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Hired new staff recently? Department supervisors and personnel administrators play a key role in getting new employees on the right track. When hiring new staff, supervisors and administrators should make sure information pertaining to benefits enrollments are communicated timely, new hire data is processed correctly, and other reminders don’t get lost in the hectic transition to the department. Here are three areas that deserve particular attention: Scheduling New Employee Orientation and Group Benefits Enrollment sessions All TEAMS hires are required to attend New Employee Orientation (NEO) and Group Benefits Enrollment. NEO and Group Benefits Enrollment sessions can be scheduled online for sessions held at either the Stadium or Health Science Center locations. Group Benefit Enrollments held at the Stadium location may also be scheduled online at the same time the NEO appointment is scheduled. NEO registration for the Health Science Center location is online, but benefits enrollment sessions held in the Health Center location must be scheduled by calling 392-3786. Ideally employees should attend the NEO session prior to the group enrollment so that they have a better understanding of the plans offered. For Academic Personnel hires, an orientation is held once a year. Departments should direct new faculty to review the online worksheet and tutorial prior to attending a group benefits enrollment. Give your new employees correct benefits enrollment deadlines New hires have only 60 calendar days from the date of hire to enroll in benefits. Keep in mind when setting a start date that the earliest effective date for coverage can be no sooner than the first day of the month following the date of hire. All necessary enrollment forms must also be completed and submitted before the effective date. The Benefits Acknowledgement Form that is completed with other payroll paperwork should not be confused as an enrollment nor is the enrollment an automatic process. Additionally, with the state’s change in benefits administration to the PeopleFirst system, the university continues to experience problems with new enrollments. Please encourage employees to review their checks to ensure insurance deductions are being taken on a regular basis. Employees missing deductions should contact University Benefits and Retirement as soon as possible to make up any missed premiums. Questions? Please contact your nearest HR satellite office or University Benefits and Retirement at 392-2477 (SC 622-1225) or benefits@ufl.edu. Entering employee addresses in the myUFL systems correctly Entering the correct address into the myUFL system also has an impact on employee benefits. Address information is transferred to PeopleFirst, which in turn sends it to the various insurance providers. It’s important to make sure the address is complete including the correct zip code and county code designation. Incomplete or incorrect information affects insurance mailings to the home and limits the HMO health insurance selections. The directory within the myUFL system has four options for entering an employee address--home, mail, business, and work. Among those four selections, the home and mailing addresses are the ones that are transferred to the PeopleFirst system and, therefore, need to be accurate. Foreign addresses have also been found to create a problem. Please be sure to enter foreign addresses under mailing and a valid local address under the home designation. Questions? Contact University Benefits and Retirement at 392-2477 or email benefits@ufl.edu.

Workflow for position actions Departments may be unable to initiate workflow for position actions. Position actions may include establishing a new position or changing classifications, department IDs, or FTE. After the position action has been saved in Organizational Development, departments receive a message saying “No matching values were found” after entering the position number in UF_HR_APPR_POSN_GBL. Should this happen, please e-mail your Level-1 Approver to let him or her know the active row has been saved and needs approval. Be sure to reference the position number and the reason for the action. The Level-1 approver should then review the action and e-mail the appropriate Level-2 approver to indicate he or she has approved the action. Please refer to the Enterprise Systems Alert issued on February 26 for further details. For faculty position actions, please email Janet Malphurs at jmmalph@ufl.edu or Patricia Cook at pcook@ufl.edu of Academic Personnel. For all other position actions, please call Employment and Classification at 392-4621 (SC 622-4621) or send e-mail to employment@ufl.edu.

Some changes to W-4s may be made online To change your W-4 information via UF's portal, follow this navigation: My Self Service > Payroll and Compensation > W-4 Tax Information. Employees may make changes online to the following items: The number of allowances being claimed Additional amount of money to be withheld Marital status Exemption status Changes to these items may be submitted at any time and become effective immediately upon clicking the “Submit” button. Paper versions of the W-4, still must be submitted for changes to address and name. A copy of the employee’s Social Security card with the new name must accompany the W-4 card and be sent to Employment and Classification, PO Box 115002, Gainesville, FL 32611 or faxed to 392-7094 (SC 622-7094). Questions? Please contact Employment and Classification at 392-4621 (SC 622-4621) or employment@ufl.edu.

