HRMS Blog Archives

2017

May
April
March
February
January

2016

May 2017

Audience	Date	Message
Payroll / Appointment Entry	May 15, 2017	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.
Payroll	May 15, 2017	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.
Recruiting	May 9, 2107	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.

April 2017

Audience	Date	Message
Position Management, Payroll Accounting	April 24, 2017	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.
Reporting	April 17, 2017	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."
Payroll	April 17, 2017	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.
Appointment Entry	April 17, 2017	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.
Time & Absence	April 10, 2017	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. 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. 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.
Reporting	April 10, 2017	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

March 2017

Audience	Date	Message
All	March 20, 2017	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
All	March 13, 2017	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: Information on these changes will be sent to all employees in the Finance Job Family before the program starts. A web page is being created specifically to showcase finance professional positions. 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. We are preparing detailed communications and tools for hiring managers and HR staff about the revised process. We will continue to work closely with a FinMAC subgroup and unit HR managers to ensure a smooth implementation.
All	March 13, 2017	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.
Payroll	March 6, 2017	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.
Payroll	March 6, 2017	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.

February 2017

Audience	Date	Message
All	February 28, 2017	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!
Position Management	February 28, 2017	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.
Position Management	February 28, 2017	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.
Position Management	February 28, 2017	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.
Appointment Entry	February 14, 2017	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.
Payroll	February 14, 2017	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.
Payroll	February 14, 2017	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
Payroll	February 14, 2017	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.
All	February 6, 2017	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: Follow IT guidelines to determine which network drive best suits your needs. Post the file on the drive. Let your recipients know how to access the file. 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.
Reporting	February 6, 2017	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.

January 2017

Audience	Date	Message


Payroll Accounting	January 31, 2017	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.
Reporting	January 31, 2017	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.
All	January 9, 2017	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.
Hiring Managers/Unit Recruiters	January 4, 2017	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: 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. 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	January 4, 2017	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.

2016

December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May

December 2016

Audience

Date

Message

Hiring Managers/Unit Recruiters December 6, 2016
Process Improvements

Position and Posting Process Simplified: One comment we've often heard from units is that getting approval from central OHR for job positions and postings takes longer than it should. In response to your feedback and suggestions, OHR and several unit representatives came together for a series of activities to identify and eliminate wasted time and unnecessary steps when creating a position and posting a vacancy. The group came up with what we think are some significant improvements, which should make the hiring process much faster and easier. Beginning December 19:

Units will now be able to approve their own job positions and job postings. Unit position managers will be able to approve all job positions, and unit recruiters can approve job postings. Central OHR's only role will be Compensation Department reviews of certain positions (see below).

Fewer positions will need review by the Compensation Department. To make sure that positions are classified correctly and at the appropriate salary level, Compensation will still review new positions and existing positions that have a significant change in job duties (more details will be coming soon). Cloned positions of jobs that already exist will not need Compensation review.

The PeopleSoft HR system will be modified to reflect these changes and eliminate central OHR position review. New job aids will be coming soon.

More information about these changes is coming soon.

All
December 6, 2016
Staff

Training Services Joins OHR Operations: OHR Training Services will now report through OHR Operations. The move will better align services and support in OHR. Training Services will continue to focus on enterprise system and process training for unit HR and Finance professionals. Because of that connection to HRMS, Training Services employees who design that training will move to Operations: Carolie Carlson, Alison Friedow, Cathy Orlando, Lani Payette, Patty Samberg, and Dorene Yocum.

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November 2016

Audience

Date

Message

All November 15, 2016
Update

Progress on Complying With New Federal Overtime Rules: The Labor Department recently revised the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that salaried employees earn at least $913 a week ($47,476 a year) to remain exempt from overtime rules. (Some positions have lower thresholds depending on job duties.) As of yesterday, November 14, exempt University employees who do not meet those new salary thresholds are being moved to nonexempt (hourly), even though their work will not change, and they will need to begin tracking their overtime and other changes to their normal schedule. Here are a few updates on where we stand in that process.

Central Processing
Postdoc, nonexempt records updated. Salary adjustments for full-time postdoctoral associates have been centrally processed to bring their salaries to the new $47,476 threshold. We have also processed those employees who are moving from exempt to nonexempt.

Unit Processing
New job aid available. For units who are updating their position and appointment records to reflect the new federal overtime rules, a new job aid is now available. The job aid offers step-by-step instructions for salary adjustments to meet the new threshold or for updating position and appointment records to allow for overtime pay. (Remember that the thresholds for some positions are lower than $913 a week, depending on job duties. See the Exceptions to the $913/Week FLSA Threshold document for guidance.)

Future Processing
Template emails for notifying employees with changes to exempt status. To ensure continuing compliance with the new federal overtime regulations, HRMS will run an error report each pay period to search for employees whose salary falls above or below the new threshold for their position. The biweekly report will be available in the Reporting Center under Reports Run for Me. HR Leads will be responsible for reviewing the report every two weeks and notifying employees of any changes in their exempt status. To help with that process, we have linked to two template emails that HR Leads can send to employees who have a change in their exempt status. The first template lets employees know they are being moved from salaried to hourly (exempt to nonexempt) and tells them where to find training for submitting exception hourlytimesheets. The second template explains that their salary is now at or above the exemption threshold and they will no longer need to submit timesheets. We have also created a flow chart to show how the exempt status of employees will be tracked from now on. If you have questions about the templates or the notification process, please contact Mary Rohman Kuhl at maryrk@umn.edu.

Hiring Managers/ Payroll
November 15, 2016
Resources

Online Stop Report Available Thursday: At the beginning of September, Payroll Services began sharing the Stop Report the Monday following each pay period close. The report shows the employees with I-9 employment verification issues that Payroll Services researches as part of the payroll close process. The report helps departments determine why an employee may not have been paid as expected. We received some feedback asking us to make the report available to units on Thursday.

With this week's payroll close, I-9 administrators will now be able to view the Stop Pay Report live through Google Docs on Thursday. That means you can see the report as it is being researched and updated by Payroll Services. Please keep in mind that we can only pay employees who had their I-9 completed by the Wednesday following the end of the pay period. This is true because employees whose I-9s or jobs are entered the Thursday or Friday following the end of the pay period (payroll close week) will not be able to have their compliance verified before payroll close. The Payroll Services team is fully occupied during those two days with researching and correcting the records of those on the Stop Report whose I-9 compliance paperwork was in our office by Wednesday.

