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HireRight provides easier, more efficient background checks

Typically, it will cost $45.75 to run a criminal background check on a national level through HireRight. But please be aware that additional costs may be incurred if additional investigations are required as a result of an initial discovery—for example, in a case when an applicant’s alias shows up and a background check is done on the applicant’s alias as well as on his or her primary given name.

Initiating background checks through HireRight is easy. To do so, check the box next to “HireRight” when you complete the Background Check Screening Request form and indicate the applicant’s e-mail address. An e-mail will be sent to the applicant requesting that he or she submit appropriate information for the background check. The Background Check Screening Request form can be found on the Forms section of Human Resource Services web site. Please fax your request form to Recruitment & Staffing at (352) 392-7094. To ensure an applicant’s private information is protected, please do not e-mail the request. 

If you have any questions about HireRight or background checks, please contact John Sun or Marjorie Belcher by phone at (352) 392-2477 or by e-mail at jsun@ufl.edu or marjorie-belcher@ufl.edu.

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Register today for myUF Market hands-on training

To ensure space availability, each college/department has been provided a targeted week or weeks during which employees should attend training. Please refer the schedule on the myUF Market section of UF Purchasing’s web site to identify your department’s scheduled week before registering for a session.  Units will go live with myUF Market as their training week begins and once security is in place. DSAs can request security for Requestors within a day or two after Requestors have attended training.

Pilot Participants need not re-attend
Departments participating in the pilot launch of the myUF Market and who have already attended hands-on training (PST073--PILOT ONLY in the myUFL system) do not need to re-attend this hands-on training.

Registration opens April 13
In the myUFL system, navigate to My Self Service > Training and Development > Request Training Enrollment.  Search for PST073 and register for the appropriate week based on your department ID—or register to attend during the “make-up” week provided in June.  Again, to determine your targeted week of training, please visit the schedule on the myUF Market web site. Please contact UF Training and Organizational Development with questions or concerns: training@ufl.edu.

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UF Appointment Review for summer student terminations now available

To access the appropriate online screen, sign onto myUFL and navigate to Workforce Administration > Job Information > UF Appointment Review. The file lists current STAS and FWSP appointments as well as the students' eligibility for summer STAS and FWSP appointments. You may select the appointments to be terminated at the end of the term, eliminating the need to enter an ePAF for each termination.

Critical dates for this new process are:

Friday, April 24
File closed to departments. All changes must be entered by 5:00 p.m.
Monday, May 4
Effective date of termination and terminations available for review in job data

To assist with this process, an instruction guide is available.

As a reminder, if a student remains eligible for a student assistant position and he or she continues to be employed in the same department, a work permit for summer employment will no longer be required. Departments also are no longer required to submit a copy of the hire paperwork for OPS employees who have been employed by the university in any capacity, including student assistants, within the past 12 months.

As always, changes to appointments may be made through ePAF.

Please contact Student Employment at (352) 392-0296 or student_employment@sfa.ufl.edu if you have any questions.

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Employees must report 2008-09 compensatory leave use by May 14

In keeping with past practice, departments are encouraged to require employees to use accrued compensatory leave prior to the cash out to minimize compensatory leave cash-out payments. Supervisors may require the use of compensatory leave prior to approving the use of vacation.

• May 14 is the deadline for all entries relating to use, corrections or adjustments of 2008-09 overtime and special compensatory leave balances. This includes “swapping out” of overtime and special compensatory leave for prior use of vacation or other leaves or otherwise using these compensatory leaves retroactively.
• Compensatory leave that will be used by June 30 also must be entered into the system no later than 5 p.m. on May 14 or it will be cashed out automatically.
• NO special or overtime compensatory leave usage should be entered in the system after 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 14—when the compensatory leave balances will be “pulled” to determine cash-out amounts. This would cause employees to be paid twice—once from the automatic cash out of hours and once from the usage entered after May 14—and also would cause negative compensatory leave balances.  Therefore, if compensatory leave usage is entered incorrectly, it should be deleted.
• The time and labor entries must be entered and approved by the end of the May 1 –14 pay period so they can be processed on the accrual for May 14. After that, it is too late and would cause the negative balance/paid twice situation.
• Time approvers should not approve any overtime or special compensatory leave entries for 2008-09 that are entered into the system from May 15 or thereafter.
• Overtime or special compensatory leave earned beginning with the May 15 – 28 pay period will carry over into the 2009-10 fiscal year and will not automatically be cashed out this fiscal year.
• Beginning with the May 15 – 28 pay period, please contact Leave Administration before making any corrections in Time & Labor that will impact compensatory leave balances in prior pay periods.
• “Leave Accruals, Usage and Balances by Pay Period, Department” and the “Leave Accruals, Usage, and Balances by Pay Period, Department – COMP ONLY” reports are available in Enterprise Reporting (The navigation is Enterprise Reporting > Human Resources Information > Benefits Information > Leave.) You must have the security role of UF_ER_HRPR_BEN_LEAVE to access these reports.

