. The Form I-9 remote hire instructions have been updated to reflect the new requirement that I-9s be completed on or before the first day of work for pay.
2. A new Employer Quick Reference Guide covers important information on how to process Form I-9s using our vendor system Equifax.
3. Academic waive appointment instructions are available for those units that are using this type of appointment. As a reminder, all instructors need to be set up as employees in PeopleSoft and to complete a Form I-9. The preferred payment method for these appointments is to use the academic temp/casual appointment setup. For units now using accounts payable for these waive payments, pleaseemail or call the Contact Center (ohr@umn.edu, 612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363) for detailed instructions on how to set them up in PeopleSoft.
4. A new termination code has been added to PeopleSoft, effective August 13, to be used when you need to terminate an employee who hasn't brought in their Form I-9 documentation by the end of the first day of work for pay. The code description is "I-9 employment ineligibility," and the code is EII.

News

I-9 Walk-in Dates for Foreign National Employees: From August 22 to September 5, all foreign national employees who need to complete an I-9 will not need to make an appointment. Remember that all I-9 processing will now take place in the Donhowe Building, 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. Foreign national employees can complete their I-9s anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in Room 210.

Procedures

Reminder When Entering Employee Names Into PeopleSoft: In our efforts to be compliant with Social Security regulations, please make sure to enter employee names in PeopleSoft as they appear on the individual's Social Security card. Also, do not make employee-requested name changes unless the employee shows you a new Social Security card with the requested name. These measures are necessary to maintain the accuracy of our year-end reporting.

Meeting

Save the Date: Payroll Forum on I-9s Set for August 20: This quarter's Payroll Forum is scheduled for August 20 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. in Bruininks Hall, Room 412. As in previous years, the August Payroll Forum will be dedicated largely to the topic of I-9 employment eligibility verification compliance. We strongly encourage all staff involved with I-9 processing to attend, as we will be discussing process changes, new tools to support compliance, and increased monitoring, in addition to the I-9 compliance basics we discuss every year.

Benefits Change

Employee MSRS Contributions to Increase: Beginning with the August 1 paycheck, employees enrolled in the Minnesota State Retirement System will see an increase in their contributions, due to recently passed legislation. Employee contributions will increase from 5.5% to 5.75%, and the University's contribution will increase from 5.5% to 5.875%. For more details, see this legislative summary. For questions, contact MSRS directly at 651-296-2761.

OHR News

Several OHR Services Moving From West Bank to East Bank Campus: Key services offered by the Office of Human Resources will be relocating from the West Bank Office Building to the Donhowe Building, 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. The move will have limited impact on services, but please be aware of the following changes:

• Payroll Services: Payroll will relocate on Thursday, August 2, to Room B20 in Donhowe. During the transition you may experience a slight delay in email responses. Off-cycle checks that need to be picked up can be collected at the front desk in B20 (basement level) starting August 6.
• I-9 Processing for International Students and Scholars: Starting Tuesday, August 7, I-9 processing for all international students and scholars will be located in Donhowe, Room B20. Because of the move, the Foreign National Employee Help Desk will be closed on these days:
  

  Friday, August 3: Noon-4:00 p.m.
  Monday, August 6: All day

• The desk will reopen on Tuesday, August 7, for appointments beginning at 8:30 a.m. Appointments are required; to schedule, call the Contact Center at 612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363.
• Contact Center: This service will move to Donhowe B20 on Monday, August 6. During the transition you may experience a slight delay in phone and email responses.
• Job Center: The Job Center and Talent Acquisition team will move on Monday, August 6, to the first floor of Donhowe. During the transition, you may experience a slight delay in phone and email responses.
• HRMS and Operations: These services will move to the second floor of Donhowe on Tuesday, August 7. During the transition you may experience a slight delay in email responses.

Resources

I-9 Walk-in Dates for Foreign National Employees: From August 22 to September 5, all foreign national employees who need to complete an I-9 will not need to make an appointment. As noted in the item above, I-9 processing will now take place in the Donhowe Building, 319 15th Avenue SE, on the East Bank. During those dates, foreign national employees can complete their I-9s anytime between 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. in Room 210.

Resources

New HR Analytics Dashboard: Employee Job History: OHR Operations' HR Analytics team has released its fourth in a continuing series of data dashboards, which shows an employee's job history from April 2015 to the present. The dashboard will be enhanced in the future as more data becomes available in the HR Analytics system. Eventually this dashboard should replace the Employee Job History report in the Legacy Data Warehouse. The new dashboard is available in the MyU Reporting Center. In MyU follow this path: Key Links > Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Human Resources > Employee Job History (HR Analytics). More dashboards are in the works; we'll let you know about them as they arrive.

Survey

Tell Us What You Think About the OHR Operations Website: The OHR Operations website has been online for three months now, and we'd like to hear your opinions about how you use it and how it could be improved. Please visit the site's home page and take a quick survey to let us know what you think. Is the site useful to you? What resources do you use most frequently? What improvements or added features would you like to see? Your responses and comments will be very helpful to us as we plan future work on the site. Thank you for your participation.

System Update

PeopleSoft Unavailable for 24 Hours on Weekend of July 21–22 The HR PeopleSoft system will be unavailable for part of Saturday and Sunday due to scheduled software updates. From Saturday, July 21, at noon through Sunday, July 22, at noon, users will not have access to PeopleSoft HRMS applications. That includes:

• MyU self-service functions, including the tabs My Time, My Pay, My Benefits, Manager Info, and My Info
• HRMS-related queries in the Reporting Center
• The job search site

The planned software update will fix several minor bugs in the system and add some cosmetic changes to enhance the user experience. The changes will not affect daily processes and routines for users.

Personalized Pages in PeopleSoft: In the HR PeopleSoft system, users can personalize some of the pages to change the way information is displayed, including sort order and hiding columns. With the update, many of the personalizations will be reset on pages that Oracle has changed. As a result, users may see minor changes such as sort order or rearranged columns and will need to re-create their personalizations if they choose.

Reports

Are You Using Your Missing I-9 Query?: The UM_PY_I9_NEEDED query was developed to help units maintain compliance with the federally mandated time limits for completing Sections 1 and 2 of Form I-9. It is available in the Reporting Center. The query can be run by department ID or ZDeptID and pulls all active employees who have missing I-9s in PeopleSoft, meaning an I-9 has not been successfully uploaded or entered for the employee into PeopleSoft. This job aid will tell you more about the query.

The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services requires that employees complete Section 1 of the I-9 on or before the date of hire. Within three days after the start of work for pay, the employee must present original documents that show their identity and employment authorization.

For example, if an employee begins employment on Monday, you must review the employee's documentation and complete Section 2 on or before Thursday of that week. If the I-9 is not complete by the third day, the employee must be told to stop working until their I-9 is completed.

Another example: An employee's first day of work is Thursday and they work in Dining Services, a seven-day-a-week operation. The employee must complete Section 1 of the I-9 form on or before Thursday. They must present their original supporting documentation to be reviewed, and Section 2 of the I-9 form must be completed, no later than Sunday. If they are not able to present supporting documentation by Sunday, they may no longer work until they present the documentation.

I-9 Process

Completing I-9 Forms for Employees Who Don't Work Locally: In our continuing efforts to be fully compliant with federal I-9 regulations, here is information about how to handle the rare circumstance of a new employee who doesn't work locally and can't easily show the required I-9 documents like passports or Social Security cards.

For these remote employees, the I-9 process is a bit more complicated. It involves finding a designated agent of the University near where the employee lives. The employee can then bring the required documents to the agent, who can verify them and complete Section 2 of the I-9 form. The remote employee then returns the form to the hiring unit.

This instruction sheet will walk you through the entire process, including how to find a designated agent. It also includes specific instructions for both the remote employee and the designated agent. (You can also find these instructions on the OHR website via Supervising at the U > Payroll Administration > I-9 Employment Authorization Requirements, under the New Hire section.)

Please look through the instructions linked above and email or call the Contact Center if you have any questions ( ohr@umn.edu, 4-UOHR, or 800-756-2363). Thank you again for all your help in ensuring that the University fully meets our I-9 responsibilities.

Updates

Positions Have Been Updated: The Position Status has been updated to Frozen for over 11,800 positions, and the Status field has been changed to Inactive for over 1,600 positions that were previously frozen.

Update

Positions Will Be Updated This Week: The programs to freeze or inactivate positions will be run by the end of the week. Positions without an active incumbent in Job Data or Additional Pay for one year and that are not currently a job opening will have the Position Status field changed from Approved to Frozen. The Status field will remain as Active. Positions with a Position Status of Frozen for one year will be changed to Inactive. The Status field will change to Inactive.

Holiday Schedule

One-Day Payroll Close and Pay Date Change for Independence Day: This year our first pay date in July falls on the July 4 Independence Day holiday. As a result, the pay date will shift to Tuesday, July 3, and we'll have a one-day payroll close on Thursday, June 28. The deadline for Payroll Updates on that day will be 1:00 p.m.

Job Data Update

Contract Renewals Have Been Entered: Contract renewals for 12-month appointments and 9- or 10-month appointments paid over 12 months have been entered. Contracts, job data, and notice of appointments have been updated. Five contract renewal reports dated 6/17/18 are available in the Reporting Center via Reports Run for Me > HR Contract Renew.

Update

Payroll Accounting Distributions for FY 2019: On Sunday, Accounting Services completed the payroll accounting distribution roll for fiscal year 2019. All current and future-dated payroll accounting distributions were automatically copied forward into the new 2019 entry and are available for review starting today (Monday, June 11).

Reminder: If any distribution changes are needed for the 26th pay period that also apply to the first pay period of 2019, distribution changes must be made in both 2018 and 2019.

