Please join us in welcoming the following new hires:

Part-time:
Cathleen Baker – Penn State Lehigh Valley
Caroline Silla – Library Assessment Department
Amelia Bishop – Welcome Desk, Knowledge Commons
Elisabeth Latimer – Peer Educator Intern, William and Joan Schreyer Business Library
Joshua Simmons – Peer Educator Intern, William and Joan Schreyer Business Library
Sumil Patel – Peer Educator Intern, William and Joan Schreyer Business Library

Annual Reminders from LHR:

Civility Statement
All members of the University Libraries community are expected to exemplify and promote civility. Please be reminded that the Civility Statement and Guideline can be found on the Libraries website at the following link.

https://libraries.psu.edu/about/diversity/university-libraries-civility-statement-and-guidelines

FMLA
Supervisors should contact the LHR Office if you have an employee who has been absent, due to illness, for three consecutive days. In addition, please let us know if you have employees who have either disclosed a medical condition, indicated that they are seeking diagnosis or treatment for a medical issue, or if an employee misses intermittent time over the course of a month due to related illnesses. We are required under the Family Medical Leave Act to notify employees of their rights under the law when we have an indication that the law may apply. Although an employee may have sick or vacation time to cover absences, FMLA is applied concurrently.

Workers’ Compensation
Employees are required to report workplace injuries or illnesses within 48 hours of the incident or development of a work-related illness. Reports of work-related illness or injury should be reported to your direct supervisor first, and then to Len White, safety officer for the University Libraries. Len can be reached by calling 814-865-4633 or 814-441-2894. For more information on reporting an occupational injury, see SafetyNET.

Resources for Reporting Wrongdoing
All members of the Penn State community have an individual responsibility to help keep the University a safe and ethical institution and an accountable steward of University funds whether generated from state, federal, student, or any other sources. The University does not condone wrongful conduct by any member of the Penn State community no matter what position he or she may hold. Thus all members of the University community are urged to speak up if they see or suspect illegal, unethical, or unsafe conduct. If you do so, be assured that the University will protect you from retaliation. A list of resources available to faculty, staff, students, and others is available at the following link.

https://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/humanresources/populartopics/wrongdoing_resources.html

Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is taken very seriously and will not be tolerated in the University Libraries. Employees are encouraged to report concerns to the Libraries’ sexual harassment resource contacts, listed below, the Affirmative Action office, or contact the Libraries Human Resources office.

Sherry Roth
408 Paterno Library
Ph: (814) 865-1011
ssr11@psu.edu

Alyssa Carver
E113 Paterno Library
Ph: (814) 867-0289
aec26@psu.edu

EAP
HealthAdvocate, the University’s Employee Assistance Program, offers confidential assistance to employees experiencing personal or work-related concerns. Available to benefits-eligible employees and household members, the EAP offers up to five visits per concern at no charge. Individuals can call 1-866-799-2728 to receive assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. HealthAdvocate also offers a variety of other resources to help with health or personal concerns.

Penn State Arrest and Conviction Self-Disclosure Form
All individuals affiliated with the University must notify LHR of any criminal activities with which they are charged, and upon conviction of a crime within 72 hours of knowledge of the arrest or conviction. The Penn State Arrest and Conviction Self-Disclosure Form includes a list of arrests and/or convictions that need to be disclosed.

Reporting Child Abuse
All Penn State employees are required to report suspected child abuse following a prescribed process. These obligations and the reporting process are described in University policy AD72 and in the University’s training program “Building a Safe Penn State: Reporting Child Abuse”. Most University Libraries employees, both full-time and part-time, should complete this training every three years. You can access the training on-line at any time by visiting http://LRN.psu.edu.

ESSIC Attendance System Reminders (for both full-time users and approvers)
Vacation Maximums – Please note the vacation accrual maximums, found in HR-34 and the Libraries’ Faculty Vacation 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. For employees in HR-88 position, the maximum accrual is prorated based on the position FTE.
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 – 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.). Please remember that ESSIC now allows employees to record time in tenths of an hour (6-minute increments).
2016 Personal Holiday hours – Full-time employees should add eight hours of personal holiday time (for 2016) 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.

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.

Review Your staff directory information
Please take a moment and review both your University Libraries directory entry and your Penn State Directory entry. There are times when employees move office locations, or switch phone numbers, and those internal moves may not be captured by these systems. Please note: You can make changes to certain information in both of these systems, but you may not have the ability to change all of the information. Please contact LHR for assistance. Continue reading →