Questions?  Please contact Leave Administration at (352) 392-2477 or central-leave@ufl.edu or Payroll Services at (352) 392-1231.

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Federal changes in reporting race and ethnicity will require departments to evaluate systems

Beginning in 2010, federal and state data reporting will include new choices to describe race and ethnicity. As a result of these changes, HRS is asking departments to provide certain information, as described below, by May 22, 2009.

The Federal Government requires that the new race/ethnicity codes be reported by 2010. This will require the University of Florida to change many of its systems, databases, and computer programs well ahead of that date. These changes will impact the type of information we collect, store, and ultimately report to various regulating bodies.

Examples of data that will be impacted include employee information, student data, and law enforcement statistics, among others. Organizations with which we do business or exchange information will also be changing their data on race and ethnicity, and we will need to accommodate their data changes.

In order to prepare for these changes, the university has created the Race and Ethnicity Codes Transition Team, a group of UF staff members that operates under the auspices of UF’s Office of Human Resource Services. The team’s mission is to help guide the university through this change so we are able to comply properly with the new federal guidelines.

The transition is expected to take about two years. Beginning in the fall of 2009, the university will resurvey individual faculty, staff, and students to give them the opportunity to identify their race and ethnicities using the new codes.

To help you navigate this process, the transition team has created a web page that includes some basic information about the change, a list of frequently asked questions and answers, a timeline for the transition process, as well as other resources.

On this web page, you will be asked to identify all of the systems, databases and computer programs on campus that will need to be changed to accommodate the new race and ethnicity codes. To this end, the web site contains a set of online forms for you to use in reporting. You will need a GatorLink ID to enter the data. You are asked only to report those systems, databases, or computer programs for which you have ownership or responsibility. The university’s main administrative systems are being inventoried separately.

Please complete your online reporting by May 22, 2009.

Further communications regarding the transition of this project will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please take a few minutes to visit the web site, familiarize yourself with the transition, and determine how these changes may affect you.

If you have any questions, please contact either Marie Zeglen, assistant provost for Institutional Planning and Research, at zeglenm@ufl.edu, or Larry T. Ellis, director of HRS administration and Equal Employment Opportunity, at larry-ellis@ufl.edu.

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New stimulus package results in COBRA changes

For the University of Florida, this will have an impact on the COBRA continuation coverage administered by People First.  Both the state of Florida and People First are aggressively reviewing the provisions that affect COBRA in order to make necessary changes to comply with the new law.  For some UF employees who have recently lost their jobs, the expanded COBRA changes may enable them to qualify for the following:

• COBRA Subsidy
  • Qualified beneficiaries, who have experienced involuntary termination on or after September 1, 2008, and through December 31, 2009, and lost coverage under the group health plan, may be eligible to receive a 65 percent subsidy of their COBRA premiums for up to nine months beginning March 1, 2009.
• All health and possibly supplemental plans, excluding Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), are eligible for the subsidy.
• Special Election Period
• Individuals that otherwise qualify for the subsidy but did not elect COBRA prior to, or who elected but are no longer enrolled as of the date of enactment, will have a second election period of 60 days to enroll with corresponding instructions.
• Plan administrators are responsible for sending new COBRA notifications with information on the subsidy and/or offering a second election period with corresponding instructions by April 18, 2009. 
• Optional Coverage Offerings (Plan Enrollment Option)
• The state of Florida may (but is not required to) offer a subsidy-eligible individual to change health coverage under an equal or lower premium (cost) plan offered to active employees.