Resources

New I-9 Compliance Query in Reporting Center: A new query to support I-9 compliance has been added to the Reporting Center in MyU. The query will show you employees with job data who have not yet completed verification of I-9 employment in PeopleSoft.

We urge you to run this query—UM_PY_I9_Needed—at least every three days to ensure that new employees' I-9 form verifications are completed within the federally mandated three-day time limit.

Here is more detailed information on the content of the query.

Update

Teamster, Clerical Increases Set for Next Week: Annual increases for eligible Clerical and Teamster employees will be processed centrally the week of June 4.

Resources

Job Aid Helps With Entering Performance Reviews into HRMS: Many employees at the University take part in annual or probationary performance reviews. Once the reviews are complete, they should be entered into HRMS. The job aid Reporting Annual or Probationary Performance Reviews in HRMS can walk you through the few simple steps for entering employee reviews in the system.

Resources

OHR Operations Releases First in a Series of Powerful HR Analytics Dashboards: The University community now has a valuable, easy-to-use new tool for determining exactly how many employees work in a particular campus, college, or department. The Employee Headcount and FTE dashboard, now available in MyU via the Reporting Center, shows the number of employees both numerically and in a bar graph format, and it can be filtered by several criteria, down to the department level. To check it out, sign in to MyU and follow this path: Key Links > Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Human Resources > Employee Headcount and FTE. For more information on using the dashboard, click the Help Resources link in the upper left.

This new resource is just the first of many powerful new dashboards to be released by a joint team from OHR Operations' HR Analytics department and OIT in the coming months. Future dashboards will show HR-related information such as salary costs, employee job history, and workforce demographics in a similar user-friendly format, providing invaluable information to colleges and administrative units.

The HR Analytics effort is part of a University-wide Enterprise Data Management and Reporting initiative, which is developing an analytics data warehouse to make the University's vast stores of data more accessible and useful. By mining the treasure trove of data already available in various University databases, and presenting it in an easy-to-use, consistent format, University leaders and managers can make highly informed decisions about their workforce and finances, spot trends and changes over time, and plan more confidently for the future.

Resources

Payroll Forum Recording and Slides Are Now Online: If you missed last week's Payroll Forum, or would like to review the information, a WebEx recording of the meeting is now posted on the OHR Operations Google site, along with a PDF of the meeting slides. Just click the Payroll tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. Records of future forums will also be posted there to create an archive of the meetings.

Procedures

How to Store I-9 Documentation: A question came up during a recent Payroll Forum about whether units should be keeping paper copies of documents presented with an employee's I-9 form (such as passport, driver's license, and Social Security or EAD card). The answer is no: Copies of those documents should be uploaded in I-9 Express and stored electronically rather than on paper. We recommend to units that have not been uploading the documents and have been storing paper copies to upload the documents to your employees' I-9 records as soon as you can and then shred the paper copies.

Meeting

Payroll Forum Tomorrow, May 8, 10:00 a.m.–Noon: We hope you'll join us for this quarter's Payroll Forum. We'll meet tomorrow morning at 10:00 in room B50 of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. You can also attend the meeting remotely via Webex using this link: https://umn.webex.com/umn/onstage/g.php?MTID=e86fc08ab904849730367d2668a782211

Resources

Payroll Cutoff Calendar Posted for FY19: A new Payroll Cutoff Calendar has been posted on the OHR website showing pay periods, payroll deadlines, and paydays through mid-June of 2019. To see the new calendar, follow this link, https://humanresources.umn.edu/payroll-administration/payroll-hrms-calendars, or find in on the OHR website via Supervising at the U > Payroll Administration > Payroll and HRMS Calendars.

Onboarding

I-9 Compliance Tips: An important part of the I-9 administrator's role is verifying that the information on the I-9 form is correct and that it matches the documentation the employee is presenting. When you are completing Section 2, are you reviewing all data in Section 1 and verifying that it matches the presented documentation? Many of the tentative non-confirmations we see come from simple errors like a difference in the spelling of a name or mistyped numbers.

Revised Process

End Date Required in Additional Pay: In alignment with HRMS instructions, we've added a small change to the Additional Pay page in PeopleSoft. With the Sunday, April 22, HRMS release the page requires an end date to be entered in order to save a record. While HRMS instructions do tell users to always enter an end date for Additional Pay, the change will help prevent the frequent pay errors we've seen because of Additional Pay records that didn't have an end date.

Please keep in mind that these two very useful queries in the Reporting Center can help you track your Additional Pay records:

Additional Pay for Active Employees: This query lists all active additional pay for active employees in the selected DeptID, ZDeptID, or College.
Additional Pay on Inactive Job Records: This query lists active additional pay data records that are attached to an inactive job record.

Meeting

Next Quarterly Payroll Forum May 8: The next Quarterly Payroll Forum will take place on Tuesday, May 8, from 10:00 a.m. to noon. We'll meet in the Humphrey School of Public Administration, Room 50. Please send suggestions for agenda items orquestions to address to Heather Kidd, payroll services director, at kidd0029@umn.edu

Holiday Schedule

Pay Date Changes Due to July 4th Holiday: In 2018, the Fourth of July holiday falls on what would normally be a payday. Since that is a bank holiday, the pay date for that week will shift to Tuesday, July 3. This change will require that we close payroll a day early as well. We will have a one-day payroll close on Thursday, June 28. The Payroll Update deadline will be 1:00 p.m.

Resources

Summer Appointments Instructions for 2018 Now Online: Many units are already starting to think about the approaching summer term. To help with summer hiring, OHR has updated the summer teaching appointments instruction manual for 2018. Last year's summer appointments went well, and this year's manual has just a few minor changes, which are listed on the first page of the instructions. Here is a link to this year's materials. You can also view them by visiting the HRMS Instruction site and clicking on A-Z Lists > A-Z Material/Tools > Summer Teaching and Research Appointments (Includes May Sessions)—2018 Manual.

Resources

The New OHR Google Site Is Here!: OHR Operations has created a new Google site exclusively for HRMS users. Here you'll find many of your most important daily resources, along with HRMS and Operations news, on one convenient site. visit ohroperations.humanresources.umn.edu and click the link to the Google site. Once on the site, you can bookmark pages to return the next time. (If you don't have access, email OHR@umn.edu.)

We designed the OHR Operations site based on what you told us you wanted in a survey of HRMS users and from what we have heard from our HRMS Advisory Group members. Our goal is to make these pages as useful as possible to you in your daily routine.

Remember that this is your site, and it is meant to be a continual work in progress. We encourage you to email ohr@umn.edu with suggestions for improving the site or adding more features.

Records Update

Teamsters Unit Pay Increases: PeopleSoft records will be manually updated by central OHR this week to reflect pay increases to eligible Teamster employees as a result of contract negotiations. The annual increases will be reflected on the 3/28/18 paycheck. We will send specific instructions for processing retro pay and lump sum payments in a separate communication the week of March 26.

New Process

New Action/Reason Code for Some Rehires: Beginning today (Monday, February 26), a ne/tablw action/reason code, REH/ADL (Rehire/Additional Job), should be used for a special type of rehire.

When should it be used? Use REH/ADL when an employee is rehired on an additional job and 1) is returning more than 30 days since leaving, and 2) has another active job during the time they were gone from the second job.

What is the new process? Use the action/reason REH/ADL instead of HIR/ADL when an employee has an active job and a separate terminated job. Enter the new code on the previously terminated record.

Why the change? The new code will make sure the employee's benefits are automatically processed correctly for an additional job. The new code will prompt a Miscellaneous (MSC) event to open rather than a Hire event.

Special note: This new action/reason should not be built onto a POI record. The MSC event will not generate, and Employee Benefits will not be able to evaluate it for eligibility.

Training

Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Training Is Posted Online: If you missed the WebEx training on the new online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Payment Request form, you can find a recording of the training, along with FAQs from the sessions, on the Payroll Forms page of the OHR website: https://humanresources.umn.edu/payroll-administration/payroll-forms. And thank you to everyone in the units who provided input into the online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle form project. Our University-wide rollout last week went well, and your contributions were essential to the project's success.

New Process

Online Off-Cycle Payment Form Includes Employee Notification: We'd like to highlight one feature that comes with the new online Off-Cycle Payment Request: When the off-cycle check is processed, an email notice is sent directly to the employee and is copied to the person who submitted the form.

New Process

New Hard Stop Error Messages: Three new hard stop error messages are now in PeopleSoft and will prevent a record from being saved.

'Add a Person' or 'Manage Hire' Processes

Social Security number: If you enter a Social Security number into PeopleSoft that already exists for another employee ID, this error message appears: "STOP. National ID [#] is already used for employee [EmplID]. A national ID cannot be used within the same country for two people. The national ID you entered is already in use by another employee, dependent, or applicant. You must enter a unique ID before the record can be SAVED."

Future-Dated Home Address: This error message prevents you from entering a future-dated home address. The effective date of the address needs to be the current date or priordate. The error message reads: "The effective date cannot be greater than today." Once you save the record and the employee ID is generated, you can enter a future-dated home address.

Job Data

Company Change: This message prevents you from changing the company on an employee job data record when you enter a new job data row (for example, changingcompany UMN to company UNS). The error message reads: "Company cannot be changed. Contact OHR for assistance."

Data Entry

AFSCME Clerical Step Increases: The AFSCME clerical step increase program runs on the 15th of each month and inserts a Pay Rate Change/Step/Progression Increase row into job data for employees with a Progression/Anniversary date in the next month. The email notifications will no longer be sent. You can review reports by going to the Reporting Center and clicking on Reports Run for Me > HRMS. For the March step increases, please review the reports dated 2/15/18:

• UMHRAE002 - CLERICAL STEP INCREASE.PDF (02/15/2018)
• UMHRAE002 - CLERICAL STEP INCREASE ERROR.PDF (02/15/2018)

New Process

Wednesday Is the Transition to Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request: As of Wednesday, we ask that you no longer email Payroll Updates and Off-Cycle Requests and begin using the online request forms exclusively. If you have questions about using the form, please contact the OHR ContactCenter by email at ohr@umn.edu or by phone at 612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363.

