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May 2014

Volume 11 | Issue 10

Plan to Attend 20-Year Club Dinner

The annual 20-Year Club celebration will take place on Tuesday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m. with a reception, dinner and awards ceremony. The event will be held in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

Twenty-six employees will be inducted this year. Please join in the celebration with these classified and unclassified employees who have achieved 20 years of continuous service at Kent State University. You may visit the 20-Year Club website to see a list of inductees and to register for the event. 

The university community is invited to celebrate this milestone with the inductees, inductees’ families and friends.  Please share this reminder with your department. Registration deadline is May 14.

For more information, please contact Geraldine Hayes-Nelson, Ph.D., at 330-672-2901 or ghnelson@kent.edu.



It’s May and That Means – Annual Steam Shutdown

In order to perform necessary maintenance on the boilers, steam transmission systems and electrical distribution systems, Kent State University’s Power Plant will be shut down from 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 11, until 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 18.

As a result of the steam shut down, most buildings located on the Kent Campus will not have hot water to sinks and showers, and/or heat and air conditioning.

Address any questions about this project to Frank Renovich at 330-672-0775 or frenovi2@kent.edu.

Summer Student and Graduate Assistant Hiring

With the summer quickly approaching, it is important to hire part-time temporary employees through the most appropriate process — whether it is through Human Resources, Academic Personnel or Student Employment. Many departments wish to continue to employ their graduate assistants during the summer. If graduate assistants’ academic-year appointments end in May, and they will return in August and are registered, then they may be hired as student employees during the summer (May 11- Aug. 23). The basic rule of thumb for supervisors to remember is that if employees meet the credit hour enrollment requirement, they should be hired through student employment. Supervisors may verify whether potential student employees meet the credit hour enrollment requirement by logging in to CampusWorks and beginning the hiring process using a student’s FlashLine ID and selecting the hiring term. Once the supervisor clicks continue, if the student does not meet the enrollment requirement, a message will alert the hiring supervisor. Supervisors may also contact the Career Services Center at 22360 for enrollment verification.

If your department plans to employ a high school student, the student must be hired via the paper Student Job Hiring Form available in the Career Services Center Forms Library. This process is for all students who are currently attending high school or taking classes at Kent State through the Post-secondary Enrollment Option Program.

Questions regarding student employment can be directed to Ami Hollis at ahollis@kent.edu or 28380.

New Policy Addresses University-sponsored Activities Involving Minors

The Kent State Board of Trustees in March approved University Policy 3342-5-19, which protects minors who participate in university-sponsored programs that occur on a Kent State campus or at an off-site location.

Activities include, but are not limited to, any university-sponsored day camp, overnight camp or recruiting camp, as well as residential facilities providing housing for such camps.

The new policy requires registering the program with the Office of Compliance and Risk Management at Kent State; conducting background checks and training for all university personnel working with minors, including volunteers; adhering to minimum ratios of authorized adults to minors and reporting of suspected abuse. 

Please make sure the appropriate people in your department are aware of the new requirements. More information on the requirements, as well as training resources, will be available soon on the Compliance and Risk Management website. 

Questions should be directed to the Office of Compliance and Risk Management at 330-672-1944.

Proper Procedures for Using and Reporting Vacation Leave

With vacation season upon us, please read and share the below information pertaining to the proper procedures for using and reporting vacation leave for supervisors and employees.

Vacation is earned each pay period according to eligible employees’ years of service and job appointment (e.g., classified or unclassified). Eligible employees are expected to use vacation time for rest, relaxation and other personal reasons during the year in which it is earned.  A detailed explanation of vacation accrual rates, eligibility and usage is in administrative policy 6-11.7. You can also view the accrual schedule online. According to the policy, both supervisors and employees eligible to earn vacation have certain responsibilities.
 
Supervisor’s Responsibilities

Supervisors are responsible for making sure that employees submit all vacation time that is taken. Supervisors do not have the authority to “give someone the day off” without reporting it as leave.
 
Supervisors who allow employees to take leave without reporting it may be subject to disciplinary measures.  Situations where the employee does not report to work and there is no leave request to document the absence can create legal implications for the university.
 
Supervisors do not have the authority to allow an employee to work from home on an ongoing basis. Kent State does not have a telecommuting policy, which means legal implications can arise from situations where an employee is working from home on a regular basis (e.g. a pre-defined number of days per week). Supervisors who allow an employee to telecommute on a regular basis may be subject to disciplinary measures.
 
Eligible Employee’s Responsibilities
 
Eligible employees are responsible for scheduling vacation time off in advance with their supervisor, so that the workflow in the department is not interrupted. Employees are encouraged to use their vacation time and supervisors are expected to approve reasonable requests that are made in advance.
 
