Payroll & Personnel

Faculty Payroll

There are two types of faculty at the College: teaching faculty and research faculty. In order to be hired, each must first be appointed to the position through the CAS Faculty Actions Office. Departments will need to work with Faculty Actions to determine what type of forms need to be completed, and what type of supporting documentation will be required in order to get a faculty member appointed.

Faculty can either be full-time or part-time. Teaching faculty have nine-month appointments, with their annual salary paid evenly over twelve pay periods (July–June). A written request must be submitted to the CAS Business Office for those faculty members who would like their base salary spread over nine or ten months. Research Faculty have twelve-month appointments.

Once a faculty member has a valid appointment, the CAS Business Office can begin the process of setting up the individual in SAP. A new hire worksheet and patent policy agreement (see the Forms and Resources section) will be needed. A valid e-mail address is also needed in order for the CAS Business Office to schedule an I-9 appointment with the Human Resources On-Boarding Specialist. The faculty member’s I-9 must be certified within three business days of the date of hire.

If the faculty member is not a U.S. Citizen or permanent resident, an I-9 appointment must be scheduled with the International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO). See the I-9 page on the ISSO website for more information, or contact them at 617-353-3565.

New faculty should complete their W-4 tax form via Employee Self-Service (ESS) in SAP once they have been set up. If an international faculty member believes their home country has a tax treaty with the United States, they should schedule an appointment with the Payroll Office to complete the appropriate paperwork by calling 617-353-2270.

The following links provide additional information related to the faculty appointment process:

Faculty Actions

Office of the Provost

Faculty Affairs

Student Payroll

Student Payroll

The Student Employment Office (SEO) website is a good resource, but we have condensed some of the most useful information for CAS/GRS departments below.

Student Payroll for on-campus jobs is broken into two categories: Student Employment and Work-Study. Off-campus student jobs are not covered below, but more information is available on the SEO website.

Student Payroll is processed in the legacy system in the Student Employment section of the Business Link, not through BUworks. The old account numbers and coding are also still used (unit-dept-object code-source). You can use the ACCT XWalk tab in BUworks to translate old accounts to new ones and vice versa.

Note that the university policy on limitations to student work hours may impact a student’s ability to work with you or your department.

Graduate Student Stipends & Financial Aid

I-9 Documentation

If the student has never worked at BU, you will be prompted to enter the I-9 information as the first step to hiring a student. Every new employee must complete an I-9 form.

International students must go to the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO) to complete their I-9.

Domestic students complete their I-9 with you, their hiring department. The first step is to direct the student to complete Section 1 of the I-9. Once the student has done so, the student must bring original appropriate I-9 documentation to the department. The department representative can log on to the Business Link -> Student Employment -> Form I-9 Compliance, Section 2 to complete this process using the documents provided by the student. If you have questions about this procedure or if you need access to Section 2, please contact the Business Office at 3-2411.

For information on graduate student stipends and financial aid, please contact the Graduate School at 617-353-2696 or by emailing grsaid@bu.edu. For hiring graduate students, please consult with the GRS Office before processing new hires as additional employment may have an adverse effect on the student’s financial aid package.

Departmentally-Paid Student Employment

The following instructions are for hiring a student to work on-campus using departmental funds only (instructions for hiring Work-Study students are in the next section). Students must meet the Eligibility Criteria in order to work on-campus in a Student Employment or Work-Study job.

If you have a need for a student employee, but do not have an individual to hire, see the SEO website about how to post a job and for tips on interviewing.

To hire a student, regardless of whether the student has worked for you in the past, you need to fill out a New Hire/Rehire electronic form in the Student Employment section of the Business Link (legacy system, not BUworks). The New Hire/Rehire form is submitted both electronically and as a hard copy to the CAS Business Office.

The New Hire/Rehire form is user-friendly; after each section there is a submit key. By utilizing this feature you will be aware of any errors that may occur prior to completing the entire form.

Click New Hire/Rehire under Hiring Process Functions.
Select Departmental employment type.
Enter the student’s UID number.
Select the semester and enter the year.
Select either the New Hire or Rehire action, depending on whether you are hiring a student into the same exact job they have previously been in.
Click submit.