New Process

Need a New Work Schedule Created in Time and Labor?: The creation of new work schedules has been transitioned to the Tier 2 OHRContact Center team. From now on, please send your request to OHR@umn.edu.

Training

Transition to New Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Form: On Wednesday, February 21, all users will be asked to begin using the online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request form in PeopleSoft rather than submitting emailed forms. We urge all users, including approvers, to attend one of the two online WebEx sessions to train on using the new online form. The sessions will take place:

• Wednesday, February 14, 10:00–11:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, February 20, 12:30–2:00 p.m.

A WebEx meeting link and instructions will be sent in a separate message. A recording of the training will be available online. The training for the new online tool will replace this quarter's Payroll Forum. You can also find job aids for this new payroll form in the A-Z list of HRMS materials here: https://hrms.umn.edu/z-lists/z-materialstools.

New Process

Confirm Your Access to Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request: Please remember that those who currently submit and approve the Payroll Update or Off-Cycle Request forms will need access to the UM Payroll Requests folder in PeopleSoft. Each online submission will require a separate preparer and approver. This is the same security access required for a Stop Pay Request, so if you have access to that form in PeopleSoft you will already have access to the Payroll Update and Off-Cycle Request. If you do not have access, submit anAccess Request Form requesting payroll forms access no later than Wednesday, February 14, at https://it.umn.edu/self-help-guide/enterprise-access-requests.

Update

Year-End Payroll Adjustments Have Been Run: As part of the normal year-end process, Payroll Services runs an abbreviated year-end, off-cycle payroll to make year-end adjustments and check adjustments or reversals that affect employees' 2017 year-to-date amounts. This payroll was processed yesterday (Monday, February 12). As a result, you may see an additional UM Payroll Verification Reports for your department in the Reporting Center with a pay end date of 12/09/17. These payroll entries will post to the general ledger on Wednesday evening with an accounting date of 02/14/18. (Note: If no employees in your area had year-end adjustments, you will not see a payroll verification report.)

System Updates

System Security Updated Over the Weekend: As part of quarterly system maintenance, several University systems were updated over the weekend with security patches. OIT recommends that MyU and PeopleSoft users clear their browser cache before logging in to those systems. If any issues arise, please contact the Technology Help service desk (612-301-4357, help@umn.edu).

New Process

Confirm Your Access to the Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request: As we announced last week, the online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request form will be rolled out to all users with the February 22–23 payroll close. We will no longer accept emailed forms as of Wednesday, February 21.

Those who currently submit and approve the Payroll Update or Off-Cycle Request forms will need access to the UM Payroll Requests folder in PeopleSoft. Each online submission will require a separate preparer and approver.

This is the same security access required to send a Stop Pay Request, so if you have access to that form in PeopleSoft you will already have access to the Payroll Update and Off-Cycle Request.

If you do not have access, submit an Access Request Form requesting payroll forms access no later than Wednesday, February 14.

Also, mark your calendars—we'll be offering two online trainings:

• Wednesday, February 14, 10:00–11:30 a.m.
• Tuesday, February 20, 12:30–2:00 p.m.

These online trainings will replace this quarter's Payroll Forum.

Tax Information

New Tax Rates: We will send out a message to all employees on Friday letting them know about the time frame for the implementation of the new tax tables. As a reminder, employees will see the new tax rates applied to the pay period of February 5-18, which is paid on February 28.

News

Tax Reform Update: In mid-January, the IRS released the new 2018 tax withholding tablesreflecting the changes included in the tax reform law, with instruction that the changes be implemented no later than February 15. We recentlyreceived the PeopleSoft update to the tax tables. HRMS and OIT are working to apply the update to the pay period of February 5-18, which is paid onWednesday, February 28. We will send a communication to all employees in February.

New Process

Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request Form Coming Soon: We're excited to announce that the online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle Request form will be rolled out to all users with the February 22-23 payroll close. We'll be offering two online trainings:

• Wednesday, February 14, 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
• Tuesday, February 20, 12:30-2:00 p.m.

We will provide more details as the rollout approaches. If you use the Payroll Update or Off-Cycle Request forms, please plan on attending one of these sessions.

Update

Query That Audits Expected End Dates Has Been Improved: Based on feedback from users, HRMS has made several enhancements to the Reporting Center query that audits employees with an expected end date coming up in the next 30 days. The query is important in making sure positions are updated at the end of each term. The improved report lets departments access data based on ZDeptID, adds more fields for troubleshooting, and provides complete results for both UMN and UNS employees. Specifically, the enhancements:

• Allow users to prompt by college
• Exclude records where a future-dated row already exists
• Add Compensation Frequency
• Add current comp rates
• Add Reports To/Supervisor information

Tax Information

W-2s Now Available: W-2 tax reporting forms are now available online. As in past years, all employees have access to their W-2 forms online. Employees can log in to MyU, click on the My Pay tab, then on View W2/W2C Forms. Employees who opted to receive their W-2s exclusively online will not get a printed form in the mail. For those who did not opt in, printed forms have been mailed. If employees have trouble opening their W-2s, they should make sure their web browser's pop-up blocker is turned off or allows University sites as an exception (see instructions at it.umn.edu/how-disable-pop-blockers-or-add-trusted).

Update

Errors in Absence Accruals: We have discovered an error in the way absence accruals are being displayed on .pdf and printed pay statements, and in some cases also on MyU. We wanted to alert you of this error in the event you are getting questions from employees in your units.

This error was due to a combination of the pay period spanning two calendar years and a subsequent technical issue in the process that displays the absence balances. HRMS is working to ensure that all balances are displayed correctly, with MyU as a priority. I can assure you that this is a display issue and the actual balances stored in PeopleSoft are correct.

We do not intend to rerun the .pdf pay statements for the January 17 pay date. The January 31 pay statement will display the correct balance.

Job Data Updates

Time to Enter Pay Increases for AFSCME Technical Employees: PeopleSoft records should be updated to reflect pay increases to AFSCME Technical-represented employees as a result of the bargaining unit's new contract. Last week, central OHR processed the increases for AFSCME Technical:

• Salary Admin Plan/Grade tables
• Hourly rate increases
• Step increases
• New hires/rehires/recalls or transfers
• Terminated employees

Units will need to enter all associated retro pay and lump sum payments into Additional Pay by January 24. Instructions and a spreadsheet with new rates have been sent to HR Leads. The instructions outline how the increases were processed centrally and how the retro and lump sum payments should be processed by units. HR Leads will be sharing those instructions with staff responsible for updating appointments.

System Update

PeopleSoft, MyU Unavailable Saturday Through Noon Sunday: Annual maintenance of the University's primary data center is scheduled for this weekend, which will require a complete shutdown of the data center and will affect many IT services, including MyU and PeopleSoft. The work is set to begin Saturday, January 6, at 6:00 a.m. and is expected to be completed by noon on Sunday, January 7. The shutdown will not affect University email, Google applications, Moodle, or Canvas. See a complete list of affected services or visit the University's IT Service Status page for maintenance updates.

Holiday Schedule

One-Day Payroll Close January 11: Due to the Martin Luther King Jr holiday on Monday, January 15, we will have a one-day payroll close on Thursday, January 11, in order to get printed paychecks in the mail on Friday the 12th. The Payroll Update deadline on January 11 will be 1:00 p.m.

Update

How Tax Reform Law Will Affect Payroll: Employees will likely have questions about when they will see the impact on their pay of the tax reform bill that was signed into law on December 22. OHR Operations is keeping a close eye on this and will implement the changes once they are made available.

The first step in the implementation process will come from the IRS, which is now developing guidance on withholdings to implement the new law. The IRS expects to issue its initial withholding guidance in January, and employers and payroll service providers will be encouraged to implement the changes in the first quarter of 2018. PeopleSoft will release system updates that will allow us to implement these changes within the required time frame.

In the meantime, employers have been told to continue using the existing 2017 withholding tables and systems. The IRS also emphasizes this information will be designed to work with the existing Form W-4 that employees have already filed, and taxpayers do not need to take any action at this time.

The tax reform law also includes changes to the taxable nature of other types of employee compensation. We are working with the Tax Management Office to understand these changes and how they affect University employees. We will provide more information on this in coming weeks.

Job Data Update

AFSCME Technical Unit Pay Increases: PeopleSoft records will be updated the week of 1/1/18 to reflect pay increases to AFSCME Technical employees as a result of contract negotiations. The annual and step increases will be reflected on the 1/17/18 paycheck. We will send specific instructions for processing retro pay in a separate communication.

I-9 Reminder

Foreign National Employees Should Make I-9 Appointments: With the start of spring semester and the addition of new foreign national employees, the Foreign National Employee Support desk at Donhowe would like to remind you that employees need to make an appointment to complete their I-9 (new or reverifications) or tax treaty documents. To make an appointment, call 4-UOHR (612-624-8647), option 2. Appointments are available on a first-come, first-served basis in 15-minute increments from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m., Monday through Friday. Thank you in advance for your cooperation!

Holiday Schedule

Payroll Close Schedule for the Last Week of December: Please keep in mind that Monday, December 25; Tuesday, December 26; and Monday, January 1, are University holidays this year. This will affect the payroll close that takes place during the final week of the year. The following deadlines will be in effect for that week:

• The Wednesday, December 27, noon time and absence deadline and 4:30 p.m. job data entry deadline will not change.
• There will be a one-day close on Thursday, December 28, in order for printed checks to go in the mail on Friday, December 29. As a result payroll updates must be received by 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 28.

