Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Life Sciences/EBSL – Laura Egan, Kayla Montgomery
PS Behrend John M. Lilley Library – Kyle Bowden, Alexander Chasar, Nicole Greene, Monique LeBrun, Matthew Washburn
PS Schuylkill Ciletti Memorial Library -Lauren Gullberg, Bryan Underkoffler

Reminders for Employees Using the ESSIC Attendance System:

A few reminders for the Attendance System, for both users and approvers:

• December 2013 attendance records – Please remember that December 31st should be marked as “Official Campus Closure” for employees who normally work Tuesdays. Employees who were required to work on this day should have added Campus Closure Compensatory time off equivalent to the number of hours worked that day. Employees whose regular day off is Tuesday should have added the equivalent number of Campus Closure Compensatory hours with their accrued time.
• 2014 Personal Holiday hours – Full-time employees should add eight hours of personal holiday time (for 2014) when submitting the January attendance records at the end of this month. This is done on the accruals page that comes up when you click “Submit.” New employees must wait until they have completed their first two full months of employment before they may add in the 2014 personal holiday time.
• Holiday Compensatory Time – Please remember that any compensatory time earned should be used prior to any vacation.
• Vacation Maximums – Please be reminded of the vacation accrual maximums, found in HR-34 and the Libraries’ Faculty Sick and Medical Leave Policy . At the end of the month when you submit your attendance record, you must be at or below the maximum, or you will lose any time over that amount. If this occurs, when submitting the record, you must only mark the number of hours that will leave you at the maximum for your ending balance, rather than the actual time you would normally accrue.
• Submission and Approval – Employees are reminded to submit their attendance records at the end of every month. Supervisors are reminded to review information and approve the records on a monthly basis. It is extremely important that these records are completed, reviewed, and approved monthly.
• Recording Time Worked – As a reminder, all non-exempt employees must record all time worked using the “Time Worked (normal hours)” selection, plus account for any time missed. Exempt employees should only record time used to account for time missed (vacation, sick, etc.).

These reminders apply to all full-time employees. Part-time employees do not have access to the Attendance System and should be completing LabMan, or some sort of paper record for part-time exempt (staff or faculty, such as Fixed Term II appointments). All supervisors, of all types of employees, should be ensuring that their employees keep appropriate records and submit them on a timely basis in order review their time.

If you have any questions, please contact our office at 814-863-4949 .

Note: Dickinson School of Law Libraries and George T. Harrell Library employees are provided with this information as employees of the University Libraries; however, day-to-day operational practices are guided by their respective Colleges. Dickinson and College of Medicine Library employees should speak to their immediate supervisor or local HR Representative for guidance, as necessary. Conditions of employment for Technical-service employees are further described in the “Agreement between The Pennsylvania State University and Teamsters Local Union No. 8.” Technical-service employees should refer to the Agreement for information related to the above topics. Staff employees who are less than 100% should follow the guidance of policy HR-88 .

LHR Department Visits

As you may know, our staff try to regularly meet with UL departments in order to better understand department needs, have an opportunity for direct contact with employees, and to make ourselves available for questions. However, with the number of departments within the Libraries, it could take us a long time to reach out to your department. If you have a particular interest in having us join an upcoming department meeting, or setting up another time for our staff to meet with you, please let us know. We don’t typically have an agenda and usually just do Q&A, giving us an opportunity to sit down with departments and answer any questions your staff may have. Campuses, we want to meet with you, as well. We have been using Polycom and this has worked very well, so we can set up a Polycom meeting with you or find an alternative in order to “meet” with you! If you are interested in doing this, please contact Cathy O’Connell to set up a time for LHR to visit.