If you have a foreign national employee who is on the Stop Report and has not come to Payroll Services, please urge them to schedule an appointment, as they are beyond the three-day compliance window for I-9 verification. This will also help us process an off-cycle payment for them more quickly.

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October 2016

Audience

Date

Message

All October 17, 2016
PeopleSoft Update

PeopleSoft Update Released: A major PeopleSoft update was installed over the weekend. The project brings HRMS up to date with the latest PeopleSoft release, improving the system, adding new features, and fixing bugs.

A technical issue that prevented some external applicants and University students from accessing the recruiting system for a brief period has been resolved by OIT. The recruiting system is now operational.

As a reminder, users will see the following improvements in the recruiting system:

More focused job searches and cleaner search results for applicants

A new job search site just for students

Easier routing of job candidate applications and résumés

Many other enhancements to our hiring and recruiting process, time and absence management, and position and appointment entry

Some enhancements to the Recruiting Solutions job search module will need time to fully render in the system and may not take effect until Thursday.

Appointment Entry October 17, 2016
Reminder

Be Sure 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. The information is used for many purposes,including accreditation, and in many cases the data seems 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 this information.

Time and Absence October 17, 2016
Reminder

How to Enter Leaves for Voting and Election Judging: Civil leaves such as absences for voting, election judging, and so on should be recorded as Excused Paid absences when employees requesttime off in the My Time tab of MyU. You can find more information on civil leaves on the Voting & Election Judge Leave page of the OHR website.

Payroll October 4, 2016
Update

Change in Payroll Deadlines This Week: Payroll Services will carry out a one-day payroll close on Thursday, October 6, due to the bank and postal service holiday on Monday, October 10. The Wednesday, October 5, time and absence and job data deadlines will not change. However, the deadline for sending in Payroll Updates will be Thursday, October 6, at 2:00 p.m.

Appointment Entry October 4, 2016
Update

Technical Step Increases: The 10/1/16 Pay Rate Change/Step/Progression increase row has been inserted into Job Data for eligible employees. You can review two reports via this path: Reporting Center > Reports Run for Me > HRMS Reports:

UMHRAE002 - TECHNICAL STEP INCREASE.PDF (09/27/2016)

UMHRAE002 - TECHNICAL STEP INCREASE ERROR.PDF (09/27/2016)

All October 4, 2016
System Availability

PeopleSoft Update Set for October 15-16: As we mentioned last month, HRMS will be installing an important PeopleSoft update to improve the system, add new features, and fix bugs. The date has been set for the weekend of October 15 and 16. During the update, HRMS PeopleSoft will be unavailable from 6:00 p.m. Saturday through noon on Sunday. That includes the HR-related information in MyU such as My Time, My Pay, My Info, My Benefits, and Manager Info, along with HRMS-related queries in the Reporting Center. Please plan your work around those hours. Beginning this week we will let you know about some of the improvements you'll be seeing in Recruiting Solutions, position and appointment entry, time and absence management, and other areas. We will also remind you closer to the event about the system downtime.

All October 4, 2016
News

Follow-up to Last Week's Payroll Error: As some of you are aware, a payroll system error resulted in 225 employees not being processed on the September 28 payroll. We have communicated with each affected department and have distributed off-cycle checks to all the employees.

HRMS carried out a root-cause analysis of the issue and identified the source and a means to prevent it in the future. A sequence of events in the Benefits and Time and Labor modules triggered a previously unknown bug in the PeopleSoft system. We have established process rules to prevent triggering the bug going forward and a means to search for instances of the occurrence in the payroll close process. The bug has also been reported to PeopleSoft.

Thanks to many of you for reporting the issue to the OHR Operations Call Center and working with us to diagnose the problem. Please continue to bring this and other issues to our attention so they can be analyzed and addressed.

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September 2016

Audience

Date

Message

Appointment Entry September 26, 2016
Update

Important Information About Entering Future-Dated Addresses for New Hires: We have gotten several reports of critical errors caused by entering new hires with future-dated addresses. To correctly enter future-dated addresses when creating a new record:

Hire the person (enter only current-dated addresses).

Save the record.

Then go back into the record to add any future-dated addresses.

When an employee is hired into PeopleSoft with current and future effective-dated address rows, it causes problems in the automated process that synchronizes data with Finance and Campus. For the employee, that could mean:

They won't get automated security access

They will not have access to MyU

Their internet ID or email address won't be entered in PeopleSoft

The problem needs to be fixed manually in several areas of the system, which could take three days or more, so be sure to enter future-dated addresses correctly.

Time & Absence September 26, 2016
Reminder

Timesheet Tip: For employees with mid-period changes (hire, rehire, change between employee types, etc.), the Employee and Approver will need to change their timesheet view to be by "Day" instead of the default of "Week" in order to report and approve time during the period containing the change. If the timesheet is viewed by Week or Period, the timesheet appears locked.

All September 26, 2016
News

PeopleSoft 8.9 to Be Decommissioned September 30: After last year's Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, the Office of Information Technology announced that the old 8.9 system would be available to users in a read-only mode until the end of the 2016 fiscal year, after which it would be retired. That retirement date is now set for September 30, which means users will no longer have read-only access. You will, however, have access to historical job and additional pay information from the old 8.9 system through the Reporting Center, via the UM Report Employee Job History. In addition, much of the data from the 8.9 system has been archived in the legacy data warehouse, where it can be retrieved with various queries.

Payroll September 6, 2016
Schedule Change

Holiday Payroll Schedule This Week: As a reminder, because of the Labor Day holiday this week, the time and absence validation deadline is being pushed back on Wednesday from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing. The job data entry deadline on Wednesday will remain 4:30 p.m. The Payroll Update deadline on Friday will remain 10:00 a.m.