Though the week will be compressed on both ends, leaving all of us limited time to close payroll, we hope everyone will enjoy the extra time with friends and family.

The first payroll close in January will also be a one-day close on Thursday, January 11, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

New Queries

Queries of the Week: Missing data? Several queries in the Reporting Center are designed to audit missing data in HRMS fields. Navigate to the Reporting Center and enter the word "Missing" in the Search by Title field. Queries include:

• Emp - Missing Date of Birth
• Emp - Missing Degree Info
• Emp - Missing Gender
• Empl - Missing Home Address
• Emp - Missing SSN
• Tenure Missing for Reg Faculty
• Time - Missing Punches by Dept

Job Data Updating

Time to Enter Pay Increases for AFSCME Health Care Employees: PeopleSoft records should be updated to reflect pay increases to AFSCME Health Care–represented employees as a result of recent contractnegotiations. Last week, central OHR processed the increases by automatically inserting a Pay Rate Change/Annual Increase row and updating the hourly rate on that row for bargaining-unit employees. Units will need to enter all associated retro pay processing by December 13 and will need to update hourly rates for new hires as of November 13. Instructions and a spreadsheet with new hourly rates are being sent to HR Leads in all units that have employees from the health care bargaining unit. The instructions outline how the increases were processed centrally and how the retro payments should be processed by units. HR Leads will be sharing those instructions with staff responsible for updating appointments.

Queries & Reports

Query of the Week: To help units with the retro calculations associated with the AFSCME Health Care pay increases, a temporary query is available through Query Viewer in PeopleSoft. The query has hard-coded retro dates and provides the following information:

• Earnings Code
• Hours
• Earnings
• Compensation Rate Paid
• Job Code

The query name is UM_PY_HEALTH_RETRO and can be sorted by RRC, Department, ZDeptID, or Employee ID.

Holiday Schedule

Payroll Close Schedule for the Last Week of December: Please keep in mind that Monday, December 25; Tuesday, December 26; and Monday, January 1, are University holidays this year. This will affect the payroll close that takes place during the final week of the year. The following deadlines will be in effect for that week:

• The Wednesday, December 27, noon time and absence deadline and 4:30 p.m. job data entry deadline will not change.
• There will be a one-day close on Thursday, December 28, in order for printed checks to go in the mail on Friday, December 29. As a result payroll updates must be received by 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 28.

Though the week will be compressed on both ends, leaving all of us limited time to close payroll, we hope everyone will enjoy the extra time with friends and family.

The first payroll close in January will also be a one-day close on Thursday, January 11, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Data Update

AFSCME Health Care Unit Pay Increases Take Effect This Week: PeopleSoft records will be updated this week to reflect pay increases to AFSCME Health Care–represented employees as a result of the contract negotiations. Specific instructions for processing this year's annual increase will be sent in a separate communication.

System Improvements

Payroll Accounting Improvements Made to Retro Distributions: By recommendation of the Payroll Accounting Work Group, several changes have been made to improve the readability of the UM Retro Review/Approval page:

1. The transactions are now summarized by default. The reviewer/approver will be able to easily see where the overall earnings started, where they went, and the specific pay begin/end dates for each earnings row.
2. Users will still have the option to switch to a detailed view, if desired. The ordering on this page has also been improved to make the transactions easier to follow.
3. A View Retro Entry link has been added. The link displays a pop-up window that replicates the look and feel of the retro when it was entered by the preparer.
4. Credit Total and Debit Total have been added to the bottom of the page.

Resources

New Absence Decision Tool Now Available: Training Services recently released a new tool to support unit absence administrators. You can find the Absence Decision Tool on the HRMS Instruction materials and tools list here: https://hrms.umn.edu/z-lists/z-materialstools.

The tool asks users a series of questions that guide them to a result showing the steps they should take to correctly process an absence request. The tool simplifies a complex set of factors and leads you to the right solution to avoid absence problems. Try it out!

Resources

Queries and Reports of the Week:

Foreign National Expiring Report
Use this report to monitor the visa expiration dates of employees in your department. Navigate to the Reporting Center > Reports Run for Me > PY FN EXP WARN RPT or "Foreign National Expiring Report." When you open the .pdf document you'll see that the report is sorted by Department ID and lists upcoming or recent visa status expirations that, if not extended or renewed, will prevent the employee from working beyond the expiration date.

The report is run each pay period. This is the only notice Payroll Services provides. Payroll does not send expiration notices to employees on the list.

Absence Events for a DeptID Query
This query lets you monitor absence requests that still require action. Navigate to the Reporting Center > Human Resource Management > Pay/Time Queries > Absence Events for a DeptID. A few tips:

• Extend the Beginning Date to view potential late entries
• Download the results into Excel to sort and view "Take Description," "Reason Description," and "Approval Status"
• View the number of hours used for incorrect entries of time

Meetings

HRMS Advisory Group to Meet November 20: The next HRMS Advisory Group meeting will be held on Monday, November 20, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. in the Donhowe Building, Room 210. If you are interested in joining the HRMS Advisory Group, please send an email to PhilKlein ( klein974@umn.edu) to be added to the Advisory membership.

News

OHR Joins University-Wide Data Management Project: The Office of Human Resources and OIT recently kicked off the first HR-focused project of the University-wide Enterprise Data Management and Reporting initiative, which is developing an analytics data warehouse to make the University's huge stores of data more accessible and useful. The project team is working on the Position, Job, & Compensation (PJC) subject area. PJC includes core employee and job information, which can help units across the University better understand their workforce. As part of this effort, the team is forming a PJC advisory group to provide feedback on what reporting and analysis needs exist and how the reports and dashboards being created can best meet those needs. If you are interested inparticipating in the PJC advisory group, please email Phil Klein at klein974@umn.edu.

Holiday Schedule

Payroll Close Schedule for the Last Week of December: Please keep in mind that Monday, December 25; Tuesday, December 26; and Monday, January 1, are University holidays this year. This will affect the payroll close that takes place during the final week of the year. Please keep in mind the following deadlines:

• The Wednesday, December 27 noon time and absence deadline and 4:30 p.m. job data entry deadline will not change.
• There will be a one-day close on Thursday, December 28, in order for printed checks to go in the mail on Friday, December 29. As a result payroll updates must be received by 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 28.

Though the week will be compressed on both ends, leaving all of us limited time to close payroll, we hope everyone will enjoy the extra time with friends and family.

Year-End Close

Query of the Week: As we approach the year-end payroll close, two queries can be especially valuable in making sure your data are complete:

• Emp - Missing SSN
• Emp - Missing Home Address

These queries audit your ZDeptID for missing Social Security numbers and home addresses for employees and POIs. Both of these values are required for a successful payroll year-end close. To find the queries, in MyU navigate to: Key Links > Reporting Center > HR Queries.

Update

Update on Outstanding Time and Absence Requests: Thanks to everyone who responded to our request to resolve outstanding time and absence requests. As we announced in a recent update, Payroll Services is working on resolving the remaining requests throughout November. Outstanding time has been approved and will be paid out on the November 22 payday. You will see these payments reflected on your Payroll Pre-Confirmation Report. We plan to address unresolved absence requests during the 11/27–12/1 payroll close week.

New Procedure

Change in Garnishment Processing: Starting November 6, employee garnishments, including child support, tax levies, and third-party judgments, will be administered by third-party vendor ADP.

We've decided to work with an outside vendor to better ensure our compliance with the increasingly complex laws on wage garnishment. It will also help us manage the increasing volume of garnishments. As a bonus, ADP provides a dedicated call center and a website where garnishees can track details of their garnishment online, improving transparency and access to information.

Payroll Services will communicate directly with employees who have garnishments today (November 6). We'll provide materials on how to contact ADP with questions and how to access ADP resources. ADP will handle all garnishment questions. The OHR Contact Center will redirect employees with garnishment questions to ADP's call center.

Update

Proposed Absence Management Change Postponed: In an Operations update a couple of weeks ago, we mentioned that Payroll Services is working with units to resolve a backlog of time and absence requests that are still pending approval, and that Payroll would be centrally mass-approving time that is still in Needs Approval status. We also mentioned that, as one step in preventing future backlogs, starting November 13 "employees and supervisors will no longer be able to select the Excused Paid and Excused Unpaid options in Absence Management."

After some internal discussions in Operations and some comments from units, we have decided to delay removing the Excused Paid and Excused Unpaid options while we solicit more feedback. For the time being, then, all users will still have access to those options. As we continue to study the issue, if you have opinions about how to ensure more reliability in approving time and absences, please contact your unit time administrator, who we ask to pass those comments along to Payroll Services.

Job Data

Reminder on Future-Dated Benefits Row: Please do not delete the 1/1/18 Data Change/Benefits Use Only row unless the employee is terminating before 1/1/18. If a job data row needs to be entered before 1/1/18, please submit an HRMS correction.

Meeting

Payroll Forum Tuesday, November 7: The next quarterly Payroll Forum takes place Tuesday, November 7, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Room 50B. WebEx will be available for those who can't attend in person. If you have a question you'd like addressed at the meeting, please send it to HeatherKidd at kidd0029@umn.edu. The Payroll Services team looks forward to seeing you!

Tax Reminder

Foreign National Employees Should Turn In Tax Treaty Forms by December 1: Foreign national employees eligible for 2018 tax treaty benefits will soon receive an email reminding them to complete 2018 tax treaty documents by December 1. Tax treaty documents must be completed each calendar year, and forms received by December 1 will be processed for the first payroll of 2018. Foreign national employees can mail their completed tax treaty documents to Payroll or make an appointment to complete their documents by calling 612-624-8647 to schedule a visit to the West Bank Office Building Foreign National Services Desk.

