HR Direct

All managers are invited to attend a Time Approval class.  These classes are being offered as an additional method for users to learn how to review and approve their employees time.   

Feel free to attend if you are a new supervisor or if you've been using it for a while and just want to make sure you're using all the functionality.  HR/Payroll staff will be available to answer questions on both HR Direct and campus policy and procedures.

Four classes have been scheduled and more will be added if needed.

• Thursday, May 31 from 1PM-3PM in Oleary 237
• Wednesday, June 6 from 11AM-1PM in Southwick 302.
• Wednesday, June 20 from 11AM-1PM in O'Leary 237
• Thursday, June 21 from 1PM-3PM in Southwick 302

To sign up for a class, please email Norma Clark (norma_clark@uml.edu).

Managers often ask why they can't immediately approve time after an employee enters it in HR Direct.  If you are a manager and want to know more, please continue reading.

The short answer is a process called Time Administration. 

Before a manager can approve any reported time, a PeopleSoft process called Time Administration needs to run to completion.  Time Administration takes the "reported time" and processes it through a rules engine and turns it into "payable time".   If there are any errors, they will be stored as exceptions -- those need to be fixed before the employee can be paid for those hours in error. 

Example (Student Hourly Employee) -  if person reported 9 hours worked in a day, the time administration would convert that to 8 hours at straight time & 1 hour of overtime

Example (Salaried Professional) - if a person reported 4.0 hours Vacation and nothing else, then time administration would move the day into error (exception) as there needs to be an off-setting 3.5 hours of Regular time to make the employee day whole.

UMass managers are only approving time that has been successfully processed by Time Administration and turned into "Payable Time".   This process is usually run a couple times per day (See below).

When should I approve time?

The suggested best time to approve is on "Approval Monday".  Employees should have reported time by the Sunday following the close of the pay period.   Then time administration would have run and is available for the managers to approve all day Monday.   Early approval is possible once you understand the cycles for Time Administration and set necessary expectations with your staff.

When does Time Administration run?

The Time Administration process is run in batch at 12 PM (Noon) and 5 PM on most days.  The process takes up to 60 minutes to complete.  So for example if employee reports time in HR Direct prior to Noon, then it should be available for a manager to approve after 1 PM.

On the "Approval Monday", the Time Administration Process runs a bit more frequently

• 9:30 AM
• 12:30 PM
• 3:30 PM
• 8:00 PM
• 12:00 AM (Midnight) 

When I make an update to an employees reported time via manager self-service, do I still need to wait for Time Administration to run before I can approve it?

YES.  All reported time (regardless of entry point) needs to run through Time Administration before it can be approved.

NOTE: This blog entry was originally posted on 10/13/10.   Updates made 11/15/11 and 4/24/12

Evacuation Floating Holiday - Saturday March 17th is the Evacuation floating holiday.  Observance of this holiday will be on Friday March 16th for employees in eligible bargaining units. 

Employees who work on Friday, March 16th will need to make updates to their time reporting.

For time reporting instructions, please see Floating Holiday Job Aid (PDF)

On Saturday, March 3rd the technology support team completed an upgrade to the back end technical tools which power HR Direct. 

To ensure optimal system performance, users are encouraged to clean browser history before using HR Direct.  This can help prevent performance issues and keep users from receiving data integrity errors. 

Here is a quick job aid to show how to clear history and cache for some common web browsers.

 HR Direct - Browser Cleanup

A user asked about delegation of time approval today, so I figured I'd repost and update some information we first published over a year ago.  This isn't new functionality as this has been in place since we began self-service time approval in 2010.

So you are a manager and will be heading on vacation, how do you handle time approval for your employees?

While a manager can still access HR Direct and peform time approvals from anywhere in the world (with PC and network connection), there are times when it is necessary to have someone else do your approvals.

Per design, managers can not manually delegate their time approval responsibilities.  However, the system was designed with an automated delegation process built in so all managers have someone else who can approve time for them if they are out of the office.   At its simplest form, as a manager you also have manager -- and that person can approve for you if you are going to be away from the office.

So what do I need to do to get my manager the access to do approvals while I'm away?

All managers should already have access to HR Direct manager self-service.  You should just have a conversation with your manager to arrange for them to do your approvals.  

Who do we contact if there are questions?

Melissa Sullivan(x3538) is the Payroll Operations Manager and she can answer most questions on this.  Additionally, Richard Conley (x4794) or Norma Clark (x4764) from the Administrative Systems office can assist. 

W2 Year End Forms have been mailed to addresses on file within HR Direct as of 1/10/12.

W2's are also now available for employees in HR Direct under Self Service > Payroll and Compensation. 