Appointment Entry September 6, 2016
Reminder

Appointment Entry Reminders for Fall: Nine- and 10-month contracts: The contracts and job data for 9- and 10-month appointments have been updated. You can find the contract renewal reports in the Reporting Center:

9-month: UM CONTRACT RENEWALS (08/27/2016)
10-month: UM CONTRACT RENEWALS (08/30/2016)

Ending summer appointments, returning fall appointments: Remember to terminate all summer appointments and enter Recall or Return from Short Work Break rows for fall appointments by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. You can use these queries in the Reporting Center:

Expected End Date Audit: UM_HR_EXPECTED_END_DT_AUDIT
Expected Return Date Audit: UM_HR_EXPECTED_RETURN_DT_AUDIT

Graduate assistant Expected Job End Date: The Expected Job End Date for graduate assistant appointments for fall semester has been centrally updated so that the tuition benefit will be applied correctly. The dates were changed as follows:

UMD: changed from 1/4/17 to 1/5/17
UMTC: changed from 1/11/17 to 1/12/17

Please enter the following Expected Job End Dates for appointments being set up or updated for only fall semester:

UMD: 1/5/17
UMTC: 1/12/17

Appointments for both fall and spring semesters should have these Expected Job End Dates:

UMD: 5/21/17
UMTC: 5/28/17

Payroll September 2, 2016
News

Labor Day Holiday Payroll Schedule: With the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 5, the time and absence validation deadline is being pushed back on Wednesday, September 7, from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing. The job data entry deadline on Wednesday, September 7, will remain 4:30 p.m. The Payroll Update deadline on Friday, September 9, will remain 10:00 a.m.

Hiring Managers, I-9 Administrators September 2, 2016
New Employees

Payroll Services Walk-in Hours: Foreign nationals can get personalized help with the I-9 process by visiting Payroll Services during our special walk-in hours: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from now through Friday, September 9. Payroll Services is on the fifth floor of the West Bank Office Building, 1300 South Second Street. (Regular appointments won't be made on those days.) Please remind new foreign national employees to bring these documents with them including:

Passport with visa

I-94

I-20 or DS2019

Social Security Number or receipt from Social Security

Offer letter (for correct start date)

Hiring Managers, I-9 Administrators September 2, 2016
New Employees

I-9 Administrator Resources: Last month we held a meeting for I-9 administrators on the verification process. You can listen to a recording of that meeting, which included discussion on:

The employment verification process

The laws and rules that govern employment eligibility

Tools you can use to track employee eligibility

These links will take you to several documents from that meeting, which you might also find helpful:

Employment verification presentation (pdf)

I-9 verification process (citizens and permanent residents) (pdf)

New foreign national employee onboarding steps (pdf)

Audience questions (pdf)

As always please contact Payroll Services at payroll@umn.edu if you have specific I-9 questions.

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August 2016

Audience

Date

Message

Hiring Managers August 22, 2016
Resources

I-9 Help Day Set for Tuesday, August 30: With fall semester approaching, our foreign national employees will soon be navigating the complexities of the I-9 process. Here are a few ways to make that process as smooth as possible:

Payroll Services will be holding its annual Foreign National I-9 Help Day on Tuesday, August 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hubert H Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Room 50B, on the West Bank.

Payroll is also offering walk-in service during business hours from August 31 through September 9 on the fifth floor of the West Bank Office Building, 1300 South Second Street.

If you weren't able to attend the I-9 administrators meeting last week, a recording is available on YouTube.

Payroll August 22, 2016
Data Entry

Correcting Duplicate Pay Components Rows in Job Data: When changing or updating pay components on the Job Data Compensation page, clicking the yellow Default Pay Components button may sometimes result in the system adding a duplicate pay component row under the original one.

The reason this happens is due to how the original row was added to the system. For example, it may occur if the row was automatically updated by a program instead of by regular data entry.

If this happens, you can correct it by simply deleting one of the duplicate pay component rows (preferably the topmost, older row) before saving, using the minus sign to the right. Then save the update as usual.

All August 22, 2016
Issues Resolved

Three System Fixes Made This Weekend: Three improvements to HRMS were made over the weekend:

Notice of Appointments: One fix corrected an issue with future Notice of Appointments, in which salary amounts could be overstated when an employee has more than one row in Job Data for the same future effective-dated row.

Accrual rates in MyU: Another fix corrected the problem in which the Accrual Rate and Vacation Accrual Years of Service fields in the My Time tab of MyU showed blanks when an employee had multiple appointment records in Job Data and the appointment with the highest employee record number was terminated.

PA Distribution Entry-Multiple Hire Dates Error: Previously, the UM Distribution Entry screen could not accommodate a job record with multiple hire dates (such as when an employee is rehired on an existing summer appointment). That has been fixed. Now the error message "The Distribution Effective Date cannot be before the Hire Date" will only be received if the distribution effective date is before the earliest hire date of the job record.

Appointment Entry August 15, 2016
Reminder

Tax Withholding on UNS Appointments No Longer Available: As a reminder to units that have fellowship recipients paid through Company UNS (University Non-Service): The University is no longer able to withhold income taxes from these payments. A good resource for fellowship recipients on the taxation of these fellowships can be found here on this University Tax Management Office web page.

Hiring Managers August 15, 2016
Onboarding

MyU Access for New Hires: As a reminder, newly hired employees have access to MyU beginning on their start date, but not before. New hires will be able to set up their direct deposit information, enroll in benefits, and other MyU tasks once they start work.

All August 1, 2016
Planning

Fall Planning Guide: To help you gear up for a new school year, OHR has updated its Fall Planning Guide for HR Leads and HRMS end users. The guide offers tips, reminders, and to-do lists to prepare for the fall semester. It covers each of the primary business processes: Position Management, Recruiting, Appointments, Benefits, Time and Absence, and Payroll Accounting. We hope you'll find this to be a useful checklist as we head into this busy time of year.

Appointment Entry August 1, 2016
Training

2 Job Aids Help With Retirement Processing: Entering retirement transactions for faculty and staff isn't an everyday procedure, and it can have critical implications for an employee's benefits and taxes. Two new or revised job aids can guide you through the process.

Hiring a Retiree is a new job aid that outlines the special appointment procedures for retired former employees returning to the University workforce.

The Phased Retirement job aid has been updated with new information on the sometimes complex process for faculty members taking advantage of the University's program of gradual retirement. It guides you step by step through data entry in Position Management, Job Data, Additional Pay, and other necessary processes as faculty reduce their hours.

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July 2016

Audience

Date

Message

All July 25, 2016
Payroll

Make Sure Your Employees Are Paid the New Minimum Wage: Minnesota law calls for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour beginning August 1. As a result, the University's salary ranges and floors have been adjusted to the new rate. College and unit HR teams should review your employee records; any employees being paid less than $9.50 an hour should receive a pay increase to the new minimum wage, using an effective date no later than Monday, July 25. You can validate employee pay rates using a query in the Reporting Center: Emp - Over Max/Under Min Salary. The query will show whether employees are over or under their salary range. Any user who has access to update Job Data can run the query.

