Business Matters January 2016
Upcoming Business Forum
The next Business Forum is scheduled for Thursday, February 4, 2016 from 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm in HRTC 141/145. The meeting will be broadcast via Adobe Connect and can be accessed here: February Business Forum Broadcast. Please mark your calendars.
Note that the format of the Business Forums has shifted to highlight the collaborative work of University Partner Groups.
Questions? Contact finhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1893.
Career Connection to Offer Health Care Plans
As a reminder, as of January 1, 2016 local temporary staffing services provider, Career Connections, offers an affordable health care plan to all of their employees working 30 or more hours per week after an initial probationary period has been met. Please see page 1 of the December 2015 Business Matters for more details.
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636.
FY 2016 Payroll Calendar
As a reminder, the 2016 Payroll Calendar is now available on the Payroll Calendars web page. This calendar identifies key payroll dates and deadlines, including the direct deposit dates for both the bi-weekly and semi-monthly dates.
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636.
Student Hiring for Spring Semester
A reminder for Student Hiring Managers: The updated Student Hire Paperwork web page is available to assist departments in the process of hiring new student employees. Please use the updated 2016 documents.
Deadlines of Note:
- Forms should be submitted to the Employee Service Center no later than the 2nd Friday that falls within the student’s first pay period to ensure timely processing.
- If hiring a large volume of students, please do not hold paperwork; send daily if possible.
| Students’ Starting Date Range | Paperwork Deadline |
|---|---|
| 12/27/15 – 1/9/16 | Friday, 1/8/2016 |
| 1/10/16 – 1/23/16 | Friday, 1/22/2016 |
| 1/24/16 – 2/6/16 | Friday, 2/5/2016 |
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636.
COMP 2014 Equity Adjustment Update
As announced on page 4 of the November 2015 Business Matters, University Human Resources has moved forward with reviewing employee equity. The COMP 2014 Project, covering classified non-bargaining employees and administrative/professional employees on all campuses, was successfully implemented in 2014. As a result, the voluntary resolution agreement between Ohio University and the Department of Education has closed. One of the challenges anticipated as a result of the project was unintentional pay compression and inversion caused by the implementation of a new market based pay structure. We requested additional funding in FY 2016 to be utilized for base salary increases to address issues that resulted from the salary compression and inversion. We understand that this process will not remedy all pay inversion and compression issues; however, this is a step towards addressing concerns with regard to pay position within the pay grade.
The Total Compensation Committee approved a Compa Ratio equity adjustment methodology based on the length of time an employee is in a job (job entry date). Compa Ratio represents the position of employee pay in reference to pay grade midpoint. It is a standard practice to use Compa Ratio when evaluating employee compensation. The goal is to focus on employees with a Compa Ratio less than 1.0 and who have a lower than expected Compa Ratio based upon the number of years in their current job. This targets our efforts towards employees who are paid below the market reference point for their job.
University Human Resources is working in conjunction with the Compensation Partner Group and Planning Unit representatives to address the identified areas of compression or inversion. Employees who are eligible for an increase were notified by email in the first week of January. Employees will not receive equity increases that exceed the market reference point (pay grade midpoint) or if the equity adjustment on an annualized basis would be $300 dollars or less. Employees must be actively employed at the time of payout to be eligible. Equity adjustments will be effective December 27th, 2015 for employees paid on a bi-weekly basis and January 1st, 2016 for employees paid on a semi-monthly basis.
Questions? Contact the Compensation Office in Human Resources at compensation@ohio.edu or your HR Liaison.
Human Resources Widens Recruitment Net
University Human Resources (UHR) is pleased to announce two new partners in recruitment: Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) and DiversityJobs.
According to HERC: “Our mission is to advance the efforts of our member organizations to recruit and retain outstanding and diverse faculty and staff and to assist dual-career couples. Our organizations are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in the recruitment process and in providing an environment sensitive to work/life balance. We understand that employment decisions often involve two careers and offer state of the art dual career technology.”
HERC offers the largest database of higher education and related jobs in the world and is a non-profit consortium of over 700 colleges, universities, hospitals, research labs, government agencies, and related non- and for-profit organizations. All faculty and staff positions will be automatically posted to HERC. More information about HERC can be found on the HERC website.
UHR’s partnership with DiversityJobs provides visibility and presence to over 750,000 unique monthly visitors searching for employment with organizations that celebrate diversity and inclusivity. DiversityJobs also places OHIO job postings on the following sites for specific diversity and minority groups: VeteranJobs, DisabilityJobs, AfricanAmericanHires, AsianHires WeHireWomen, AllLGBTJobs, AllHispanicJobs, and LatinoJobs. Additionally, postings are distributed to JustJobs.com and to all 3000+ niche JustJobs sites that match the industry, function, location, and keywords within each Ohio University job posting. All regular faculty and staff positions will automatically be distributed and posted on the DiversityJobs and JustJobs networks.
In the past, many departments purchased “Affirmative Action Email Blasts” from Higheredjobs.com through UHR. Another benefit of our partnership with DiversityJobs includes a similar e-mail service, but with no additional cost to departments! When jobs are posted on diversityjobs.com, they are also emailed to over 350,000 subscribers who opt-in to receive such alerts.
Hiring managers should contact their HR Liaison with any questions regarding recruitment and these partners. UHR will continue to utilize HigherEdJobs, LinkedIn, Twitter, and OhioMeansJobs to assist in attracting top talent.
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636.
Reconciling W-2 to Final Pay Slip
W-2 forms will be available online or mailed to employees who have not requested electronic delivery no later than February 1, 2016. All employees will be notified by email when they are available online.
Occasionally, employees are confused when their gross earnings on their W-2 do not match the gross earnings on their final pay slip. The following will help you to reconcile the two forms.