You are now ready to complete SECTION ONE of the New Hire/Rehire Form.

Enter a job number OR a job grade and code. Information on job grades and codes is available in the Job Classifications Guide.
- If a Rehire, enter the number of the job you are rehiring the student into.
- If a New Hire, enter a job grade and a job code. A job number will be generated by the system using the job grade and code selected once you submit the New Hire form.
  - Hourly jobs have a grade level of 1-5, based on responsibilities and experience.
  - Weekly-salaried jobs all have a grade level of 0 (note: see GRS for use of this code for hiring graduate students).
  - One-time payments have a grade level of 9 (note that international students cannot receive one-time payments).
  - The job code refers to the job the student is doing. There is a drop-down menu for a listing of job codes.
Enter a start and end date.
- For hourly and weekly-salaried jobs, the start and end dates must be a Monday and Sunday date, respectively. See the Dates webpage for this academic year.
- For one-time payments the start and end dates should reflect the period of time when the work was done.
Enter the estimated total number of hours per week.
- This field must be completed for all jobs, even if you are entering a one-time payment.
- Please note that there are important restrictions on student work hours.
  - While classes are in session, it is either not allowed or not recommended for students to work more than 20 hours per week between all of their on-campus jobs.
  - Students should never work more than 40 hours in one week, even during school breaks. If they do, they will need to be paid for all hours worked over 40 at one-and-one-half times their normal rate of pay.
Click submit.

Proceed to Section TWO:

You are now required to enter the unit, department, object code, mail code.
The mail code is your departmental mail code and must match the department being charged. The check destination will vary, but does not need to be completed, as all checks are distributed from SEO at 881 Commonwealth Ave, 2^nd Floor or are direct deposited if the student has opted in. Instructions for students to set up direct deposit can be found here.
The patent mail code should only be completed when a patent policy form is requested. Patent policies are required for grade RE, RF, and teaching fellow/assistant jobs.
You are also required to identify a supervisor for hourly paid employees. The supervisors are listed in a drop-down menu (once the student has been hired you should add one or more secondary supervisors for back up).
For the rate of pay, you need to enter ONE of the following:
- Hourly rate
- Weekly-salaried rate
- One-time payment amount
For the W-4 tax form, if you have one for the student you will check off “yes.” If you do not have a W-4, check off “no.” You are required to select one of these choices before you can proceed.
Click submit if you indicated “yes” to input a tax form; you are now required to complete Section W-4. This information is taken directly from the employee’s W-4 information.
Click submit.

You should now see this message: READY TO UPDATE RECORD. PRESS UPDATE OR CLEAR TO CANCEL.

If the New Hire/Rehire form looks correct, click update.

Now you will see the following message: RECORD CAN BE APPROVED. PLEASE ENTER NEXT STUDENT.

You do not have access to approve New Hire/Rehire forms. The CAS Business Office or GRS Financial Aid Office approves the form once you notify them that it is ready to be approved.

Return to the main menu of the Student Employment section of the Business Link.
Select the Approve/Review/Delete function
Enter your mail code and click Submit, and you will see a list of pending New Hire/Rehire forms.
Select the New Hire/Rehire form you just entered and click Review/Delete.
If the information is incorrect, you may delete the form from the system and re-enter it.
This will display a one-page summary of what you have just entered. Please verify the information; if everything is correct, please direct this page:
(For Undergraduate Students): Via printout to the CAS Business Office (725 Commonwealth Ave, Room 108) or send it via email to casdocs@bu.edu.
(For Graduate Students): Via printout to the Graduate School Financial Aid Office (705 Commonwealth Ave, Room 112) or send it via email to grsfdocs@bu.edu.

Once a student has been hired, you need to have them fill out the following forms, to be kept on file in the department:

Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) Non-Disclosure Agreement: required of all students and should be kept on file in the hiring department.
Student Employment Confidentiality Policy: required of all students and should be kept on file in the hiring department.

Lastly, please keep in mind that student employees may be owed merit increases based on their previous work in the same (or similar) position. The increases are automatic only when you rehire them and use the same exact job number. Please see the Merit Increases webpage for more information.