All July 25, 2016
System News

PeopleSoft 8.9 to Be Decommissioned: After last year's Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, the Office of Information Technology announced that the old 8.9 system would be available to users in a read-only mode until the end of the 2016 fiscal year, after which it would be retired. That retirement date is now set for August, which means users will no longer have read-only access. You will, however, have access to historical job and additional pay information from the old 8.9 system through the Reporting Center , via the UM Report Employee Job History. In addition, much of the data from the 8.9 system has been archived in the legacy data warehouse, where it can be retrieved with various queries. Some data, however, may require new queries to be created. If you are currently gathering data in the 8.9 system that is not available in the Reporting Center, please contact the Call Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, or 800-756-2363 in Greater Minnesota).

Appointment Entry July 25, 2016
News

New Eligibility Groups for Phased Retirement: Two new eligibility groups will be available beginning today (July 25). These eligibility groups will be used when an appointment on phased retirement reduces below 67%:

UMACADVT-Phased Retirement Vacation Take Only (Crookston, Duluth and Morris campuses)

UMACADVTPH-Phased Retirement Vacation Take with Personal Holiday (Twin Cities and Rochester campuses)

Appointments now on phased retirement below 67% will be centrally updated with a 7/25/16 Data Change/Special Circumstances row and the new eligibility group.

All July 25, 2016
Resources

4-UOHR Menu Is Changing: The 4-UOHR phone menu will have new options beginning tomorrow, July 26:

Employee Benefits questions: Press 1 (unchanged)
Schedule an I-9 appointment: Press 2
Questions about your paycheck: Press 3
HRMS questions from end users: Press 4
Any other questions: Press 5

All July 25, 2016
Issues Resolved

Recent HRMS Improvements: Over the weekend, several system fixes were installed to improve HRMS:

System performance has been improved when a manager brings up the list of absences that need to be approved.

Two new absence eligibility codes have been created to support absence processing for phased retirement employees (see "New Eligibility Groups" item above).

A fix corrected an issue in the UM Report Vacation, Sick and Comp Balances. Previously, when a user clicked on an Employee ID, the report that displayed was missing some FY 15 and FY 16 data. That problem has been corrected.

In the Foreign National Warning Rpt, employees with expiring visas will now show up on the correct department's section of the report.

You may also have noticed that the signature on payroll checks has been changed to Mike Volna, the associate vice president in the Controller's Office, following the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter.

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June 2016

Audience

Date

Message

Distribution Entry June 29, 2016
Update

HRMS Combo Code Availability: Due to year-end processing in Finance, combination codes for distribution entry are only current as of budgets entered before noon on Wednesday, June 29. On Thursday, June 30, there will be no midday run to create new combo codes; however, the evening processing will still occur as scheduled.

All June 29, 2016
News

Holiday Payroll Schedule: Payroll Services will close payroll on Thursday, June 30, due to the Fourth of July holiday on Monday. Payroll Updates will be accepted through 2:00 p.m. on June 30. We carry out a one-day close when a holiday falls on the Monday before payday so that we can have printed checks mailed on Friday.

Distribution Entry June 9, 2016
News

Labor-Represented Annual Increases: The program to enter the 6/13/2016 annual increases for the following Labor-Represented employees will be run this week:

Teamsters

AFSCME Clerical

AFSCME Technical

AFSCME Health Care

We'll let you know when the program has run to update job data and when the error reports are available. Departments are responsible for correcting the errors by June 29. Departments may need to enter changes in Additional Pay for employees receiving percentage-based augmentations.

Appointment Entry June 9, 2016
News

Contract Renewals: The contracts for appointments of 12 months or 9 months paid over 12 months will be centrally updated this Friday, June 10. We will let you know when the contracts are updated and available for review.

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May 2016

Audience

Date

Message

Payroll May 27, 2016
Holiday schedule

Payroll deadlines for Memorial Day holiday: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, the Time and Absence validation deadline will be pushed back on Wednesday, June 1, from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing.

The job data entry deadline on Wednesday, June 1, will remain 4:30 p.m.

The Payroll Update deadline on Friday, June 3, will remain 10:00 a.m.

Time & Absence May 23, 2016
Training

Updated Job Aid on Holiday Time Reporting: With Memorial Day just around the corner, you may want a brief reminder on how employees should report holiday time. The job aid "Tips on Managing Time Reporting: Paid Holidays" offers instructions and specific scenarios for reporting holiday time. You can also find the job aid in the Recently Updated section of the HRMS Training website.

Payroll May 23, 2016
Reminder

Where to Send Payroll Forms: When submitting overpayment documents—or any other form—to Payroll Services, please send them to payforms@umn.edu, rather than to individual team members. With the recent staffing changes in Payroll Services and upcoming summer vacations, sending them to the central email address will allow Payroll to act on them more quickly.

Distribution Entry May 23, 2016
Update

Payroll Accounting Distribution Entries: All users with Distribution Entry access now have the ability to create a new position pool ID. A position pool is useful when a number of positions in the department consistently share the same distribution configuration. Position pools can only be funded by non-sponsored chartstrings. A position pool ID can be setup at UM Payroll Accounting > UM Distribution Entry > Position Pool Table. Once created, the position manager must be notified to link all positions associated with the pool before funding can be set up in the Distribution Entry page.

All May 23, 2016
Issues Resolved

More HRMS Improvements: PeopleSoft users will notice two new improvements due to system fixes that were made on Sunday:

On the job search page in Recruiting Solutions, a pop-up warning message will display when an applicant is not seeing the most recent job openings because there are more than 300 search results.

Person of Interest records will no longer lock up or become inaccessible when information is entered on the Maintain POI Relationship page.

Distribution Entry May 9, 2016
Update

Implementing new salary ranges and floors: New salary ranges (effective in HRMS on June 13) have been entered into the HRMS system. Here are the new ranges to refer to when considering    salary increases for FY17. Note that each job family has a separate tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If you're running queries and want to pull FY17 salary range information, please be sure you are selecting the future-dated information. If you have questions about how to query future-dated information, the HR Help Desk can walk you through the process.