Employees looking for additional information on their 2011 W2 can click onto the UMASS W2 Information link for a more detailed explanation on 2011 tax reporting

2011_W2_Information_20120119.pdf

If users need any assistance you can see the following:

• View W-2 Job Aid
• Viewing W-2 UPK  (see "Viewing and Updating Payroll and Compensation Data" section)

2011 Personal Time

Employees have through the first pay period of 2012 to use 2011 personal days.  The last day that personal time from 2011 can be reported is January 14, 2012.

2012 Personal Time

Personal time for calendar year 2012 will be awarded in the pay period ending January 14, 2012.   Employees can beging using 2012 personal time on January 15, 2012.

Staff members who wish to participate in the voluntary closings must use available vacation or personal leave time, consistent with their collective bargaining agreements or personnel policies.  Employees also may take the time off without pay, if they have not accrued sufficient vacation or personal time or otherwise choose to do so. The university will be officially observing the holidays on Monday December 26^th (for Christmas holiday December 25^th) and on Monday January 2^nd 2012 (For New Year’s January 1^st 2012).

Employees who have not accrued sufficient vacation or personal time and need to take time off with no pay should enter the time reporting code of NOP (No Pay).

Employees are encouraged to report their time as early as possible and time can be reported prior to the start of the leave.

Summit for HR, really?

Summit is not just for Finance.  Summit is UMass' enterprise reporting application that will be used for human resource reporting starting this fall.   And soon there will also be dashboards available for reporting on data in iSiS and eventually out of Advancement. 

What is Summit?

Summit is the next generation of reporting tools.  It provides users with a single reporting application to access data across multiple environments such as Finance and Human Resources.   Data is displayed in table or graph formats through the use of dashboards. 

Summit is a collaborative project across the UMass System.   While the first version of the dashboards are developed through input from a small group of campus users, this is a tool that will be continuously evolving and improving based upon feedback from all end users.

So what is in the Human Resource Dashboard?

Department managers will soon get access to see a new Human Resource (HR) Dashboard within Summit. This dashboard will provide users with information such as:

• Leave balances and utilization
• Views of dates contracts and encumbrances are ending
• Listing of staff members and key personnel data (ex. job code, title, department, salary)
• View of department transactions and payroll for each pay period

Who has access to the HR Dashboard?

There are just a few pilot users currently using this dashboard.  The intention is to soon roll this out to a number of managers, as by virtue of their role in the organization should have access to this data.   Eventually, we will also be able to provide other users access upon authorization from their manager.   In all cases, we need to carefully review security configurations to ensure persons receive the appropriate access.

Who to contact with Questions?

Questions about the Summit application can be directed to Richard Conley, IT Project Manager -- (x4794).   Rich will work with the respective business offices and project team on any of the feedback or questions that are presented.  

The following is a message from Vice Chancellor Joanne Yestramski as posted in UML Today

++++++++++++++++++

As of Sept. 30, all employees of the University of Massachusetts who have set-up direct deposit will access their pay advice on-line through HR Direct. Pay advices will NO LONGER be printed. This change was initiated by the UMass President’s Office, in order to cut down on paper usage, helping to make the University more “green.”

When you log on to HR Direct, you will find simple instructions on how to access your pay advice. The President’s Office has spearheaded this initiative and has created a brief instruction guide on how to access your pay advice on-line which is available on the HR Direct main website. 

With HR Direct, your pay advices are available on-line at your convenience 24 hours a day, seven days a week. HR Direct is available on campus and from off-campus remote locations.  This on-line version of your pay advice is an exact replica of your paper pay stub.

When you log into HR Direct, you will see a dialogue box which says: View Paychecks. If you are not able to view the pdf of your pay advice, you may need to disable your pop-up blocker.

Your log-on credentials for HR Direct are the same as the user ID and password that you use to access your e-mail.

If you have not yet set up direct deposit, you will continue to receive your printed paycheck as you do now.  However, we encourage you to consider “going green.”

We also want to take this opportunity to remind you about the several other self-service functions currently available through Hr Direct:

• View and change personal information including: 
Emergency Contacts 
Personal E-mail Addresses 
Home and Mailing Addresses 
Personal Phone/Cell Numbers

• View paycheck information 
• Enroll in and modify direct deposit information 
• Update state and federal tax withholding information 
• View and print W2/W2C forms
• View your training history

Related Links:

• HR Direct Home Page --- http://www.uml.edu/hrdirect
• UML Today Announcement - http://intranet.uml.edu/umltoday/fs/viewannouncement.aspx?id=12908 
• Job Aid on Viewing Pay Advices - http://www.uml.edu/admin/ASI/documents/HR/Self_Service/Viewing_Pay_Advice.pdf