Work-Study Program

To be eligible to work under the Federal Work-Study Program, students must meet federal guidelines. BU Financial Assistance may adjust or cancel a student’s Work-Study award at any time during the academic year to meet the guidelines.

Work-Study funds 70% of the student’s earnings; the department is responsible for the remaining 30%. Work-Study students have a Maximum Earning Level based on their award. Once that level has been reached, the student is no longer eligible to work in that position and the job will automatically terminate after a few weeks. You may, however, opt to hire the student into a Student Employment position charging departmental funds, provided you have a student budget available.

Students hired into a Work-Study position are hired into a specific job for your department. Work-Study jobs are composed of six numbers, while Student Employment job numbers all start with a letter followed by five numbers. More than one student may be hired into a Work-Study job, as long as the students have the same job description, supervisor, distribution, and base rate of pay.

You can check the existing Work-Study jobs for your department or create a new one by going to the Work-Study Job Functions on the Student Employment section of the Business Link.

Click on Maintain Existing Work-Study Jobs and enter your mail code to see the existing jobs for your department.
- Click on the job number to view and edit the job description and details, and to either post or un-post the job to the Work-Study Job Directory.

Click on Create a New Work-Study Job and fill out all the required fields on the electronic form to create a new job.
- Once the form is completed and submitted, to the Work-Study Office will approve the job, and supervisors will be notified either by phone or e-mail of the job number.

Once you have your Work-Study job number and a student for the job, you need to complete a New Hire/Rehire form. Please follow the instructions above for hiring an individual into a student employment job, except that you will choose Work-Study as the employment type and you will use the Work-Study job number rather than entering a job grade and job code. Also, the distribution, mail code, base rate of pay, and supervisor will already be filled in. You can increase the rate of pay, but the rest of these fields cannot be changed.

See the Work-Study webpage for more information.

International Students

International students are allowed to work on-campus if they meet certain criteria. Located on the SEO website is an Employment Guide for International Students. Note that international students cannot work more than 20 hours/week during the academic year while classes are in session.

Payments and Time Entry

Once the CAS Business Office or GRS Financial Aid has approved the New Hire/Rehire, the student has officially been set up on the Student Payroll system.

If a student is receiving a one-time payment or is paid a weekly-salary, there is nothing left to do. One-time payments will be processed with the current weekly payroll cycle. A weekly-salaried student will receive a check on the Friday following each week that they are set up for. If for some reason you set up a student late, they will receive a retroactive payment for any missed weeks in their first paycheck.

Hourly paid students are required to fill out a timesheet each week for the hours they have worked. Students fill out their timesheets online via the Work tab of the Student Link. At the bottom of the screen they will see Employee Time Entry, and once selected, the student will see their Job Summary, showing any on-campus jobs they are currently set up in. Only the timesheet for the current week (12:01 a.m. Monday to 11:59 p.m. Sunday) will be listed. Students should submit their timesheet for supervisor approval by Friday at 5 p.m.

Supervisors then must approve the student’s timesheet by Monday at 5:00 p.m. Please note that there are early deadlines throughout the year due to holidays, which the CAS Business Office announces in advance. Once supervisors have approved all timesheets in a department, the Business Office will approve the mail code, and then only the Business Office will be able to change student hours. The final weekly cutoff is Tuesday at 12:00 p.m., after which point much of the Student Employment system is not accessible until Thursday morning.

Time Entry Approval

To approve student hours in the Student Employment section of the Business Link:

Click on Supervisor Approval of Student(s) Time Entry under Student Payroll Functions.
Any students who you are listed as a supervisor for will show up there, and you can now approve their hours.
- If approving hours for the current payroll week, click on the box next to their name and click View/Approve.
- If approving hours for a previous week, change the week-ending date at the top, then click View/Approve.
You should now see the total hours they entered, the date they submitted their hours, and the days and times they worked.
If everything looks correct, click Approve.
When you go back to the Supervisor Approval of Student(s) Time Entry screen, there should now be a date listed under Supervisor Approved, which means they are all set.