New Procedure

Change in Garnishment Processing: Starting November 6, employee garnishments, including child support, tax levies, and third-party judgments, will shift to being administered by third-party vendor ADP.

We've decided to work with an outside vendor to better ensure our compliance with the increasingly complex laws on wage garnishment. It will also help us manage the increasing volume of garnishments. As a bonus, ADP provides a dedicated call center and a website where garnishees can track details of their garnishment online, improving transparency and access to information.

Payroll Services will communicate directly with employees who have garnishments on Monday, November 6. We'll provide materials on how to contact ADP with questions and how to access ADP resources. ADP will handle all garnishment questions. The OHR Contact Center will redirect employees with garnishment questions to ADP's call center.

Update

Payroll Forms Project Update: To update you on the Payroll Forms project: HRMS and Payroll Services are completing testing on the Online Payroll Update/Off-Cycle forms. We had initially planned to roll out these new online forms in November, but that has been delayed due to this fall's system outages and the need to prioritize the image upgrade and garnishment outsourcing. We will roll out the online forms to a pilot group in November and will set a date for University-wide rollout after the pilot. Stay tuned for more information.

Resources

New Report Shows AFSCME Health Care Career Bonuses: Departments now have a report to help them monitor career bonus payments for AFSCME Health Care based on hours worked. The report will run for every Monday of payroll on week and will be published in the "Reports Run for Me" section. Users might need to filter the Reporting Center for "UMHRAE008" or "UM AFSCME Healthcare Career Bonus" to access the report. Units should use the report to enter CRBs due for the current and next pay period.

Data Entry

Future-Dated Benefits Row Added: During this week, a 1/1/18 Data Change/Benefits Use Only row will be inserted into some employee records for Open Enrollment processing. Please do not delete this row unless the employee is terminating before 1/1/18.

News

Payroll Services Working with Units to Resolve Outstanding Time and Absence Requests: Payroll Services is working on resolving reported time and absences from previous pay periods that remain in a Needs Approval status. Payroll recently sent spreadsheets to unit time and absence administrators showing their unit's unresolved time and absence requests. We've asked units to resolve the requests by Wednesday, October 25. After that date, open requests will be resolved by centrally.

To avoid accumulating absences in a Needs Approval status, Payroll will be taking two steps. First, as of the Monday, November 13, employees and supervisors will no longer be able to select the Excused Paid and Excused Unpaid options in Absence Management. These will remain accessible to unit absence administrators. Second, each quarter we will centrally resolve absences in a Needs Approval status from the previous quarter.

We'd like to encourage our unit payroll counterparts to continue resolving outstanding issues. Contact Payroll Services Director Heather Kidd if you'd like help developing a time and absence validation plan, or review the job aid Queries and Reports for Time and Absence.

Reminder

Be Sure to Check Accuracy of Position Data: When assigning a position to an employee and when approving positions, it is very important to check that the salary admin plan and grade have been updated and are accurate. We recently found about 1,800 positions in PeopleSoft with an incorrect salary admin plan or grade. We are now correcting the information, but please be sure to double-check these two data elements when assigning or approving positions. For more information, refer to the job aids "Position Management Approval" and "Updating Existing Positions."

Training

Upcoming Workshops on HRMS Reports and Queries: If you have staff who are unfamiliar with HRMS reports and queries, be sure to tell them about our HRMS Reporting Workshops in October, November, and December. Each class offers an overview of HRMS reports and queries and covers all modules. The workshop also includes a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables for those who want to build their own queries. Each session covers the same material, and we have both classroom and WebEx workshops available. Here are the dates:

Wednesday, October 11: 8:30–11:30 a.m. Room 543, West Bank Office Building
Thursday, November 9: 1:00–4:00 p.m., WebEx
Friday, December 15: 8:30–11:30 a.m., WebEx

To attend, sign in to ULearn and search "HRMS Reporting Workshop."

Reminder

Things to Keep in Mind for a Smooth Payroll Close: Along with a high volume of transactions, the beginning of the fall term always brings a higher volume of pay errors. We'd like to remind you about the following best practices that will help avoid payroll errors.

• Please check your Payroll Pre-Confirmation Report before sending in a Payroll Update to be sure the error you are anticipating actually happened.
• If you send in Payroll Updates, keep in mind that we're working on them through late Friday afternoon on a high-volume payroll close. If youdon't see that your update has been processed, please be patient. Please do not resend the forms! Run your Payroll Pre-Confirmation Report again later in the day to check again.
• Make sure schedules are appropriately assigned for new employees.
• For employees new to reporting time or absences, please show them the online training resources linked through MyU.
• Audit Additional Pay records for your employees to ensure summer pay is stopped.
• If you are sending in a Payroll Update to correct a timesheet, please be sure the correction has been made and approved on the timesheet before you send it in.

Reminder

Ending Summer Appointments: All summer appointments should be terminated and end dates for SSS and SMR earnings on Additional Pay should be entered.

New Procedure

Change to Overpayment Earnings Code: The way earnings codes are used in the overpayment process is changing. We will no longer use REP (Repayment) to collect overpayments. Instead, overpayments are being processed by reducing hours or earnings under the Earnings Code in which the overpayment originally occurred.

For example, if an employee was overpaid 8 hours REG, the repayment will be reflected by -8.00 of REG on the employee's pay statement rather than 8.00 hours of REP.

The change was made to ensure the employee's benefit accruals such as vacation, sick time, and retirement contributions are adjusted appropriately without manual intervention.

Update

Expected Job End Date for Graduate Assistant Appointments: The Graduate Tuition Benefit program has been updated, so the Expected Job End Date does not need to be extended by one day. Please enter the actual end date of the semester in the Expected Job End Date field. This field will be centrally audited and updated with the following dates:

12/28/17 to 12/27/17
1/4/18 to 1/3/18
1/11/18 to 1/10/18

5/14/18 to 5/13/18
5/21/18 to 5/20/18
5/28/18 to 5/27/18

System Improvement

Career Website Enhanced With Added Experience Filter: In response to usability testing, a new feature has been added to the University's job search site that allows applicants to search by experience level. The Experience Level search corresponds to the Highest Education Level field used when posting jobs. When units create a new job opening, they are now required to populate the Highest Education Level field found in the new Qualification Level tab in Recruiting Solutions. The "Create and Post a Job Opening" job aid has been updated to reflect this change (it's also available on the Recently Updated page of the HRMS Instruction website). Only new and cloned job openings will require the new Highest Education Level field; you do not need to edit openings already posted.

System Improvement

Employees Can Now Cancel Absence Requests: The PeopleSoft Tools update that took place over the weekend included a great new improvement in Absence Management: Employees can now cancel a vacation, personal holiday, or comp time absence request themselves. To do so, the absence request must be in a Saved, Submitted, Approved, or Pushed Back status. Until now, employees and supervisors would need to go to their unit absence administrator to cancel an absence. The cancellation of an absence will be routed to the employee's supervisor for approval.

Training

Upcoming Workshops on HRMS Reports and Queries: If you have staff who are unfamiliar with HRMS reports and queries, be sure to tell them about our HRMS Reporting Workshops in August and September. Each class offers an overview of HRMS reports and queries and covers all modules. The workshop also include a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables for those who want to build their own queries. Each session covers the same material, and we have both classroom and WebEx workshops available. Here are the dates:

Tuesday, August 8: 1:00-4:00 p.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
Tuesday, August 15: 1:00-4:00 p.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
Thursday, August 17: 1:00-4:00 p.m., WebEx
Wednesday, September 13: 8:30-11:30 a.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
Thursday, September 21: 8:30-11:30 a.m., WebEx

To attend, sign in to ULearn and search "HRMS Reporting Workshop."

System Update

PeopleSoft Unavailable Overnight Saturday and Sunday: The HR PeopleSoft system will be unavailable Saturday night through Sunday morning due to scheduled software updates. From Saturday, July 29, at 6:00 p.m. through Sunday, July 30, at noon, users will not have access to PeopleSoft HRMS applications. That includes:

• The MyU self-service tabs My Time, My Pay, My Benefits, Manager Info, and My Info
• HRMS-related queries in the Reporting Center
• the job search site

Personalized Pages in PeopleSoft: In the HR PeopleSoft system, users can personalize some of the pages to change the way information is displayed, including sort order and hiding columns. With the update, many of the personalizations will be reset on pages that Oracle has changed. As a result, users may see minor changes such as sort order or rearranged columns and will need to re-create their personalizations if they choose. One exception is the Manage Job Openingspage, which will retain personalization. The page is found by going to Main Menu > Recruiting > Search Job Openings and clicking on a job opening link in the search results.

News

One-Day Payroll Close Thursday: There will be a one-day payroll close on Thursday due to the PeopleSoft update over the weekend. The deadline for sending in Payroll Updates will be Thursday at 1:00 p.m. The Wednesday time and absence and job data deadlines will not change.

System Update

PeopleSoft Update Will Bring System Improvements: While the PeopleSoft update occurring this weekend will bring largely behind-the-scenes changes to the system, it will also add a few improvements that some users will notice:

Position Data—Update Incumbents: Currently, when entering a new position, users get an error message if the Update Incumbents field is checked, which prevents them from continuing with the new position. With the update, if Update Incumbents is checked, users will get a warning message, which they can bypass if they choose.

Smart Hires—National ID: Before the update, searches would not always find a National ID, even though it was in the system. The update will add an enhanced search engine that will return better results for National ID.

Smart Hires—Blank Values: Previously when using a Smart Hires template to hire student or temp/casual employees, the system would automatically fill in some fields that were left blank. With the update, blank fields on the template will remain blank.