Position Entry May 9, 2016
Reminder

Enter Short Work Breaks for employees on summer hiatus: With the academic year ending, please remember to enter the Short Work Break (SWB) row for the 9- and 10-month appointments who will be returning in fall semester 2016. In the Reporting Center, you can run the HR query for Expected End Date Audit to identify employees who have an expected end date coming up    within 30 days. Here is a list of appointment dates and the effective dates to enter for the Short Work Break row and for the Expected Return Date field:

    TWIN CITIES/ROCHESTER
    9-Month Appointment Date: 08/31/15–05/29/16

    SWB Effective Date: 5/30/16
    Expected Return Date: 8/29/2016

    10-Month Appointment Date: 08/17/15–06/12/16

    SWB Effective Date: 6/13/2016
    Expected Return Date: 8/15/2016

    UMM/LAW
    9-Month Appointment Date: 08/17/15–05/15/16

    SWB Effective Date: 5/16/2016
    Expected Return Date: 8/15/2016

    UMC/UMD
    9-Month Appointment Date: 08/24/15–05/22/16

    SWB Effective Date: 5/23/16
    Expected Return Date: 8/22/2016

Distribution Entry May 9, 2016
Update

Entering Technical lump sum payments: Departments have received a list of eligible Technical employees (49xx job codes) who are at the top of their pay range as of 2/26/16. For those employees, pay increases will need to be entered as lump sum payments. They should be entered in Additional Pay with the following information:
    Earnings Code: NLM
    Effective and End dates: The begin and end dates of the pay period in which the lump sum payment is being made
    Earnings: $200.00

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Audience	Date	Message
Hiring Managers/Unit Recruiters	December 6, 2016	Process Improvements Position and Posting Process Simplified: One comment we've often heard from units is that getting approval from central OHR for job positions and postings takes longer than it should. In response to your feedback and suggestions, OHR and several unit representatives came together for a series of activities to identify and eliminate wasted time and unnecessary steps when creating a position and posting a vacancy. The group came up with what we think are some significant improvements, which should make the hiring process much faster and easier. Beginning December 19: Units will now be able to approve their own job positions and job postings. Unit position managers will be able to approve all job positions, and unit recruiters can approve job postings. Central OHR's only role will be Compensation Department reviews of certain positions (see below). Fewer positions will need review by the Compensation Department. To make sure that positions are classified correctly and at the appropriate salary level, Compensation will still review new positions and existing positions that have a significant change in job duties (more details will be coming soon). Cloned positions of jobs that already exist will not need Compensation review. The PeopleSoft HR system will be modified to reflect these changes and eliminate central OHR position review. New job aids will be coming soon. More information about these changes is coming soon.
All	December 6, 2016	Staff Training Services Joins OHR Operations: OHR Training Services will now report through OHR Operations. The move will better align services and support in OHR. Training Services will continue to focus on enterprise system and process training for unit HR and Finance professionals. Because of that connection to HRMS, Training Services employees who design that training will move to Operations: Carolie Carlson, Alison Friedow, Cathy Orlando, Lani Payette, Patty Samberg, and Dorene Yocum.

Audience	Date	Message
All	November 15, 2016	Update Progress on Complying With New Federal Overtime Rules: The Labor Department recently revised the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that salaried employees earn at least $913 a week ($47,476 a year) to remain exempt from overtime rules. (Some positions have lower thresholds depending on job duties.) As of yesterday, November 14, exempt University employees who do not meet those new salary thresholds are being moved to nonexempt (hourly), even though their work will not change, and they will need to begin tracking their overtime and other changes to their normal schedule. Here are a few updates on where we stand in that process. Central Processing *Postdoc, nonexempt records updated.* Salary adjustments for full-time postdoctoral associates have been centrally processed to bring their salaries to the new $47,476 threshold. We have also processed those employees who are moving from exempt to nonexempt. Unit Processing *New job aid available.* For units who are updating their position and appointment records to reflect the new federal overtime rules, a new job aid is now available. The job aid offers step-by-step instructions for salary adjustments to meet the new threshold or for updating position and appointment records to allow for overtime pay. (Remember that the thresholds for some positions are lower than $913 a week, depending on job duties. See the Exceptions to the $913/Week FLSA Threshold document for guidance.) Future Processing *Template emails for notifying employees with changes to exempt status.* To ensure continuing compliance with the new federal overtime regulations, HRMS will run an error report each pay period to search for employees whose salary falls above or below the new threshold for their position. The biweekly report will be available in the Reporting Center under Reports Run for Me. HR Leads will be responsible for reviewing the report every two weeks and notifying employees of any changes in their exempt status. To help with that process, we have linked to two template emails that HR Leads can send to employees who have a change in their exempt status. The first template lets employees know they are being moved from salaried to hourly (exempt to nonexempt) and tells them where to find training for submitting exception hourlytimesheets. The second template explains that their salary is now at or above the exemption threshold and they will no longer need to submit timesheets. We have also created a flow chart to show how the exempt status of employees will be tracked from now on. If you have questions about the templates or the notification process, please contact Mary Rohman Kuhl at maryrk@umn.edu.
Hiring Managers/ Payroll	November 15, 2016	Resources Online Stop Report Available Thursday: At the beginning of September, Payroll Services began sharing the Stop Report the Monday following each pay period close. The report shows the employees with I-9 employment verification issues that Payroll Services researches as part of the payroll close process. The report helps departments determine why an employee may not have been paid as expected. We received some feedback asking us to make the report available to units on Thursday. With this week's payroll close, I-9 administrators will now be able to view the Stop Pay Report live through Google Docs on Thursday. That means you can see the report as it is being researched and updated by Payroll Services. Please keep in mind that we can only pay employees who had their I-9 completed by the Wednesday following the end of the pay period. This is true because employees whose I-9s or jobs are entered the Thursday or Friday following the end of the pay period (payroll close week) will not be able to have their compliance verified before payroll close. The Payroll Services team is fully occupied during those two days with researching and correcting the records of those on the Stop Report whose I-9 compliance paperwork was in our office by Wednesday. If you have a foreign national employee who is on the Stop Report and has not come to Payroll Services, please urge them to schedule an appointment, as they are beyond the three-day compliance window for I-9 verification. This will also help us process an off-cycle payment for them more quickly.