If you need to enter or change hours for a student:

Click on their name instead of the box next to it.
This will bring you to the student’s timesheet where you can enter their hours (start and stop times).
You will need to write a Note for the Auditor to explain why you are entering their hours (i.e. they did not enter them in time) and confirm that the hours are correct.
Click Continue and then Approve.

To approve a student’s timesheet in the Faculty Link (Secure ID and faculty status not required):

Click on the Other Resources view on the right.
Click on Student Time Entry Approval, in the middle of the Other Resources column.
Any students for whom you are listed as a supervisor will show up there, and you can then approve, enter, or change the hours, as described above.

Each mail code should designate one person to check each Monday afternoon to make sure all hours have been approved. This person must be listed as a supervisor for all hourly students within the mail code. Alternatively, if the person has access, they can utilize the Payroll Coordinator (PC) Approval/Change of Student(s) Time Entry, which shows all students within a mail code.

Checks and Direct Deposit

All student employees are strongly encouraged to sign up for direct deposit. Students should enroll online on the Student Link under the Work tab. For more information, see the Direct Deposit webpage.

Student employees who are not signed up for direct deposit are required to pick up their checks at SEO, at 881 Commonwealth Ave, 2nd floor between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday with a photo ID. Students who do not have a social security number, and are thus not eligible for direct deposit, must also pick up their paychecks at SEO.

Student Information

The following General Functions provide information about student employees and their positions:

Student Employees by Unit/Dept or Mail Code
Student Employee Information
Student Job and Earnings History
Student Alpha Search

Depending on your BUworks access, you can see student charges by running the Labor Distribution: Funds Center Report, which is in the Reporting tab of BUworks under Human Capital Management and Personnel Administration.

Changing a Student’s Job

To request the following actions for the future, please submit a paper Student Employment Authorization Change Form (SEA) to the CAS Business Office (for undergraduates) or the GRS Office (for graduate students):

Salary Distribution Changes
Estimated Hours per Week Change
Pay Rate Change
Start or End Date Change
Terminations

To request a change to a prior salary distribution, please submit a Student Salary Distribution Adjustment Request Form to the CAS Business Office (for undergraduates) or the GRS Office (for graduate students).

Adding or Changing Supervisors

To add or change supervisors for hourly paid jobs, use the following Job Maintenance Functions:

Add/Change Supervisors for Departmental Jobs
Add/Change Secondary Supervisors for Work-Study Students

You will need to re-enter all existing supervisors when adding a new one, otherwise, they will be deleted. For Work-Study jobs, the primary supervisor is linked with the job and must be changed in the Maintain Existing Work-Study Jobs function.

Student Sick Time

Select students have access to accrual and usage of sick time. Criteria for eligibility can be found on the SEO website. If a student in your department would like to utilize available sick time accruals, please have your administrator contact the CAS Business Office (for undergraduates) or the GRS Office (for graduate students).

Staff Payroll

There are two types of regular staff in the College:

Exempt Staff – Monthly paid staff who are exempt from overtime pay. Employment policies for this category are covered in the University’s Employee Handbook

Non-Exempt Staff – Hourly paid staff who are paid weekly. Non-exempt staff who are employed at least 75% time are covered by the L2324 United Auto Workers Agreement. Those non-exempt staff who work less than 75% time are not represented and thus are covered by the Employee Handbook.

Time Entry

All non-exempt employees are required to complete a weekly timesheet online in the Employee Self-Service (ESS) tab of BUworks. The timesheet must be an accurate reflection of hours worked each day, and for regular staff it should include absence hours, both paid and unpaid. The correct attendance or absence code must be entered for all hours.

Non-exempt staff must take at least a thirty-minute unpaid break for every six consecutive hours worked, and this is to be reflected on their timesheet for auditing purposes. To do so they must enter their actual start and end times in military time for hours worked (not for absence hours). For example, if an employee works an 8-5 schedule with lunch from 12-1, they should enter 8:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00 in their timesheet and code it to the attendance/absence type for hours worked.

Once the employee enters and releases their hours in ESS, the supervisor or department timekeeper must review for completeness and accuracy, and approve in Manager Self-Service (MSS) or in WebGUI. If the hours are not accurate, the supervisor should reject the hours and write a note to the employee in the system explaining what must be corrected. The employee should then fix the hours and re-release for supervisor approval.

