Important Reminder: You MUST submit RT tickets and supporting documentation to the AAOU SSC by the deadlines shown on the AAOU SSC deadline calendar. DO NOT use the HR deadline calendar for submission of RT tickets to the AAOU SSC, or you may miss the deadline.

The standard for student appointments is that they be placed on payroll in an hourly status.  There are instances, however, when the nature of work prevents departments from measuring work on an hourly basis.  In those instances, a request must be submitted to the back-office payroll manager prior to placing the Student employee on payroll in a zero-compensation status, or on a one-pay appointment for approval. 

ONE PAY APPOINTMENTS (Requires Pre-approval):

If you need to submit a student into a one pay appointment, the following information must be submitted:

·        Written request to the HR Payroll Manager (electronically), copying the AAOU SSC Business Specialist (Mike Renda) and Associate Director (Vania Cruz)

·        Will the appointment be project-based and for a limited number of hours?

·        Will the work be completed in less than 4 weeks (2 consecutive pay periods)?

·        Will this student be returning to the department within the same semester for another one-pay appointment?

·        Has the student already completed the work and the department neglected to submit the initial payroll packet.  This should be rare and department should have this type of payment preapproved by HR.

After you have received your approval from HR to place students into a one pay appointment, you need to submit an RT request to the AAOU SSC, as you normally would, and you must include the approval of your request from HR as an attachment to your ticket.

ZERO COMPENSATION APPOINTMENTS:

In some instances, a department may need to place a student employee on payroll at zero compensation based upon the nature of work. These may be submitted via the normal new hire/concurrent job process.  This work is: 

·        Not measured on an hour for hour basis; (Examples: Student Notetakers (paid by the number of lessons submitted), Retriever writers (paid flat amount by the article), Students who make their dorm room available during tour (paid flat amount by the day))

·        A special project that will last beyond 4 weeks, but requires sporadic hours; work output is based on project deliverable vs number of hours worked.  The Student has a specific period to get the work completed and then lump sum payment will occur.  In this instance, the department should be able to approximate the number of hours it will take to complete the work.  As long as the number of hours divided into the flat amount is equal to or above the current minimum wage, the zero-comp appointment will be processed.

Good Afternoon AAOU SSC Departments,

Recently, the AAOU SSC posted instructions explaining how to route documents through DocuSign in order to obtain the appropriate signatures. It has been brought to our attention that some do not have “Initiator” access within DocuSign, and are running into an issue where the option to create a “New” DocuSign envelope is not available. If you are running into this issue, please submit an RT ticket to DoIT requesting initiator access, which will enable the functionality to create new signature envelopes.

Please use the following link to request help: 

https://doit.umbc.edu/request-tracker-rt/doit-myumbc-tsc/. 

Once on the request page, please select “DocuSign” under “Request Type” and in the message section, specify that you are requesting initiator access to DocuSign.

If you have additional questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thank you,

AAOU SSC Team

As spring is the time when life begins anew, it is an excellent opportunity to “spring into action” to put a fresh face on payroll documentation starting with the I-9 ahead of June 30’s National ESIGN Day. Traditionally, maybe not the most exciting topic, payroll documentation and new hire paperwork, the Shared Services Center is excited to integrate the Earth-friendly application, the DocuSign Agreement Cloud and eSignature, to our on-boarding processes.

One small step for the SSC, but a greater leap forward for the planet, in partnership with Human Resources, and in compliance with 2000’s federal ESIGN Act, we are beginning to turn to electronic signatures and documents to secure our audit trails. While on its face, it may not be the first document we think of when refreshing a process, the I-9 Employment Eligibility Form will be the first piece of this puzzle. Ideal because it changes annually, the I-9 is a sensitive document because it includes identifying information including social security numbers, but also passport numbers, license numbers, and the sort of thinks we tend not to publish on our social media profiles, for example, and hence, requires special attention.

The key piece for hiring managers is that the I-9 needs to be completed within three days of the start of employment meaning the first day the employee actually works, the first day that we will pay them for their new jobs. Taking the document electronic does hasten the speed in which it is processed, however, it will require the collection of email addresses up front in the hiring process, an action that is likely already happening in a less pronounced way.

DocuSign was an ideal solution for UMBC because it has proven to be so secure and user-friendly in its intuitiveness and straightforward graphic use interface. The web-based application easily routes documents to the appropriate parties for signature and allows for review and approval through a user-defined predetermined route that also allows for carbon copies to be delivered. It is key to remember to alert recipients that documents will arrive via an email that will link into a DocuSign secure account, matching your UMBC username, where users can record their own signatures manually or with the use of a font.

The SSC is proud to incorporate DocuSign into our processes this spring. Never hesitate to reach out to our team with any questions or concerns, especially as we get used to the new tool in our belts that helps with our onboarding processes. We look forward to successful implementation so that we can take more steps towards more data in the clouds, more trees in the forest, and less paper across our desks.

For common questions regarding the usage of DocuSign, check out their FAQ at https://support.docusign.com/en/