Training

Payroll Forum Coming Up August 1: The next quarterly Payroll Forum will take place Tuesday, August 1, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Room 50B. The meeting will also be available via WebEx; we will send details on how to attend online before the meeting. The focus of the meeting will be I-9 employment eligibility verification and other concerns related to foreign national employees, though we will leave time to address other payroll topics as well. If you have a suggestion for an agenda item, please send itto Heather Kidd at kidd0029@umn.edu.

News

Departments No Longer Need to Complete Paper MSRS Enrollment Forms: Total Compensation has been working with the Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS) and our HRMS team to automate the enrollment information sent to MSRS each pay period. Until now, employees have had to complete paper enrollment forms when they became eligible for MSRS. However, because the information required by MSRS is housed in our HRMS system, we have modified the biweekly data file to include this information. As a result, departments and new employees no longer have to complete the paper MSRS enrollment forms.

News

Positions Updated This Week: The programs to freeze or inactivate positions has been run for over 1,300 positions. Positions that haven't had an active incumbent in job data or additional pay for one year (and that aren't a current job opening) had the Position Status field changed from Approved to Frozen.

News

Positions Being Updated This Week: The programs to freeze or inactivate positions will be run by the end of this week. Positions that haven't had an active incumbent in job data or additional pay for one year (and that aren't a current job opening) will have the Position Status field changed from Approved to Frozen. The Status field will change from active to inactive.

Positions with a Position Status of Frozen for one year will be changed to Inactive. The Status field remains as Inactive.

News

Temporary Services for Clerical, Financial, and Legal Work: Every five years the University competitively bids its agreements for temporary staffing services. As a result of the most recent bidding process, the University has signed agreements with two temp services to provide clerical, financial, and legal help, effective July 1:

• Russell Tobin & Associates: Russell Tobin is a targeted business, and the U is pleased to begin a new partnership with them.
• Kelly Services: Kelly has been a trusted U contractor for five years.

The University no longer has an agreement with Adecco. Departments with a current placement from Adecco may continue to use that resource until the end of the existing purchase order.

If you need temporary services, please use one of these two providers. Both Kelly Services and Russell Tobin offer contracted rates. (Keep in mind that all legal work should be coordinated with the Office of the General Counsel.)

For staffing issues or questions, please contact 612-624-UOHR or ohr@umn.edu. For information about the U-Wide agreements or creating requisitions for this work, please contact 612-624-1617 or controller@umn.edu.

Training

Workshops on HRMS Reports and Queries Set Through September: If you have staff who are unfamiliar with HRMS reports and queries, be sure to tell them about our HRMS Reporting Workshops in August and September. Each class offers an overview of HRMS reports and queries and covers all modules. The workshop also includes a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables for those who want to build their own queries. Each session covers the same material, and we have both classroom and WebEx workshops available. Here are the dates:

• Tuesday, August 8: 1:00-4:00 p.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
• Tuesday, August 15: 1:00-4:00 p.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
• Thursday, August 17: 1:00-4:00 p.m., WebEx
• Wednesday, September 13: 8:30-11:30 a.m., Room 543, West Bank Office Building
• Thursday, September 21: 8:30-11:30 a.m., WebEx

To attend, sign in to ULearn and search "HRMS Reporting Workshop."

Reports

Accessing PeopleSoft Queries: As a best practice, we encourage units to access PeopleSoft queries from the Reporting Center instead of Query Viewer. Several public queries in Query Viewer are outdated and incorrect. PeopleSoft Query Viewer will still be available, but be aware that queries not listed in the Reporting Center have not been validated for accuracy and are not supported by OHR Operations.

News

Instructions for Merit Increases: Recently the Board of Regents approved the proposed 2% merit increase fund for fiscal year 2018. All increases should be entered in the system by Wednesday, June 28. To help with that process, we've created a brief set of instructions with information on:

• How to enter merit increases
• Effective dates for entry
• How to provide increases to employees above or below their salary range
• What to do with employees on unpaid leaves

Holiday Reminder

One-Day Payroll Close June 29: There will be a one-day payroll close on Thursday, June 29, due to the banking and mail holiday on Tuesday, July 4. The deadline for sending in Payroll Updates will be Thursday, June 29, at 1:00 p.m. The Wednesday, June 28, time and absence and job data deadlines will not change.

We will do our best to accommodate Payroll Updates for merit increases that were not able to be entered by the job data deadline of 4:30 on Wednesday, June 28. Due to the limited timeframe, however, we will need to prioritize other Payroll Updates and process late merit increases as we are able.

System Improvement

Fiscal Year End: Sponsored Payroll Encumbering: In past years, on the last pay date of the fiscal year, all payroll encumbering was suspended until the start of the new year on July 1. We do this to facilitate the closing of the fiscal year for non-sponsored chartstrings, but it results in a short gap in which users can't see sponsored payroll encumbering data on financial reports.

As recommended by the Payroll Accounting work group, enhancements have been made that will allow sponsored payroll encumbrances to continue during this period. On June 21, only non-sponsored and cost-share payroll encumbrances will be zeroed out. Payroll encumbrances for sponsored chartstrings will continue to be available on reports throughout the fiscal year transition. All non-sponsored and cost-share payroll encumbering will resume on July 1.

Reminder: No daily payroll encumbrance adjustments will be available between June 21 and July 7.

System Improvement

Changes to Undergraduate Fringe Charges: Currently, an employee's primary job determines whether they are eligible for fringe charges. While undergraduate job records are not typically assessed fringe, it can still occur if an undergrad employee has a primary job record that is fringe-eligible. As recommended by the Payroll Accounting work group, we have made changes in the system to ensure no fringe is charged to a job record with an employee class of UND, regardless of primary job setting. The change will begin with the first pay period in fiscal year 2018 (pay end date 06/25/17).

Reminder

2017 Personal Holiday Expires June 30: Employees eligible for a personal holiday can use their FY 2017 accrual until June 30. Personal holiday accruals do not carry over to the new fiscal year.

FY 2018 personal holidays will accrue on July 1. The Absence Management system won't accept an absence request for the FY18 personal holiday until it accrues. As a result, employees who want to use their personal holiday right away in July should discuss that with their supervisor and then submit the request to the system after it has accrued on July 1.

Training

Workshop on HRMS Reports and Queries Set for July 11 and 20: If you have staff who are unfamiliar with HRMS reports and queries, be sure to tell them about two upcoming "HRMS Reporting Workshops." The class offers an overview of HRMS reports and queries and will cover all modules. It will also include a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables for those who want to build their own queries. The instructor-led session will be held on Tuesday, July 11, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. in Room 543 of the West Bank Office Building.

The webinar version of the course will be held via WebEx on Thursday, July 20, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. This session is limited to 10 people. 

To attend, sign in to ULearn and search "HRMS Reporting Workshop."

News

Payroll Accounting Distributions for FY 2018: On Sunday,June 11, Accounting Services completed the payroll accounting distribution roll for fiscal year 2018. All current and future-dated payroll accounting distributions were automatically copied forward into the new 2018 entry and are now available for review.

Reminder: If any distribution changes are needed for the 26th pay period that should also apply to the first pay period in 2018, distribution changes must be made in both 2017 and 2018.

Reminder

Remember to Enter Valid Terminal Degree Dates in PeopleSoft: We'd like to remind units how important it is to include the correct terminal degree for faculty members. In many cases the data seem to be incorrect or missing. Please refer to section 5 of the Appointment Entry: New Hire Checklist job aid for instructions on how to enter terminal degree information, which is important for many reasons, including 1) producing data used in the uniform faculty salary equity review process, and 2) complying with the Higher Learning Commission's increased scrutiny of faculty credentialing.

You can also run a report to find records with missing degrees for your unit. In the Reporting Center, look for the query Empl - Missing Degree Info. The report lists active employees whose employee class requires a degree but the degree information is missing. The query is also listed in the new job aid Queries and Reports for Appointment Entry.

Training

Payroll Forum Webinar Now Online: We had a good turnout at last week's Payroll Forum, with more than 50 people in the room and another 55 online. If you missed the forum, or want to refresh your memory on key topics, the webinar is now available online. You'll find the link on the OHR website's Payroll Administration page, under More Resources. You can also view or make a copy of just the PowerPoint presentation from the meeting.

Reporting

Automated Step Increases Now Available for AFSCME Health Care: Entering step increases just got a little easier for bargaining unit 4, the AFSCME Health Care Unit. A new system enhancement allows HRMS users to run automated increases. The report is called UM Step Increases and can be found in the Reporting Center via this path: Reporting Center > Reports Run for Me > HRMS Reports. The report can also be found in the Reporting Center by searching for "UMHRAE002."

Here are more details:

• The program can be run in report-only mode or update mode. In update mode it will apply increases to Job Data. 
• It will be set up on an automatic schedule to run on the 15th of every month. It will look for records with an eligible progression anniversary date for the following month.
• The first report run will be scheduled for June 15, which will produce data increase information for July eligible step increases.
• The report and update processes cannot be run for past dates, so June increases will have to be entered manually, as they have been, by Central OHR.
• By running the report-only option the unit can identify eligible records so they can notify the employee of their pending increase. (By request of units, unlike the clerical program this group option does not send automatic emails to the employee.)
• Corrections can be made if a record is found on the unprocessed/error portion of the report.
• Note: Units or the Workforce Data Management team will need to review the error report.

Training

Reminder: Next Payroll Forum Set for May 25: The next quarterly Payroll Forum will be held a week from Thursday, on May 25, from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. If you have a suggestion for an agenda item, please send it to Heather Kidd at kidd0029@umn.edu. The remaining meetings for 2017 have also been scheduled. They'll take place from 10:00 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, August 1, and Tuesday, November 7.