Weekly Payroll Deadlines

All department timekeepers must ensure that the hours for the non-exempt staff in their department are correctly entered and approved by noon on Mondays unless otherwise instructed. Early deadlines, due to holidays and intersession, will be announced in advance via e-mail.

Overtime and Additional Hours

Non-exempt staff must be paid at time-and-one-half their regular rate for all hours worked in excess of forty in one workweek. For purposes of calculating overtime, holiday hours are counted as hours worked, but sick, vacation, and personal time are not. Employees may not under any circumstances receive compensatory time off in lieu of pay for overtime hours worked, as this is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Regular non-exempt staff required to work ten or more hours in one day are to receive a thirty minute paid break and a meal allowance of $10, or a meal of equal or greater value, in addition to their regular (unpaid) lunch break.

A request must be sent to the Business Office in advance if a non-exempt employee will be required to work additional hours or on a BU holiday or over intersession. Please include the number of additional hours to be worked, the duration of this arrangement, the reason for the additional hours, and the funding arrangement.

Paycheck Distribution

All regular exempt and non-exempt employees are required to sign up for direct deposit. Electronic pay stubs are available in Employee Self-Service (ESS) on Fridays for hourly paid employees and on the last working day of the month for monthly paid employees.

Paychecks for temporary employees or employees who have not set up direct deposit will be mailed to the home address the employee has listed in SAP. Check pickup is no longer allowed. If an employee’s mailed check is not received, please contact the Business Office to have it reissued.

Dependent care and health care reimbursement payments are included in the employee’s weekly or monthly paycheck. Questions regarding dependent care and health care reimbursement checks should be referred to the Benefits Section of Human Resources.

Staff Authorized Absences from Work

Sick and Vacation Records

SAP tracks all sick and vacation records for exempt staff. Employees must enter all time off regularly for supervisor approval in order to ensure accurate and updated records. Please refer to the Authorized Absences From Work section of the Employee Handbook for eligibility and accrual rates, and to the BUworks Time Services website for training materials. The Exempt Time Tracking spreadsheet is also available in the Forms and Resources section for departments and/or employees maintaining shadow systems.

Monthly sick and vacation accrual rates are based on grade level and length of service as outlined in the Vacation Leave and Sick Leave sections of the Employee Handbook. Employees may accrue vacation leave to a maximum of the number of days that they would earn over a two-year period of employment at their current accrual rate.

Sick and vacation records for non-exempt employees are tracked automatically through the University’s payroll/timekeeping system. Departments wishing to track this information may do so as well. Information regarding accrual rates for L2324-represented employees can be found in the L2324 Agreement.

Personal Time

All regular, non-exempt employees who are either full-time or are scheduled to work at least 50 percent of the workweek are eligible for personal time. Personal time for part-time staff is prorated according to their work schedule. Exempt employees are not eligible for personal time. Personal time must be used each year and does not carry over. It is also not paid out upon leaving the University.

Non-exempt employees represented by the L2324 Agreement are entitled to two personal days per contract year (effective July 1 of each year). In addition, a total of two accumulated days of sick leave may be converted to personal days.

Non-exempt, non-represented employees are also entitled to two personal days per calendar year (effective January 1 of each year), per the Employee Handbook. Additionally, employees may convert up to two days of accrued sick leave into personal days.

Compensatory Time Off

Compensatory time is earned when an employee is required to work on an observed holiday, intersession day, or during an emergency closing of the University, per the Employee Handbook for regular, non-represented staff and the L2324 Agreement for L2324-represented staff.

Exempt employees who are required to work on an observed holiday or intersession day, or during an emergency University closing, will be eligible for compensatory time off equal to the number of hours worked that day.

Non-exempt employees who are required to work on a holiday or during an emergency closing have the choice of earning one and one-half hours of compensatory time off for every hour worked or being paid at a rate of one and one-half times their normal rate of pay for all hours worked. They will also be paid absence hours as if they did not work that day.

