HRF Meetings -- 2008-04 [Spring]

Brenda Malone, associate vice chancellor for Human Resources, welcomed HR Facilitators to each meeting. She specifically asked HRFs for two items:

• At the next HR Facilitator meeting, come prepared to discuss the employment process. OHR will be looking specifically at this process in the coming months. Bring ideas and thoughts about the process, including things that do or do not work well.
• OHR is beginning to plan for the upcoming fiscal year. Brenda welcomes ideas for HR Facilitator training/informational presentations, including topics that HRFs would like more information on. Email Brenda directly with your thoughts.

Review the HR Facilitator email for information and procedural suggestions/tips.

The Time Information Management (TIM) Executive Sponsors recently sent an email with updates on TIM implementation to all employees.

HR Facilitator and Manager Information Sessions
Career Banding Information Sessions were offered throughout the past month to HR facilitators and managers. If you were not able to attend an information session, view a similar presentation on-line via the OHR Web site at: http://hr.unc.edu/Data/SPA/paysystems/careerbanding/april-gen/CB_Overview_Presentation.pdf   

Employee Information Sessions
To educate employees on this system, the Office of Human Resources (OHR) will offer several information sessions. The goal of these sessions is to provide an overview of career banding and to provide an opportunity for employees to ask general questions. A copy of the presentation is also available on the OHR Web site at:
http://hr.unc.edu/Data/SPA/paysystems/careerbanding/april-gen/CB_Overview_Presentation.pdf

Visit the Training & Development Web site at http://www.training.unc.edu/ (select University Operations category) to register for one of the following sessions:

• April 10 -- 9:00-10:00 a.m., Stone Center, Hitchcock Room
• April 14 -- 9:00-10:00 a.m., Wilson Library, Pleasants Room
• April 15 -- 2:30-3:30 p.m., Bioinformatics, Room 1131
• April 16 -- 2:30-3:30 p.m., Health Sciences Library, Room 527
• April 17 -- 9:30-10:30 a.m., Bioinformatics, Room 1131
• April 22 -- 9:00-10:00 a.m., Wilson Library, Pleasants Room
• April 23 -- 2:00-3:00 p.m., Administrative Office Building, Room 1500A
• May 5 -- 9:00-10:00 a.m., Administrative Office Building, Room 1500A

OHR will monitor enrollment and will offer more sessions if demand warrants. The employee information sessions are considered paid work time. We ask that all employees obtain approval from their supervisor before attending.

Manager and HR Facilitator Training
A two-hour training class entitled "Managing in the Career Banding Environment" will be offered to managers and HR Facilitators. This class will cover how to establish and determine the competencies required by career banding positions; how to recruit, hire and administer salaries under career banding; and how to evaluate employee competencies and support employees' career development in the career banding system.

The Office of Human Resources will be working with each School/Division to make training sessions available to managers throughout the last few weeks of April. If you are not able to attend the training, general sessions will also be made available through the Training and Development website at http://www.training.unc.edu/ (Select University Operations category). 

Employee Letters
Within the next few weeks, the Office of Human Resources will provide each school and major division with letters that managers are to give to employees indicating their new career banding classification titles.  Please advise managers in your organization that these letters are to be distributed to all employees as close to April 28th as possible. Also, please ensure that managers discuss the career banding implementation with their employees and answer any questions employees may have.

The Office of State Personnel has not yet released the final information regarding the new career banding roles, competencies and pay bands. As soon as this information is available, we will provide it to the Dean's Office and major Divisions for dissemination to managers and then to employees. Most positions will be assigned their new Branch, Role and Competency level based on OSP's crosswalk. It is expected that there will not be many changes to career banding classifications in the months after implementation since the nature of employees' work is not changing.

All employees and HR Facilitators are invited to use HR Connect, OHR's new search tool to find out your OHR contact for more than 150 topics. HR Connect is linked from the front page of the OHR Web site.

On the OHR Web site, the navigation under the "For Faculty and Staff" and "For Managers and HR Facilitators" paths has been changed to reflect the recent OHR reorganization, and to be more topic-based. Direct comments and questions to Kathy Bryant.

Health Care
The Annual Enrollment for the State Health Plan ended March 28, 2008. Changes employees made during the annual enrollment become effective July 1, 2008. If employees have dependent coverage, deductions for dependent coverage will begin in June since premiums are paid for health care coverage one month in advance.

The Comprehensive Major Medical Plan (CMMP) will be eliminated effective July 1, 2008. Employees who did not return an enrollment form will automatically be switched to the PPO Standard Plan (80/20) at the same coverage level. If an employee had only their spouse covered under the CMPP Plan and were paying for family coverage, these employees will be moved to the employee/spouse tier under the PPO Standard Plan.

Benefit Termination Packets
The benefits exit package for employees leaving the University is now available online. Managers, Supervisors and HR Facilitators are encouraged to direct employees to this resource, available under the Life Events Section of the Benefits & Employee Services Web site. Employees should be directed to contact their Benefit Specialist if they have questions about benefit continuation.

Twenty-Year Service Appreciation Banquet
The Twenty-Year Service Appreciation Banquet will be held at the Carolina Inn on Monday, April 28. This event honors all permanent SPA and EPA Non-Faculty employees who will reach their anniversary date during FY08 (July 1, 2007 -- June 30, 2008). At the Banquet, each employee is presented with a personalized engraved plaque and is inducted into the Carolina 20-Year Society. Invitations were mailed to employees in March.