On your pay slip, locate your YTD Gross Amount.
Next, review your Pre-Tax Deductions.
Finally, subtract all Pre-tax Deductions from your YTD Gross Amount and the final amount should be represented in Box 1 on your W-2.
$91,231.56
(9,111.12)
(1,221.48)
(150.00)
$80,748.96
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636
Closing Terminated Employee PCards
As a reminder, please ensure that PCards are cancelled in a timely fashion when employees leave Ohio University.
When an employee terminates employment, Procurement should be notified at procurement.card@ohio.edu to close the employee’s PCard promptly. To streamline the process, Procurement will only accept this request from the CFAO or FMG of a department.
To help protect University assets, please ensure this step becomes a standard part of your employee termination process.
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
JPMC PCard Reissuance
In order to comply with new standards due to the addition of credit card “Chips”, JPMC will be reissuing Ohio University PCards this March. Procurement will follow the same procedure as the last JPMC reissuance where planning units determine if they would like to issue from the Planning Unit or if they would like for the PCards to be issued from Finance Customer Care. Stay tuned for more information in the February Business Matter.
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
The Parking Spot – Port Columbus Airport Parking
Effective January 1, 2016, The Parking Spot will be implementing a $0.25 increase to the self-parking retail rates in Columbus, Ohio. The rate for valet parking will not change.
| The Parking Spot Columbus | OHIO Discounted Daily Rates 1 | Retail Rate | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Please note rates do not include a 10% airport use recovery fee. | |||
| Self-parking | $4.88 (25% off) | $6.50 | $1.62/day |
| Valet parking | $7.46 (25% off) | $9.95 | $2.49/day |
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
IRS Standard Mileage Rates Dropping in 2016
The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2016 standard mileage rates that can be used to calculate the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for purposes such as work and medical.
Effective January 1, 2016, Concur reflects the new standard business rate of $0.54 per mile (down from $0.575).
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
P2P Training Opportunities
Don’t miss out on training and informational sessions offered by Procure to Pay.
P2P Open Lab
Bring any BobcatBUY, Concur, PCard, or other P2P work to this session and work through it with our trainers!
BobcatBUY
Concur
Roadshows
All of the roadshows listed below are also available upon request.
- Register for a Procure to Pay Roadshow
- Register for a Policy Update Roadshow
- Register for a Contract Roadshow
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
P2P Discontinuing Use of Old Phone Number
P2P will be discontinuing the use of 740-593-1960 in January. This number served as a generalize Procurement number in the past but has been replaced by the Finance Customer Care number: 740.597.6446 (740.597.OHIO). Please do not hesitate to reach out to Finance Customer Care if you have any questions.
Questions? Contact financecustomercare@ohio.edu or 740.597.6446.
Absence Management Tool Available March 1
As previously announced, implementation of the Absence Management tool is underway. This will enable employees paid on a salaried semi-monthly basis to submit work absence-related information electronically in My Personal Information (MPI) and eliminate the need to complete a paper form for Paid Time Off (PTO).
As part of the launch strategy, several groups of OHIO employees have participated in a series of pilot groups since late October 2015. University Human Resources is excited to announce that effective March 1, 2016, all salaried employees paid on a semi-monthly basis will perform absence management in MPI.
Several training materials will be available to ensure employees are prepared to use Absence Management. In February, online training videos and reference guides will be shared and in-person demonstrations will be scheduled. These training tools will demonstrate how to view PTO accrual balances, query for projected accrual balances when planning for future time off, submit absence requests, view absence history and the automated routing of absence requests. Managers will also be shown how to take action on employee requests.
In late January, additional communication regarding access to training materials and demonstration registration will be published in Compass and sent via email to all impacted employees. Please do not attempt to utilize Absence Management until formally notified to do so.
Questions? Contact the Employee Service Center at uhr@ohio.edu or 740.593.1636.
Chart of Accounts and the New Grants Module
The Chart of Accounts (COA) Project Team is finalizing the segment values for the new COA. The COA Partner Group has been involved in reviewing current Natural Accounts with the goal of streamlined and well-defined categories within the Natural Account segment. Other established Partner Groups on campus will also have the opportunity to provide feedback on segment value definitions. In addition, both the RC Technical Group and RC Strategy Group will also be given the opportunity to validate and provide feedback on the new value set.
Currently, a database is being configured to hold the new COA. This is an important step for the COA project as, once completed, it will provide an environment to load and test the new segments and values. The next key initiative for campus users will be mapping and converting current COA data to the new COA structure. This will occur within the first few months of 2016. A plan is being created to work with each Planning Unit to finalize their organizational structure and map their data. More information will be provided in the coming weeks.
The COA Project Team will also launch a website in January. This website will include consolidated information related to the COA Redesign Project such as events, campus involvement, news and announcements, project team(s) and FAQs. Watch Compass and Business Matters for more details about the website and the COA Redesign Project.
Concurrently with the COA redesign, the Grants team will be wrapping up the preliminary design phase of the Grants Accounting module. During this phase, the delivered functionality of the Grants module is being examined and current state processes defined. The result of these activities is an analysis of the gaps between the delivered Grants product and current processes. The next phase will include garnering user feedback on options. By the end of February, a high-level implementation plan will be created. This plan will be used to define detailed activities for the next phase of the project, building of the delivered system and the plan for user readiness.
Beginning in mid-January, a concentrated effort will begin to coordinate the Grants Accounting module implementation and the Chart of Accounts (COA) Redesign Project from a communications and training perspective. As this plan is developed it will be vetted with various stakeholder groups on campus to ensure that the solution is comprehensive and meets the needs of the campus community.
Questions or feedback? Contact the Chart of Accounts Project Team at coa@ohio.edu