System Improvement

Job Search Site Is Adding an Education Filter : As a result of usability testing on the job search site, we are adding an education filter on the job search web page. The new filter will allow applicants to search for jobs by entry, intermediate, and advanced education levels.

Beginning in early June, unit recruiters will designate the education level of a position before posting a job opening, which will allow the job opening to appear in the filter for applicants. We are updating training and job aids to reflect this addition and will share them with you soon.

System Improvements

Several Changes Installed to Improve Position Management, Payroll Accounting:

• Budgeted Position field for student positions: Student and temp/casual positions no longer require the Budgeted Position field to be checked in Position Management. The Add/Update Position Information page will now have Budgeted Position unchecked for job codes 2xxx, 95xx, 0001, 0003, 0007, or 0011, which are not considered for position budgeting in Finance. This field does not impact the encumbrance calculation. We have centrally updated these positions.
• Fixes to payroll encumbering—additional pay proration and leave of absence: Corrections were made to the payroll encumbrance process to more closely align with payroll actuals processing of additional pay and leaves of absence (including sabbaticals): 
  • Additional pay will now be prorated when an appointment ends or begins in the middle of a pay period.  
  • We will no longer prorate for employees whose additional pay ends or begins in the middle of a pay period but their appointment does not. 
  • Use of unpaid earn codes like TUP and SLU in additional pay will now reduce encumbrances.
  • Leaves of absence activity entered in Absence Management will now be considered (including sabbaticals). 
  • Unpaid leave activity will reduce REG earnings.
  • All full or partially paid leave activity will be reflected using the LVL or LVP earnings code rather than REG. 
• Ability to delete direct retros after submission on the Review/Approval page: Retros can now be deleted after submission as long as no workflow action or system processing has occurred. A delete button is now displayed on the UM Retro Distribution Review/Approval page.
  • A direct retro can only be deleted by the person who submitted it.
  • Auto-approved retros can only be deleted before system processing. 
  • Retros pending CA or effort approval cannot be deleted once an approver has completed a workflow action (approve or deny).  
  • Retros with a status of complete cannot be deleted.

Reminder: Processing of direct retros in an approved status now occurs twice a day, at 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.  

• Unsubmitted direct retros no longer available on the Review/Approval page: Previously, if a retro preparer failed to submit a direct retro, the retro ID was still returned in the search results on the UM Retro Distribution Review/Approval page. This caused confusion when viewing the direct retro, as all accounting detail was highlighted yellow due to the missing information. Now when searching on the Review/Approval page, the unsubmitted direct retro will no longer appear in the search results or will display a No Results Found message. Preparers will need to return to the UM Retro Distribution Entry page and submit the direct retro.

Training

Workshop on HRMS Reports and Queries Set for April 25 and 27: If you have staff who are unfamiliar with HRMS reports and queries, they can attend an upcoming HRMS Reporting Workshop. The instructor-led class will offer an overview of HRMS reports and queries and will cover all modules. It will also include a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables for those who want to build their own queries. The sessions will be in Room 543 of the West Bank Office Building on:

Tuesday, April 25: 8:30–11:30 a.m.
Tuesday, April 25: 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 27: 8:30–11:30 a.m.
Thursday, April 27: 1:00–4:00 p.m.

To attend, sign in to ULearn and search "HRMS Reporting Workshop."

System Improvement

Introducing Midday Direct Retro Processing: As a result of feedback from the user community, we will now be processing a midday run of direct retros Monday through Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., beginning today.

All direct retros eligible for the midday processing must be approved before 11:00 a.m. Any direct retros approved after that time will be processed in the nightly batch starting at 5:00 p.m.

Please note that although the direct retros will be processed midday in HRMS, they will not be available on UM Reports until the following day.

Training

Summer Appointments Instructions Enhanced: As a result of the 2017 summer appointments forum held April 4, we have made some enhancements to the instructional materials. Highlights of the enhancements involved additional pay and graduate assistance information. To view the newly published materials, visit the A-Z Material List web page and click on Summer Teaching and Research Appointments (Includes May Sessions)—2017 Reference Manual.

Reminder

Reconciling Past 'Needs Approval' Time: Payroll Services has reached out to many of you to review time from past pay periods that remains in a "Needs Approval" status. Thanks for taking the time to review that data and respond to us. We'll be processing the corrections you've sent back to us over the next two to three pay periods.  

We also want to share a couple of best practices that will help you to monitor time in previous pay periods that remains unapproved.

1. On the Timesheet Summary page, when pulling up employees' time, supervisors and Unit Time Administrators should always select All Time Before in the View By field. That will display all reported time that needs attention, not just time in the current pay period.  
2. Use the Time and Labor queries noted below that have just been moved to the Reporting Center. In particular, the "Time—Needs Approval by ZDeptID or College" query allows you to pull approval status for your college or ZDeptID for a selected date range.

Beginning with the pay period ending 4/16/17, we will mass-approve the two most recent pay periods rather than just the single most recent. That will avoid building such a backlog of reported time in Needs Approval status.

Resources

14 New Queries Now Available in Reporting Center: To help HRMS users find information faster and easier, Operations has added several frequently used queries and reports to the Reporting Center:

Additional Pay Audit: Shows PeopleSoft users who have updated the Additional Pay record for a given EmplID

Additional Pay for Active Employees: Lists all active additional pay for active employees in the selected DeptID or ZDeptID

Employees/Positions Who Report to Vacant Positions: Shows Employees/Positions who report to vacant positions for the selected ZDeptID

Employees Who Report to This Position/EmplID: Shows employees who report to provided EmplID or position number

Expected Return Date Audit: Audits employees with expected return dates in next 30 days

Absence Leave Entry (Pre-Upgrade): Shows leaves taken for a given employee in the 8.9 system; from 12/29/13 through 04/05/15

Time—Compare Schedule to Std Hours by DeptID: Shows time and labor schedule and standard hours in job data for employees in a DeptID

Time—Missing Punches by Dept: Lists employees missing punch data

Time—Needs Approval by ZDeptID or College: Shows time that needs to be approved in prompted time range, and ZDeptID or College

Time Approval Status by Dept: Lists timesheet approval status by EmplID for timesheets between the dates prompted for a specific department

Time Reported by College: Shows the time reported by employees in the prompted college

Time Reported by ZDeptID: Shows the time reported by employees in the prompted ZDeptID

Time Reporter Schedules by DeptID: Lists employees’ workgroup and schedule information for employees in a specific department

Time Reporter Schedules by EmplID: Lists employees' workgroup and schedule information for up to three employees

Hiring

Transition for Hiring Finance Professionals Set to Begin This Week: As we mentioned last week, Talent Acquisition is streamlining the recruitment and application process for filling Finance Professional 1 and 2 positions. The new process will combine job openings from across the University into a single job posting, allowing applicants to submit one application for all positions.

We will begin transitioning to the single job posting this week, with an advertising "blast" starting on Friday. Here is a link to the ad copy, with the job opening ID. We encourage you to share this ad with your colleagues and networks.

Beginning this week, we will no longer post unit-specific job openings for Finance Professional 1 and 2 classifications. If you have an opening, it will be included in the University's single job opening.

If you have an existing job opening posted, it will be incorporated into the University posting on Friday. Please work with your unit or central recruiter to see the applications that come in from the advertising campaign.

More information on the new hiring process is coming soon, including:

• An email to all employees in the Finance job family about the change
• A web page on Finance Professional hiring
• Tools for hiring managers and HR staff about the revised process

Hiring

Hiring Entry-Level Finance Professionals Made More Efficient: As part of the Human Resource Continuous Improvement efforts, Talent Acquisition is streamlining the recruitment and application process for filling Finance Professional 1 and 2 positions. Set to begin at the end of March, the new process will combine job openings from across the University into a single job posting, allowing applicants to submit one application for all positions. 

The new approach has advantages for hiring managers too. Rather than each hiring unit posting, advertising, recruiting, and collecting applications for their specific openings, those processes will be handled centrally. Hiring managers can take advantage of a shared applicant pool and have access to candidates within two days of their request. The process will help retain top candidates who might have have been turned away once a particular job was filled. 

Some highlights from the project's implementation:

1. Information on these changes will be sent to all employees in the Finance Job Family before the program starts.
2. A web page is being created specifically to showcase finance professional positions.
3. We are working to produce a robust pool of well-qualified applicants. The University-wide job posting on the job search page will be accompanied by a variety of recruitment actions, communications, and advertising.
4. We are preparing detailed communications and tools for hiring managers and HR staff about the revised process. 
5. We will continue to work closely with a FinMAC subgroup and unit HR managers to ensure a smooth implementation.

Resources

Summer Hiring Packets Coming in April: With many units already thinking ahead to their summer hiring, Operations is putting together an updated information packet on teaching and research appointments for summer session. Due out in early April, the packet will offer tips, general guidance, and step-by-step instructions on summer hiring procedures for teachers and researchers, including position management, appointment entry, action/reason codes, additional pay, and much more. We'll keep you posted as the packet nears completion.

New Procedures

Stop Pay Online Workflow Rolls Out Monday, March 13: Next Monday, March 13, Payroll's Stop Pay/Direct Deposit Return Request form will be replaced with the online workflow in PeopleSoft. Unit Security Contacts have given us user information for each area, and user access will be in place for Monday's rollout. The current link to the PDF form will be replaced with a link to the online workflow on the OHR website.

This online workflow will let users see the status of a stop pay or direct deposit return request online. It will also send email updates when a status changes. The workflow will aid users by validating the data needed to process a stop payment or direct deposit return.

If you are a new user and have questions about using the online workflow, the OHR Contact Center at 4-UOHR (612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363) will be able to help.