Service Awards
A reception will be held in early summer to recognize employees with 25 years of service and above, in five year increments (25, 30, 35, etc.). This event will recognize employees reaching anniversaries during FY08, 7/1/07 -- 6/30/08. More communications with HR Facilitators will follow when details are confirmed.
 
In April 2008, service award date verifications for employees reaching 5-, 10- and 15-year anniversaries will be emailed to HR Facilitators for verification. These awards will be distributed in July 2008 for the upcoming FY09 (7/1/08 -- 6/30/09).

Summer Blood Drive
The 20th Annual Carolina Blood Drive is set for June 3. Donation appointments and Volunteers may begin signing up on Thursday, April 24. You may register to donate blood by contacting your departmental recruiter, by dialing 96-BLOOD (962-5663) or registering online at the address below. For detailed information, including important facts about new travel restrictions for donors, check the Blood Drive web site at http://www.unc.edu/blood/.  Call Employee Services at 962-1483 with any questions.

Chancellor's Awards for Excellence & Excellence in Management Awards
The Chancellor's Award Program recognizes the contributions made by University employees based on meritorious or distinguished accomplishments in the categories of devotion to duty, innovations, public service, safety/heroism, human relations, and other achievements. The call for nominations will be made in April. Nomination forms will be mailed to all employees and award results will be announced in June. The five award recipients, who receive a monetary award and leave time, will attend a luncheon with the Chancellor in the fall.

The EMA Award is designed to recognize meritorious and distinguished accomplishments in management at UNC-Chapel Hill. The call for nominations for the Excellence in Management Awards will be made in May and award results will be announced in June. The two award recipients, who receive a monetary award, will attend a fall luncheon with the Chancellor and Dr. Richard Mann, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Adminstration.

Star Heels Deadline June 1
The deadline for all Star Heels Nominations is Friday, May 30. All names of recipients must be submitted by the department's HR Facilitator using the online nomination form no later than 5 P.M. Recipients have until 8/1/08 to make their Gift Certificate choice.

We will re-allocate any unused Star Heels Awards beginning Monday, June 2. All nominations received after 8:00 a.m. on Monday, June 2, will be eligible for these additional awards. HR Facilitators will be called no later than Friday, June 13, to be informed of whether they received the additional awards. Please be aware that your annual allocations may be different from past years. For questions on current allocations email Shelly Green at sogreen@unc.edu.

Wage-Hour / Leave

• Timesheet examples and quizzes from the Tricky Timesheet program are available on the HR website and are attached to their related policies.
• Sick leave coverage does include grand- and great-grand relations; this was incorrectly indicated in the recent Tricky Timesheet programs.
• Temporary employees are not eligible for any paid time off (PTO) compensation, including comp time, holiday equal time off, on-call time off, travel time off, etc.  Temps are also not eligible for paid holidays or shift premium pay.  Temps are eligible for overtime pay, on-call pay, and holiday premium pay.
• PTO accruals cannot be used in the same work week in which they were earned; however they can be used in the same biweekly in which they are earned.

SPA Permanent Employee Separations

• If the separating employee has more than 10 years of service, you must indicate pro rata longevity with the termination action (see HRIS User Guide for details).
• The termination reason must match the reason for separating, to the extent that the department is aware of it. 
• • "Probationary Period Terminated" must be used for all employees dismissed during their probationary period. 
  • "Discharge" must be used for all disciplinary dismissals. Include in the comments whether the dismissal was for conduct or performance.  Do not include other comments about the employee.
  • "Advancement Opportunity" is only for new positions outside the State system (within the state system, use "Transfer to Another Agency").
• Indicate all categories of leave or PTO that must be paid out or transferred. Refer to the "Leave/PTO Payouts & Transfers" policy for more information.
• Termination actions are not needed for internal (UNC-Chapel Hill) transfers or promotions -- the hiring department initiates the actions in HRIS. The "losing" department needs to provide the hiring department with the appropriate leave balance information and/or process the appropriate PTO payouts at the time of separation from the current position.
  

Job Shadowing Opportunities

UNC's Basic Clerical Skills participants have been working hard the last 11 months, learning basic office skills while continuing their regular job duties in the Housekeeping, Printing and Mail Services departments. Each participant is looking for the opportunity to observe a worker in an office setting, to see the skills they have studied put into practice. They hope to job shadow in an office setting two mornings or afternoons a week, four hours each week, for nine weeks. With this experience the participants will be able to begin to apply their studies and ideally move into internships where they can put their studies into practice.

Do you have an office assistant that you believe can be a role model for a participant hoping to better themselves? If you think you might be ready to offer a job shadowing opportunity to Basic Clerical Skills participant, or if you have any further questions about job shadowing in general, please contact Robin Morris, 962-9681, robin_morris@unc.edu, or Cookie Dais, 843-9850, cookie_dais@unc.edu, in the Training & Development Department.

Clerical Internships

Departments are needed to sponsor six-month clerical internships for graduates of the current Basic Clerical Skills program. Graduation from the program meets the one-year experience required for an Office/Processing Assitant III position at the University.

The internships are designed to give the graduates, who have successfully completed the 14-month office skills program, hands-on experience and on-the-job training in an office setting at the University. Many University employees have already successfully completed such internships, and numerous are currently employed in permanent clerical positions at UNC.

Examples of intern responsibilities may include answering the telephone, assisting customers, filing, processing paperwork, photocopying, faxing, data entry, and word processing. You and your department can provide a life changing experience for a Basic Clerical Skills program graduate today.

Click here for information on program costs.

For more information about the six month internship program contact Robin Morris, 962-9681, robin_morris@unc.edu, or Cookie Dais, 843-9850, cookie_dais@unc.edu, in the Training & Development Department.