Audience	Date	Message
All	October 17, 2016	PeopleSoft Update PeopleSoft Update Released: A major PeopleSoft update was installed over the weekend. The project brings HRMS up to date with the latest PeopleSoft release, improving the system, adding new features, and fixing bugs. A technical issue that prevented some external applicants and University students from accessing the recruiting system for a brief period has been resolved by OIT. The recruiting system is now operational. As a reminder, users will see the following improvements in the recruiting system: More focused job searches and cleaner search results for applicants A new job search site just for students Easier routing of job candidate applications and résumés Many other enhancements to our hiring and recruiting process, time and absence management, and position and appointment entry Some enhancements to the Recruiting Solutions job search module will need time to fully render in the system and may not take effect until Thursday.
Appointment Entry	October 17, 2016	Reminder Be Sure 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. The information is used for many purposes,including accreditation, and in many cases the data seems 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 this information.
Time and Absence	October 17, 2016	Reminder How to Enter Leaves for Voting and Election Judging: Civil leaves such as absences for voting, election judging, and so on should be recorded as Excused Paid absences when employees requesttime off in the My Time tab of MyU. You can find more information on civil leaves on the Voting & Election Judge Leave page of the OHR website.
Payroll	October 4, 2016	Update Change in Payroll Deadlines This Week: Payroll Services will carry out a one-day payroll close on Thursday, October 6, due to the bank and postal service holiday on Monday, October 10. The Wednesday, October 5, time and absence and job data deadlines will not change. However, the deadline for sending in Payroll Updates will be Thursday, October 6, at 2:00 p.m.
Appointment Entry	October 4, 2016	Update Technical Step Increases: The 10/1/16 Pay Rate Change/Step/Progression increase row has been inserted into Job Data for eligible employees. You can review two reports via this path: Reporting Center > Reports Run for Me > HRMS Reports: UMHRAE002 - TECHNICAL STEP INCREASE.PDF (09/27/2016) UMHRAE002 - TECHNICAL STEP INCREASE ERROR.PDF (09/27/2016)
All	October 4, 2016	System Availability PeopleSoft Update Set for October 15-16: As we mentioned last month, HRMS will be installing an important PeopleSoft update to improve the system, add new features, and fix bugs. The date has been set for the weekend of October 15 and 16. During the update, HRMS PeopleSoft will be unavailable from 6:00 p.m. Saturday through noon on Sunday. That includes the HR-related information in MyU such as My Time, My Pay, My Info, My Benefits, and Manager Info, along with HRMS-related queries in the Reporting Center. Please plan your work around those hours. Beginning this week we will let you know about some of the improvements you'll be seeing in Recruiting Solutions, position and appointment entry, time and absence management, and other areas. We will also remind you closer to the event about the system downtime.
All	October 4, 2016	News Follow-up to Last Week's Payroll Error: As some of you are aware, a payroll system error resulted in 225 employees not being processed on the September 28 payroll. We have communicated with each affected department and have distributed off-cycle checks to all the employees. HRMS carried out a root-cause analysis of the issue and identified the source and a means to prevent it in the future. A sequence of events in the Benefits and Time and Labor modules triggered a previously unknown bug in the PeopleSoft system. We have established process rules to prevent triggering the bug going forward and a means to search for instances of the occurrence in the payroll close process. The bug has also been reported to PeopleSoft. Thanks to many of you for reporting the issue to the OHR Operations Call Center and working with us to diagnose the problem. Please continue to bring this and other issues to our attention so they can be analyzed and addressed.

Audience	Date	Message
Appointment Entry	September 26, 2016	Update Important Information About Entering Future-Dated Addresses for New Hires: We have gotten several reports of critical errors caused by entering new hires with future-dated addresses. To correctly enter future-dated addresses when creating a new record: Hire the person (enter only current-dated addresses). Save the record. Then go back into the record to add any future-dated addresses. When an employee is hired into PeopleSoft with current and future effective-dated address rows, it causes problems in the automated process that synchronizes data with Finance and Campus. For the employee, that could mean: They won't get automated security access They will not have access to MyU Their internet ID or email address won't be entered in PeopleSoft The problem needs to be fixed manually in several areas of the system, which could take three days or more, so be sure to enter future-dated addresses correctly.
Time & Absence	September 26, 2016	Reminder Timesheet Tip: For employees with mid-period changes (hire, rehire, change between employee types, etc.), the Employee and Approver will need to change their timesheet view to be by "Day" instead of the default of "Week" in order to report and approve time during the period containing the change. If the timesheet is viewed by Week or Period, the timesheet appears locked.
All	September 26, 2016	News PeopleSoft 8.9 to Be Decommissioned September 30: After last year's Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, the Office of Information Technology announced that the old 8.9 system would be available to users in a read-only mode until the end of the 2016 fiscal year, after which it would be retired. That retirement date is now set for September 30, which means users will no longer have read-only access. You will, however, have access to historical job and additional pay information from the old 8.9 system through the Reporting Center, via the UM Report Employee Job History. In addition, much of the data from the 8.9 system has been archived in the legacy data warehouse, where it can be retrieved with various queries.
Payroll	September 6, 2016	Schedule Change Holiday Payroll Schedule This Week: As a reminder, because of the Labor Day holiday this week, the time and absence validation deadline is being pushed back on Wednesday from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing. The job data entry deadline on Wednesday will remain 4:30 p.m. The Payroll Update deadline on Friday will remain 10:00 a.m.
Appointment Entry	September 6, 2016	Reminder Appointment Entry Reminders for Fall: Nine- and 10-month contracts: The contracts and job data for 9- and 10-month appointments have been updated. You can find the contract renewal reports in the Reporting Center: 9-month: UM CONTRACT RENEWALS (08/27/2016) 10-month: UM CONTRACT RENEWALS (08/30/2016) Ending summer appointments, returning fall appointments: Remember to terminate all summer appointments and enter Recall or Return from Short Work Break rows for fall appointments by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday. You can use these queries in the Reporting Center: Expected End Date Audit: UM_HR_EXPECTED_END_DT_AUDIT Expected Return Date Audit: UM_HR_EXPECTED_RETURN_DT_AUDIT Graduate assistant Expected Job End Date: The Expected Job End Date for graduate assistant appointments for fall semester has been centrally updated so that the tuition benefit will be applied correctly. The dates were changed as follows: UMD: changed from 1/4/17 to 1/5/17 UMTC: changed from 1/11/17 to 1/12/17 Please enter the following Expected Job End Dates for appointments being set up or updated for only fall semester: UMD: 1/5/17 UMTC: 1/12/17 Appointments for both fall and spring semesters should have these Expected Job End Dates: UMD: 5/21/17 UMTC: 5/28/17
Payroll	September 2, 2016	News Labor Day Holiday Payroll Schedule: With the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 5, the time and absence validation deadline is being pushed back on Wednesday, September 7, from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing. The job data entry deadline on Wednesday, September 7, will remain 4:30 p.m. The Payroll Update deadline on Friday, September 9, will remain 10:00 a.m.
Hiring Managers, I-9 Administrators	September 2, 2016	New Employees Payroll Services Walk-in Hours: Foreign nationals can get personalized help with the I-9 process by visiting Payroll Services during our special walk-in hours: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. from now through Friday, September 9. Payroll Services is on the fifth floor of the West Bank Office Building, 1300 South Second Street. (Regular appointments won't be made on those days.) Please remind new foreign national employees to bring these documents with them including: Passport with visa I-94 I-20 or DS2019 Social Security Number or receipt from Social Security Offer letter (for correct start date)
Hiring Managers, I-9 Administrators	September 2, 2016	New Employees I-9 Administrator Resources: Last month we held a meeting for I-9 administrators on the verification process. You can listen to a recording of that meeting, which included discussion on: The employment verification process The laws and rules that govern employment eligibility Tools you can use to track employee eligibility These links will take you to several documents from that meeting, which you might also find helpful: Employment verification presentation (pdf) I-9 verification process (citizens and permanent residents) (pdf) New foreign national employee onboarding steps (pdf) Audience questions (pdf) As always please contact Payroll Services at payroll@umn.edu if you have specific I-9 questions.