Individuals qualified to receive the subsidy will be responsible for 35 percent of the COBRA premium, and UF will be responsible for paying the remaining 65 percent of the cost.  According to the stimulus package, employers will later be able to reclaim the 65 percent cost through payroll tax credits.  Although no specific process has been determined by the state yet on how employer premiums and tax credits will be handled, the changes could have an effect on UF’s administrative and payroll processes.

In anticipation of being invoiced for the 65 percent subsidy, UF is considering options of paying employer rates from a central account rather than charging and later reimbursing individual department accounts.  As the state finalizes the premium collection process, more information will be shared as it becomes available.   

COBRA changes became effective March 1, 2009. Like most plan administrators, the Division of State Group Insurance is seeking additional guidance from the Department of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services, which is expected to release more information soon.  Questions?  Contact University Benefits and Retirement at (352) 392-2477 or benefits@ufl.edu.

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GatorGradCare enrollment is underway

Summer-only coverage includes the period of May 16 through August 15 for students who did not enroll in annual or spring/summer coverage for the 2008-09 academic year.  Students must meet the GatorGradCare eligibility requirements to enroll in summer-only coverage. 

Graduate students who meet the eligibility requirements may also enroll in GatorGradCare plans for the 2009-10 academic year now through September 14.  The coverage terms available during this enrollment period are the following:

• Annual:  August 16, 2009 – August 15, 2010
• Fall Only:  August 16 – December 31, 2009
• Fall/Spring:  August 16, 2009 – May 15, 2010

Students interested in annual, fall-only, or fall/spring coverage must log on to www.gatorgradcare.com to complete the enrollment process before September 14.  International students must enroll in the annual plan in order to meet the Board of Governor requirements.  Domestic students also are strongly encouraged to enroll in the annual plan.

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New general deduction codes introduced

The GRNINI (Initial Fee for Garn) one-time fee of $5.00 will be deducted for each new garnishment, and the GRNREC (Recurring Fee for Garn) of $2.00 for each garnishment will be deducted each pay cycle. For example, if an employee has two child-support orders, the GRNREC will be $4.00 each pay cycle. The amount of the employee’s garnishment will not be affected by the GRNINI or GRNREC.

All new garnishment orders entered in myUFL after March 19, 2009, will have a one-time GRNINI deduction of $5.00, followed by GRNREC deductions of $2.00 each pay cycle. All employees with current garnishment orders will have a GRNREC of $2.00 for each garnishment deducted each pay cycle. If you have any questions, please e-mail University Payroll Services at payrollhelp@ufl.edu or call (352) 392-1231.

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FICA Alternative participants must be terminated prior to requesting distributions

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Approve payable time regularly to ensure accurate savings deductions

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Retirement workshops added for April

University Retirement has opened two additional workshops in April in its Retirement and Financial Planning Series:

GET127, Retire With Confidence
Thursday, April 23, 10:00 to 10:45 a.m., HPNP Building, Room 1320
Taught by Kinsman and Kutz, MetLife Financial Advisors, “Retire with Confidence...Optimizing Your Retirement Benefits" is a 45-minute seminar  geared toward individuals closer to retirement. The session will take a closer look at your retirement benefits and how to maximize them.

GET128, Putting Balance in Your Favor
Thursday, April 23, 11:15 a.m. to 12:00 noon, HPNP Building, Room 1320
Also taught by Kinsman and Kutz, MetLife Financial Advisors, “Putting Balance in Your Favor...How to Manage the Ups and Downs Within the Stock Market," is a 45-minute seminar that will focus on what has happened within the last year in the stock market, along with the importance of understanding risk tolerance, diversification, and asset allocation.

Register online via the myUFL system—My Self Service > Training and Development > Request Training Enrollment.

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©2009 University of Florida Office of Human Resource Services
The InfoGator for Department Administrators is a monthly e-publication produced by the University of Florida’s Office of Human Resource Services. It is distributed electronically to UF faculty and staff and is available online. Please direct questions or comments to its editor, Angie Brown; Human Resource Services; P.O. Box 115006; (352) 392-4626; TDD 800-955-8771. The InfoGator is available in an alternative format upon request.