Training

First Payroll Forum Well Attended: Thanks to all who attended last week's Payroll Forum. There was a great turnout, with a good discussion and exchange of ideas. We look forward to future gatherings and will get the dates out to you soon. Here's a link to the presentation.

Communication

What Should Be on a Proposed OHR Operations Website? Tell Us in This Survey: OHR Operations is considering starting its own website where our HR unit customers could find the information you need to do to your jobs efficiently and effectively. The site would also offer news and updates on the work we're doing centrally to support your efforts. We're interested in your feedback on what you would like to see on an OHR Operations website. (OHR Operations is made up of HRMS, Payroll, the Contact Center, and Workforce Data Management.)

Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey on a new website. Thank you for your help in enhancing our communication tools!

System Improvement

Position Searches Made Easier : As a result of user feedback, you can now exclude "inactive" positions when you search for positions. Previously, the Add/Update Position Information page had options to search by Position Number, Description, Position Status, Business Unit, DeptID, or Job Code. We have now added another search parameter, Effective Status, that allows you to search on either active or inactive positions.

Issue Resolved

Units Can Once Again Edit Position Descriptions for All Reason Codes: Last month Operations temporarily suspended the ability of unit position managers to edit position descriptions because a system error didn't alert Compensation to review those changes for proper classification. The error has now been fixed. That means position managers can once again edit position descriptions for all reason codes. Compensation will be automatically notified for a quick review and approval. Thank you for your patience as we worked to correct the issue.

Training

New Job Aid on Entering Performance Reviews into HRMS: Many employees at the University take part in annual or probationary performance reviews. Once the reviews are complete, they should be entered into HRMS. A new job aid can walk you through the few simple steps for entering employee reviews in the system.

Update

Additional Summer Faculty Earn Code for Research: In response to requests from the Finance user community, we are providing an additional earnings code to help distinguish between research and instruction for summer earnings. Earnings code SSS is renamed to "Summer Session Instruction." The old earnings code SMR is active again and will be used for "Summer Session Research." These earnings codes are meant to be used only for summer session. More information about using these earnings codes will be included in the summer appointments instructional packet that will be distributed in the spring.

Update

Year-End Payroll Adjustments: As part of the normal year-end process, Payroll Services runs an abbreviated year-end, off-cycle payroll to make year-end adjustments and check adjustments or reversals that affect employees' 2016 year-to-date amounts. This payroll was run Monday, February 13. As a result, you may see an additional UM Payroll Verification Report for your department in the Reporting Center. (You won't see an additional report if no employees in your area had year-end adjustments.) These payroll entries will be posted with an accounting date of 02/15/17.

Communication

New Quarterly Payroll Forum Meetings: Payroll Services will begin hosting a quarterly meeting with unit payroll colleagues later this month to create a forum for discussing ideas, exchanging questions, and sharing best practices. The agenda will include topics specific to payroll, time and absence reporting, and employment eligibility compliance. We will share more information on the first agenda soon.

The meetings will be held on the following dates from 10:00 a.m. to noon at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Room 50B: 

• February 27
• May 8
• August 15
• November 7

Processes

Payroll's Stop Pay/Direct Deposit Return Form Will Be Going Electronic: The Payroll Services team is excited about a new innovation that will replace the Stop Pay/Direct Deposit Return Request form with an online work flow within PeopleSoft. This project is a collaborative effort between HRMS, OIT, the HRMS Advisory Group, and Payroll Services. The online work flow will roll out Monday, March 13.

This electronic form will provide users with the ability to view the status of a stop/return request online. It will also provide email updates when the status of a submission changes. The work flow will aid users by validating the data needed to process a stop payment or direct deposit return. An important step in rolling out the new work flows is to create a security role for users of these forms. We're reaching out to Unit Security Contacts to identify users in their area who will need access to this work flow.

We will share more information as we get closer to the implementation date. The next phase of this effort to move to online work flows will focus on the Off-cycle and Payroll Update request forms.

Data Security

System Best Practices for Sending Sensitive Files: In OHR we handle sensitive information all the time, which means we need to be extra careful when we send that information to others. Whenever we exchange a file with someone, the best practice is to put the file on a network drive and let the recipient access the file from the drive, rather than sending an email attachment. Email attachments are not secure, and you have no option to recall the email if you send it to the wrong person. Following this best practice is essential if the file contains sensitive data like social security numbers, payroll data, or personally identifiable information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and so on.

OHR has three storage drives you can use to send information:

• UMN Box Secure Storage: Use this for private, highly restricted data
• Shared drives and Google drive: Use these for private, restricted data and public data

If you're the sender:

1. Follow IT guidelines to determine which network drive best suits your needs.
2. Post the file on the drive.
3. Let your recipients know how to access the file.
4. Delete the file after the recipients have accessed the file.

If you're the recipient: If someone tells you they are sending you a file, tell them to use a drive. Feel free to share the instructions above with them.

Please contact Technology Help Service Desk if you need more information with the storage options.

Training

HRMS Workshop Teaches Ins and Outs of Reports and Queries: If you want to increase your understanding of HRMS reports and queries, register for the HRMS Reporting Workshop conducted by Training Services. All HRMS modules will be covered to give participants an idea of the helpful reporting tools available. Participants who are comfortable building their own queries will also get a high-level overview of the HR Data Warehouse tables (DWHR). Registrations are now being accepted via ULearn, and two spots remain for the interactive, instructor-led session, which will be held February 14 from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. Alternate session dates, including April 11, are also available in ULearn.

System Update

System Improvements Made to Payroll Accounting: As a result of feedback from the user community, a number of improvements have been made to the UM Retro Distribution Entry pages and the UM Inactive Combo Code Report. 

UM Retro Distribution Entry
These changes are meant to provide users with more information about the salary expenses they are moving, to clarify processes, and to prevent common processing errors at the point of entry.  

• After selecting Get Distributions on the Direct Retro Distribution page, the grid that displays will now show pay period range information for each employee record, earning codes, and combo code distribution line. New fields have been added to display first pay period begin date and number through last pay period begin date and number. This will make it easier to see which specific pay periods will be affected when adjusting a particular line.
• Pressing the Get Combo CD button on the Direct Retro Adjustment page will now function the same way it does on the Distribution Entry page. Previously, the Direct Retro Adjustment page presented a Multiple Combo Codes Found error in situations where the chartfields entered were correct but other optional chartfields existed. Now, chartfields with no value entered will be interpreted as a blank rather than a wildcard when retrieving the combination code.
• Users will now be prevented from entering a retro for a person whose corresponding job code, position, or department ID is inactive for the date range in question. The message will say "The line you have chosen has an inactive job code, position number and/or HR DeptID." Before proceeding, the underlying job code/position number/DeptID must be activated for the affected time period. Contact HR to resolve the issue, and then the retro can be entered normally.

UM Inactive Combo Codes Report
The goal of these changes is to ensure that the report returns results only if action is needed in distribution entry to prevent future payroll activity from distributing to the department's suspense chartstring (program 21853). The updated report is a useful tool to monitor invalid distribution data throughout the fiscal year, including the fiscal year–end transition. To access the report in HRMS, navigate to the UM Payroll Accounting folder and select UM Inactive Combo Codes Report.

This report is available to all users with the following roles: Distribution Entry, Retro Distribution Entry, and Certified Approver. As a reminder, users who do not perform one of these functions but still need to view Payroll Accounting data in HRMS may request the Payroll Accounting View role through the online ARF process. This view-only role allows users to see submitted retros, distribution information, the UM Invalid Combo Codes report, and various other payroll accounting informational pages.

Training

HRMS Workshop Teaches Ins and Outs of Reports and Queries: If you want to increase your understanding of HRMS reports and queries, register for the HRMS Reporting Workshop conducted by Training Services. All HRMS modules will be covered to give participants an idea of the helpful reporting tools available. Participants who are comfortable building their own queries will also get a high-level overview of the HR data Warehouse tables (DWHR). Registrations are now being accepted via ULearn for the interactive, instructor-led session, which will be held February 14 from 8:30 to 11:00 a.m. in Room 543 of the West Bank Office Building. Alternate session dates are also available in ULearn.

Reports

UM Reports Outdated Data: Some non-Finance UM Reports may have outdated data due to a failure with PeopleSoft source data over the weekend. Data loads that did not run on Monday will be executed on Tuesday morning. Please check the upper right corner of reports to verify the data as-of date.

Process Improvements

Improvements to Hiring Process Are Launched: The changes made to streamline the hiring process, from creating a position to posting a job opening, are now available to use. As a reminder:

1. Units are able to approve their own positions and postings. Unit position managers can now approve all positions, and unit recruiters can approve postings. Central OHR's role is in the Compensation Department’s review of classification and salary for certain positions described in #2 below.
2. Positions that need review by the Compensation Department. To make sure positions are classified correctly and at the appropriate salary level, the OHR Compensation Department will still review new positions and existing positions that have a significant change in job duties (more details will be coming soon) before a position or posting can be approved. The only exceptions are cloned positions of jobs that already exist. In those cases, no central OHR review is necessary.

The PeopleSoft HR system has been modified to reflect these changes. The training and job aids are updated and available for viewing through the HRMS Instruction web pages, including job aids on the Recently Updated Materials page. In addition, we will be hosting three training labs to help position managers and unit recruiters with the new process. These will be held in room 543 on the fifth floor of the West Bank Office Building:

• Tuesday, January 10, 1:00–4:00 p.m.
• Wednesday, January 11, 9:00 a.m.–noon
• Thursday, January 12, 9:00 a.m.–noon

All

Resources

Old Benefits Help Line Number Retired: As of January 3, the outdated Benefits phone number 4-9090 for University employees is retired. The Benefits team can still be reached at 4-UOHR (612-624-8647 or 800-756-2363), option 1.