Audience	Date	Message
Hiring Managers	August 22, 2016	Resources I-9 Help Day Set for Tuesday, August 30: With fall semester approaching, our foreign national employees will soon be navigating the complexities of the I-9 process. Here are a few ways to make that process as smooth as possible: Payroll Services will be holding its annual Foreign National I-9 Help Day on Tuesday, August 30, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Hubert H Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Room 50B, on the West Bank. Payroll is also offering walk-in service during business hours from August 31 through September 9 on the fifth floor of the West Bank Office Building, 1300 South Second Street. If you weren't able to attend the I-9 administrators meeting last week, a recording is available on YouTube.
Payroll	August 22, 2016	Data Entry Correcting Duplicate Pay Components Rows in Job Data: When changing or updating pay components on the Job Data Compensation page, clicking the yellow Default Pay Components button may sometimes result in the system adding a duplicate pay component row under the original one. The reason this happens is due to how the original row was added to the system. For example, it may occur if the row was automatically updated by a program instead of by regular data entry. If this happens, you can correct it by simply deleting one of the duplicate pay component rows (preferably the topmost, older row) before saving, using the minus sign to the right. Then save the update as usual.
All	August 22, 2016	Issues Resolved Three System Fixes Made This Weekend: Three improvements to HRMS were made over the weekend: Notice of Appointments: One fix corrected an issue with future Notice of Appointments, in which salary amounts could be overstated when an employee has more than one row in Job Data for the same future effective-dated row. Accrual rates in MyU: Another fix corrected the problem in which the Accrual Rate and Vacation Accrual Years of Service fields in the My Time tab of MyU showed blanks when an employee had multiple appointment records in Job Data and the appointment with the highest employee record number was terminated. PA Distribution Entry-Multiple Hire Dates Error: Previously, the UM Distribution Entry screen could not accommodate a job record with multiple hire dates (such as when an employee is rehired on an existing summer appointment). That has been fixed. Now the error message "The Distribution Effective Date cannot be before the Hire Date" will only be received if the distribution effective date is before the earliest hire date of the job record.
Appointment Entry	August 15, 2016	Reminder Tax Withholding on UNS Appointments No Longer Available: As a reminder to units that have fellowship recipients paid through Company UNS (University Non-Service): The University is no longer able to withhold income taxes from these payments. A good resource for fellowship recipients on the taxation of these fellowships can be found here on this University Tax Management Office web page.
Hiring Managers	August 15, 2016	Onboarding MyU Access for New Hires: As a reminder, newly hired employees have access to MyU beginning on their start date, but not before. New hires will be able to set up their direct deposit information, enroll in benefits, and other MyU tasks once they start work.
All	August 1, 2016	Planning Fall Planning Guide: To help you gear up for a new school year, OHR has updated its Fall Planning Guide for HR Leads and HRMS end users. The guide offers tips, reminders, and to-do lists to prepare for the fall semester. It covers each of the primary business processes: Position Management, Recruiting, Appointments, Benefits, Time and Absence, and Payroll Accounting. We hope you'll find this to be a useful checklist as we head into this busy time of year.
Appointment Entry	August 1, 2016	Training 2 Job Aids Help With Retirement Processing: Entering retirement transactions for faculty and staff isn't an everyday procedure, and it can have critical implications for an employee's benefits and taxes. Two new or revised job aids can guide you through the process. Hiring a Retiree is a new job aid that outlines the special appointment procedures for retired former employees returning to the University workforce. The Phased Retirement job aid has been updated with new information on the sometimes complex process for faculty members taking advantage of the University's program of gradual retirement. It guides you step by step through data entry in Position Management, Job Data, Additional Pay, and other necessary processes as faculty reduce their hours.

Audience	Date	Message
All	July 25, 2016	Payroll Make Sure Your Employees Are Paid the New Minimum Wage: Minnesota law calls for an increase in the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour beginning August 1. As a result, the University's salary ranges and floors have been adjusted to the new rate. College and unit HR teams should review your employee records; any employees being paid less than $9.50 an hour should receive a pay increase to the new minimum wage, using an effective date no later than Monday, July 25. You can validate employee pay rates using a query in the Reporting Center: Emp - Over Max/Under Min Salary. The query will show whether employees are over or under their salary range. Any user who has access to update Job Data can run the query.
All	July 25, 2016	System News PeopleSoft 8.9 to Be Decommissioned: After last year's Upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, the Office of Information Technology announced that the old 8.9 system would be available to users in a read-only mode until the end of the 2016 fiscal year, after which it would be retired. That retirement date is now set for August, which means users will no longer have read-only access. You will, however, have access to historical job and additional pay information from the old 8.9 system through the Reporting Center , via the UM Report Employee Job History. In addition, much of the data from the 8.9 system has been archived in the legacy data warehouse, where it can be retrieved with various queries. Some data, however, may require new queries to be created. If you are currently gathering data in the 8.9 system that is not available in the Reporting Center, please contact the Call Center at ohr@umn.edu or 4-UOHR (612-624-8647, or 800-756-2363 in Greater Minnesota).
Appointment Entry	July 25, 2016	News New Eligibility Groups for Phased Retirement: Two new eligibility groups will be available beginning today (July 25). These eligibility groups will be used when an appointment on phased retirement reduces below 67%: UMACADVT-Phased Retirement Vacation Take Only (Crookston, Duluth and Morris campuses) UMACADVTPH-Phased Retirement Vacation Take with Personal Holiday (Twin Cities and Rochester campuses) Appointments now on phased retirement below 67% will be centrally updated with a 7/25/16 Data Change/Special Circumstances row and the new eligibility group.
All	July 25, 2016	Resources 4-UOHR Menu Is Changing: The 4-UOHR phone menu will have new options beginning tomorrow, July 26: Employee Benefits questions: Press 1 (unchanged) Schedule an I-9 appointment: Press 2 Questions about your paycheck: Press 3 HRMS questions from end users: Press 4 Any other questions: Press 5
All	July 25, 2016	Issues Resolved Recent HRMS Improvements: Over the weekend, several system fixes were installed to improve HRMS: System performance has been improved when a manager brings up the list of absences that need to be approved. Two new absence eligibility codes have been created to support absence processing for phased retirement employees (see "New Eligibility Groups" item above). A fix corrected an issue in the UM Report Vacation, Sick and Comp Balances. Previously, when a user clicked on an Employee ID, the report that displayed was missing some FY 15 and FY 16 data. That problem has been corrected. In the Foreign National Warning Rpt, employees with expiring visas will now show up on the correct department's section of the report. You may also have noticed that the signature on payroll checks has been changed to Mike Volna, the associate vice president in the Controller's Office, following the retirement of Chief Financial Officer Richard Pfutzenreuter.