L2324-represented employees who are required to work on an intersession day receive one hour of compensatory time off for every hour worked. Non-exempt, non-represented employees who are required to work on an intersession day will receive one-and-one-half hours of compensatory time off for every hour worked. Both will also be paid absence hours as if they did not work that day.

All employees must use compensatory time off within six months of the day on which it was earned. Compensatory time off for non-exempt staff is tracked in SAP, but must be tracked off-line for exempt staff. Supervisors are responsible for maintaining complete and accurate records on compensatory time-off accruals and usage for each exempt employee they supervise.

Leaves of Absence

The University offers several types of leave for eligible employees: Family and Medical Leave (FMLA), Maternity Leave, Medical Leave, Personal Leave, Sympathy Leave, and Military Leave. All leaves must be requested in writing in advance of the absence. The Staff Request for Leave of Absence or Intermittent Leave form should be completed for all leave related requests, including FMLA. This form must be signed by the employee’s supervisor and forwarded to the CAS Business Office.

For any questions regarding leave policies and types, please contact the CAS Business Office.

Staff Resignations, Posting Positions, and Hiring Processes

Employee Resignations

An employee who decides to resign his or her employment is required to notify his or her supervisor in writing. The last day of employment must be included in the resignation, along with the reason for the resignation.

Exempt employees are expected to provide notice at least one month in advance of the effective date of the termination. Non-exempt employees are expected to provide notice at least two weeks in advance of the effective date of the termination. The University may, at its sole discretion, accept or reject an employee’s request to rescind or modify a letter of resignation.

Terminating employees are required to return all University property in their possession including, but not limited to, their Terrier ID card, parking permit, and all other University property (e.g. keys, books, computers, software). The terminating employee’s supervisor should complete the End of Employment Checklist, which can be found in the Forms and Instructions section, prior to the final day of employment.

Posting an Existing Open Position

In order to request that an existing position be posted on the Human Resources job board you should complete and submit to the CAS Business Office a Request for Personnel (PS-1) form, which can be found in the Forms and Instructions section. Accompanying the PS-1 should be a justification memo from your department chair or director and a resignation letter from the employee vacating the position. The justification memo should outline the need for the position, the impact the position has on your department, and the funding arrangements for the position.

The Office of Human Resources requires a current job description for each open position going into the University’s online posting system. Please review the current job description and update if necessary using the Job Description Template, which can be found in the Forms and Instructions section. This template should be used for all staff positions.

The job description template is designed to collect information pertinent to the tasks and responsibilities of the present position. The job description should be written specifically for those duties associated with the position, and should not be written for the incumbent or for a potential candidate. Each job description is unique to the position itself. Individuals requiring assistance with the completion of the job description should contact the CAS Business Office.

The updated job description should be submitted electronically to the CAS Business Office for review at the time of the posting request. The Business Office will review the job description for accuracy and content and will notify your office prior to forwarding it to Human Resources.

Once all necessary paperwork and approvals have been received your position will be posted automatically on the Human Resources website. The hiring manager will receive an e-mail notification from Human Resources with a password to access applications through the OpenHire applicant tracking system. The University’s job postings are updated daily.

Creating and Posting a New Position

Those departments who have received prior approval to add a new position should contact the CAS Business Office prior to initiating any paperwork.

Filling a Non-Exempt (Hourly Paid) Position

Non-exempt positions must remain in posting for one week before being offered. This provides an opportunity for all qualified internal candidates to apply for the position. Potential candidates must apply online for a position through the Human Resources website. Human Resources will work with the hiring supervisor to arrange interviews for any qualified candidates.

All departments should contact the CAS Business Office once a final candidate has been identified. Human Resources will check references for final external candidates who are applying for clerical level positions only. The hiring supervisor is responsible for obtaining references for all other final candidates. It is recommended that at least two references be checked, with one being the candidate’s current supervisor. If an internal candidate is selected, the hiring manager must speak with the finalist’s current supervisor to obtain a reference and determine a mutually agreeable transfer date.