Eligible employees are responsible for accurately reporting the number of vacation hours taken and submitting it for approval. If an employee has taken previous vacation time and not reported it, time should be submitted for approval immediately. As an employee of Kent State University, vacation leave is to be reported by the employee through the proper channels (classified employees submit leave through Kronos; unclassified employees and faculty use the Time Reporting channel in FlashLine). The leave should be submitted at the end of the pay period in which the leave was taken. 

If you use FlashLine to record and submit leave and need assistance with the process, video tutorials are available in the My HR and My Action Items tabs. Employees have two pay periods (30 days) to enter any vacation, sick or personal leave already taken.

If you have questions, contact Tia Laughlin, human resources records manager, at 330-672-8374 or tlmckee@kent.edu. 

Cellular Device Authorization Workflow Due in June

All employees authorized to have a university-owned cellular device or receive a stipend must complete the Cellular Device Authorization workflow for the 2015 fiscal year (see
Administrative Policy 7-02.15). The workflow is available in FlashLine, in the Workflow & Utilities channel on the My Action Items tab.


The workflow must be completed, including all required approvals, by June 30. The paper authorization form used in previous years will no longer be accepted; the workflow must be utilized for cellular device or stipend authorizations. The payroll effective date for stipend renewals will be July 1.

Questions regarding cellular device authorization in general should be directed to Procurement at 330-672-2276 or procurement@kent.edu. 

Questions regarding authorization for employees paid from a sponsored project should be directed to Debra Leonard, at 330-672-0988 or dleonard@kent.edu.

New E-learning Videos From Human Resources Training and Development

Take us with you on the go!  E-learning is a powerful instrument for developing the university work force … all at your fingertips! All Kent State University faculty and staff can enhance their professional development with HR Training and Development’s new e-learning videos.

E-learning material is based off existing workshops that can be used by employees to reference workshop materials on the go or sample upcoming courses that interest them. The ultimate goal is to provide all employees new opportunities to learn wherever and whenever they wish.

New material will be added monthly. The initial four videos draw from the always popular Dealing With Difficult Behaviors workshop. Learn new ways to handle the Exploder, Sherman Tank, Sniper and The Clam personality types.

Employees may view e-learning on their mobile device, tablet or desktop at www.kent.edu/hr/training/e-learning-materials.cfm. 

For questions or suggestions for e-learning workshops, contact Ron Smith at rsmith5@kent.edu or 330-672-2602. 

Performance Evaluations Coming Due

Please make sure staff members in your unit are aware that performance evaluations for classified and unclassified employees are now underway. March 19 through May 30 has been designated as the time to conduct the 2014 online performance evaluations for classified employees. The period for unclassified performance evaluations is April 2 through June 6.

Managers and supervisors of classified and unclassified employees received email notification in March with detailed information regarding the process and access instructions. As a reminder, recent enhancements include a performance log that can be used by your employees throughout the year to record their accomplishments, trainings and discussions.

For supervisors and managers who were unable to attend the April webinars, you may find both the Navigating the Online Evaluation Process and Assessing and Improving the Performance of Others on the Performance Evaluation Resources website. 

If you would like an HR representative to come to your unit and present an overview of the evaluation process, contact Karen Watson, employee relations manager, at 330-672-4636 or kswatson@kent.edu.

If you have questions on the classified performance evaluations, contact Watson or Janine Bogden at 330-672-8526 or jbogden@kent.edu.

Call for Campus Interoffice Envelopes

University Mail Services is requesting that any departments that have a surplus of large interoffice envelopes please return them to mail services.

Dates to Remember

National Asian/Pacific Heritage Month
National Older Peoples Month 

May 9
 Spring Advanced Degree Commencement, 6 p.m., Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Kent Campus. Visit the Commencement website. Spring Commencement at Regional Campuses; contact individual campuses for times and locations.
May 10
 Spring Baccalaureate Commencement, 9 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Kent Campus. Visit the Commencement website above for more information.
May 11
 Mother's Day
May 17
 Armed Forces Day
May 20
 20-Year Club Dinner, 5:30 p.m., Kent Student Center Ballroom. Reservations required. See article in this issue.  Reservations by due by May 14. Visit 20-Year Club website for details.
May 26
 		Memorial Day (university closed)
    

Tell Us What You Think

This e-newsletter is designed to keep you, the managers and supervisors, informed. Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think of it, along with any comments or suggestions. You may contact us at managersfeedback@kent.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.

For information about events and programs for university employees, please check out the Faculty and Staff calendar and share the information with your staff.