Audience	Date	Message
Distribution Entry	June 29, 2016	Update HRMS Combo Code Availability: Due to year-end processing in Finance, combination codes for distribution entry are only current as of budgets entered before noon on Wednesday, June 29. On Thursday, June 30, there will be no midday run to create new combo codes; however, the evening processing will still occur as scheduled.
All	June 29, 2016	News Holiday Payroll Schedule: Payroll Services will close payroll on Thursday, June 30, due to the Fourth of July holiday on Monday. Payroll Updates will be accepted through 2:00 p.m. on June 30. We carry out a one-day close when a holiday falls on the Monday before payday so that we can have printed checks mailed on Friday.
Distribution Entry	June 9, 2016	News Labor-Represented Annual Increases: The program to enter the 6/13/2016 annual increases for the following Labor-Represented employees will be run this week: Teamsters AFSCME Clerical AFSCME Technical AFSCME Health Care We'll let you know when the program has run to update job data and when the error reports are available. Departments are responsible for correcting the errors by June 29. Departments may need to enter changes in Additional Pay for employees receiving percentage-based augmentations.
Appointment Entry	June 9, 2016	News Contract Renewals: The contracts for appointments of 12 months or 9 months paid over 12 months will be centrally updated this Friday, June 10. We will let you know when the contracts are updated and available for review.

Audience	Date	Message
Payroll	May 27, 2016	Holiday schedule Payroll deadlines for Memorial Day holiday: Because of the Memorial Day holiday, the Time and Absence validation deadline will be pushed back on Wednesday, June 1, from noon to 4:30 p.m. to give units more time for processing. The job data entry deadline on Wednesday, June 1, will remain 4:30 p.m. The Payroll Update deadline on Friday, June 3, will remain 10:00 a.m.
Time & Absence	May 23, 2016	Training Updated Job Aid on Holiday Time Reporting: With Memorial Day just around the corner, you may want a brief reminder on how employees should report holiday time. The job aid "Tips on Managing Time Reporting: Paid Holidays" offers instructions and specific scenarios for reporting holiday time. You can also find the job aid in the Recently Updated section of the HRMS Training website.
Payroll	May 23, 2016	Reminder Where to Send Payroll Forms: When submitting overpayment documents—or any other form—to Payroll Services, please send them to payforms@umn.edu, rather than to individual team members. With the recent staffing changes in Payroll Services and upcoming summer vacations, sending them to the central email address will allow Payroll to act on them more quickly.
Distribution Entry	May 23, 2016	Update Payroll Accounting Distribution Entries: All users with Distribution Entry access now have the ability to create a new position pool ID. A position pool is useful when a number of positions in the department consistently share the same distribution configuration. Position pools can only be funded by non-sponsored chartstrings. A position pool ID can be setup at UM Payroll Accounting > UM Distribution Entry > Position Pool Table. Once created, the position manager must be notified to link all positions associated with the pool before funding can be set up in the Distribution Entry page.
All	May 23, 2016	Issues Resolved More HRMS Improvements: PeopleSoft users will notice two new improvements due to system fixes that were made on Sunday: On the job search page in Recruiting Solutions, a pop-up warning message will display when an applicant is not seeing the most recent job openings because there are more than 300 search results. Person of Interest records will no longer lock up or become inaccessible when information is entered on the Maintain POI Relationship page.
Distribution Entry	May 9, 2016	Update Implementing new salary ranges and floors: New salary ranges (effective in HRMS on June 13) have been entered into the HRMS system. Here are the new ranges to refer to when considering salary increases for FY17. Note that each job family has a separate tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet. If you're running queries and want to pull FY17 salary range information, please be sure you are selecting the future-dated information. If you have questions about how to query future-dated information, the HR Help Desk can walk you through the process.
Position Entry	May 9, 2016	Reminder Enter Short Work Breaks for employees on summer hiatus: With the academic year ending, please remember to enter the Short Work Break (SWB) row for the 9- and 10-month appointments who will be returning in fall semester 2016. In the Reporting Center, you can run the HR query for Expected End Date Audit to identify employees who have an expected end date coming up within 30 days. Here is a list of appointment dates and the effective dates to enter for the Short Work Break row and for the Expected Return Date field: TWIN CITIES/ROCHESTER 9-Month Appointment Date: 08/31/15–05/29/16 SWB Effective Date: 5/30/16 Expected Return Date: 8/29/2016 10-Month Appointment Date: 08/17/15–06/12/16 SWB Effective Date: 6/13/2016 Expected Return Date: 8/15/2016 UMM/LAW 9-Month Appointment Date: 08/17/15–05/15/16 SWB Effective Date: 5/16/2016 Expected Return Date: 8/15/2016 UMC/UMD 9-Month Appointment Date: 08/24/15–05/22/16 SWB Effective Date: 5/23/16 Expected Return Date: 8/22/2016
Distribution Entry	May 9, 2016	Update Entering Technical lump sum payments: Departments have received a list of eligible Technical employees (49xx job codes) who are at the top of their pay range as of 2/26/16. For those employees, pay increases will need to be entered as lump sum payments. They should be entered in Additional Pay with the following information: Earnings Code: NLM Effective and End dates: The begin and end dates of the pay period in which the lump sum payment is being made Earnings: $200.00