Minimum wage increases May 2 To comply with Florida’s minimum wage increase, effective May 2,all employees--including OPS, Student Assistant, and Federal Work Study Students--must be paid at least $6.15 an hour. Departments do not need to take any action to increase the pay of current employees who are below this new minimum. UF Enterprise Systems has created a process to identify all affected employees and will generate a job row to increase their pay to $6.15 effective May 2. Employees who are currently paid below $6.15 per hour To ensure a job row can be created to give an employee the minimum wage increase, no job actions may be pending (e.g., department ID changes, transfers, terminations, pay rate changes) nor can there be actions with an effective date after May 2 for any employee who is scheduled to receive the minimum wage increase (currently paid below $6.15 per hour). As a result, any job changes effective prior to May 2 must be entered into the myUFL systems and approved by a Level-1 approver no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12. Any pending actions not approved by a Level-1 approver as of April 12 will be deleted in order for the minimum wage increase to be applied. Departments will have to re-enter any deleted action in the myUFL systems on or after May 2. Employees who are currently paid more than $6.15 per hour Job rows may be added for OPS employees, Student Assistants, and Federal Work Study Students who are currently paid more than $6.15 an hour and therefore not affected by the minimum wage increase. These changes may continue to be entered into the myUFL sytems at any time. New hires New University of Florida hires (who do not have an active job row) may be entered into the myUFL systems at any time. Hires for new employees do not have to be entered by April 12 but rather will follow normal payroll deadlines and pay schedules. Please remember that pay for new employees must be at least $6.15 per hour effective May 2. Reports available On April 5, departments may obtain a report that lists employees in their area who have been identified to receive the minimum wage increase. Please follow this navigation: Enterprise Reporting > Human Resources Information > Pay Information > Current Pay Cycle > Raise Reports > Raise Detail Reports, then: Select the Raise Type of “Increase Minimum OPS Hrly Rate” Type in a full or partial DeptID or Department Name in the “Keywords” box. Select the reports you want to run from the “Results” column and they will appear in the “Choices” column. Click on “Finish.” If you cannot navigate to this report, please have your DSA request the UF_ER_HRPR_PAY or the UF_ER_HRPR_CurrPayCycle security role. Frequently Asked Questions Here are some Q&As that might help departmental administrators through this process: I have hired a brand new OPS employee who is scheduled to start work on April 15. Can I enter the hire on April 15 or do I have to wait until after May 2? If the employee is not currently working at UF, you may enter the new hire into PeopleSoft. You do not need to (and should not) wait until May 2. I have an employee who is moving from a Student Assistant position to an OPS position effective May 7. The employee is currently making $5.50 an hour. What do I do? Since this employee is making less than $6.15 an hour, he or she will be scheduled to receive the merit increase on the Student Assistant position on May 2. As a result, do not add a job row to change the salary admin plan change to OPS until after the minimum wage increase has taken place. You may enter this action on or after May 2. Remember that no job row may exist that has a date after May 2 (such as May 7 in this case) for affected employees because the system cannot insert a job row below the May 7 date. Is every employee record in the OPS, Student Assistant, and Federal Work Study pay plans "frozen" between April 12 and May 1? No, only the records of employees whose pay is below $6.15 are ‘frozen.’ Any changes with effective dates prior to May 2, should be entered into PeopleSoft ASAP and approved by level 1 no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12. Actions with an effective date after May 2 should not be entered until on or after May 2. Departments may continue to add job rows to make any needed changes for OPS, Student Assistant, and Federal Work Study employees whose pay is currently at or above $6.15 per hour. Can departments continue to enter new hires into PeopleSoft between April 12 and May 2? Yes. Departments may add new hires into PeopleSoft at any time. New hires are those employees who are either not currently employed or who are employed in another position but are not making less than $6.15 an hour. Can I enter the “hire” of an OPS employee who is transferring to my department effective April 29 from another OPS position (or Student Assistant or Federal Work Study position)? The answer depends on a few things. If the employee is currently making at least $6.15 an hour, then you can enter the hire into PeopleSoft at any time and the pay should be at least $6.15 per hour. If the employee is currently making less than $6.15 an hour, you should enter the transfer with the April 29 effective date into PeopleSoft and obtain level 1 approval no later than 5 p.m. on April 12. If you pay this employee less than $6.15 an hour, he or she will be included in the minimum wage increase and have a job row added to increase the pay effective May 2. If you cannot enter the hire prior and obtain level 1 approval prior to 5 p.m. on April 12, then you should enter this hire on May 2, and the pay must be at least $6.15 an hour. I did not know that Enterprise Systems would add job rows to give affected employees the minimum wage increase. As a result, I have already added a job row to give employees in my department the increase to $6.15 an hour effective May 2. What should I do now? Nothing. The level 2 approver will approve all job actions that have already been entered by departments to bring employee pay up to the new minimum wage increase. These employees will not be identified via the automated process as needing the increase. Whom should I call with questions? Questions about OPS employees should be directed to Employment and Classification at 392-4621 or employment@ufl.edu. Questions about Student Assistant or Federal Work Study students should be directed to Student Employment at 392- 0296.

UF 9- and 10-month employees to be placed automatically on “Short Work Breaks” University of Florida 9- and 10-month employees (graduate assistants, Academic Personnel, TEAMS, USPS) will be placed on “Short Work Breaks” for the summer semester automatically this year. For 9-month appointments, the effective date of the Short Work Break will be May 16 For 10-month appointments, this job action will be effective June 9 In either case, these job actions will automatically be added for employees with 9- or 10-month appointments (as indicated by their salary administration plans) over the weekend of April 16 using the action/reason combination of Short Work Break (SWB)/Short Work Break (SWB). Time reporting also will automatically be inactivated; however, departments are encouraged to verify that this process has been completed to ensure that these employees do not continue to be paid. To ensure a job row can be created, there cannot be any pending job actions (department ID changes, transfers, terminations, pay rate changes) nor can there be any future dated items. To assist departments in reviewing who has been identified for the Short Work Break, a report will be available starting April 5 via Enterprise Reporting. To access this report, you must have the security role of UF_ER_HRPR_ALL, UF_ER_HRPR_WKF_LtrAppt_Waiver, UF_ER_HRPR_Workforce, OR UF_ER_HRPR_WKforce_AffmAct. Log into the system via the myUFL portal, using your GatorLink user id and password Navigate to Enterprise Reporting > Human Resources Information > Workforce Information Information about summer appointments as well as returning employees from the Short Work Break will be provided at a future date. Terminations of 9- and 10-Month Employees Any terminations of 9- or 10-month employees who will not be employed beyond May 15 must be entered as follows: Termination paperwork for faculty and graduate assistants entered by Academic Personnel must be submitted by April 12 Terminations for 9- or 10-month employees entered at the department level must be entered by the department and approved by Level 1 no later than April 12 Questions? Please contact Academic Personnel at 392-1251 (SC 622-1251) with questions about faculty and graduate assistants. Please call Employment and Classification at 392-4621 (622-4621) with questions regarding USPS and TEAMS employees.