Human Resources will contact the final candidate to arrange an interview, and will work with that individual to ensure that all required documentation is completed prior to extending an offer of employment. A formal background check will also be initiated at the time of that interview. Human Resources is the only office that is authorized to extend an offer of employment to a potential University employee. Human Resources works with the CAS Business Office to determine an appropriate salary and ensure that all necessary employment documents and references are provided.

Filling an Exempt (Monthly Paid) Position

Candidates for exempt positions should also apply online through the Human Resources website. Departments should contact the CAS Business Office once a final candidate has been identified. The hiring department is required to check references for final candidates for exempt positions. It is recommended that at least two references be checked, with one being the candidate’s current supervisor. If an internal candidate is selected, the hiring manager must speak with the finalist’s current supervisor to obtain a reference and determine a mutually agreeable transfer date.

Human Resources will contact the final candidate to arrange an interview and will work with that individual to ensure that all required documentation is completed prior to extending an offer of employment. A formal background check will also be initiated at the time of that interview. Human Resources is the only office that is authorized to extend an offer of employment to a potential University employee. Human Resources works with the CAS Business Office to determine an appropriate salary and ensure that all required employment documents and references are provided.

New Employees

All new employees are required to complete an Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) form within the first three days of employment. An Onboarding Specialist from Human Resources will contact each new employee via email in order to arrange a meeting to certify their I-9. During the meeting the individual will also receive their University login, Kerberos password, and a Terrier ID card. Human Resources will also schedule an orientation for the new employee.

The International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO) will continue to certify I-9 forms for all individuals who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

For tax purposes, new staff are required to complete a W-4 form at Orientation. This form is also available electronically through the Employee Self-Service (ESS) tab on BUworks for individuals who want to make a change to their withholding. Employees are required to set up direct deposit, which they can do through ESS or by downloading a copy of the Direct Deposit Form, which can be submitted to the CAS Business Office.

Probationary Period

Employees are eligible to use their personal days and their accrued sick and vacation time after completing three months (90 days) of continuous service. This is a probationary period for employees who are new to the University, during which they cannot yet use the paid time off they have accrued. For example, if an employee needs to take a sick day during their first three months, it will be unpaid and cannot be paid retroactively once they have completed the probationary period.

Staff Performance Evaluations and Disciplinary Action

Temporary Employees

Boston University defines a temporary employee (formerly called casual employee) as an individual who works in either a part-time or full-time position with an assignment duration of fewer than nine months. These individuals must be paid through the University’s Payroll system, not through Accounts Payable (see the Independent Contractor section below).

Temporary employees are paid only for time worked, and by definition are not eligible to receive University benefits other than statutory benefits such as worker’s compensation and unemployment compensation. Temporary employees are not eligible for paid time off, holiday or intersession pay, or participation in the University’s various benefit plans.

Temporary employees may be able, however, to participate in the University’s Retirement Plan and the Supplemental Retirement & Savings Plan, provided they meet the eligibility requirements for these plans as outlined in the Benefits Handbook.

Temporary employees are subject to the same labor laws as regular staff. For example, non-exempt temporary employees receive pay at one-and-one-half times their normal rate of pay for all hours worked over forty in one workweek. They also must take at least a thirty-minute unpaid break for every six consecutive hours of work.

The University can only employ a temporary employee for a duration of fewer than nine months. If there is a need to employ a temporary employee for a period of nine months or more, the employee needs to be hired into a regular full- or part-time position. Contact the CAS Business Office for more information.

Any students who have graduated and are no longer eligible to be paid as student employees will need to be hired as temporary employees or regular staff. Keep this in mind towards the end of the spring semester in the event that your department continues to employ any former student employees during the summer.

Hiring Process

The CAS Business Office must be informed of the new temporary employee prior to his/her date of hire. The first step is to fill out a New Hire Worksheet, available in the Forms and Resources section. If you return this form via email, please do not fill in the social security number or birth date fields. Instead, give that sensitive information over the phone, or return the form as a hard copy. The CAS Payroll Coordinator will then create a temporary employee position, and once that is approved and the I-9 has been completed, the employee will be hired into the position.

If the employee is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, the hiring process will result in an automated email from Human Resources sent directly to the individual with instructions on how complete an Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) form. If the employee will be working remotely, please instruct them to reply to this email and request a remote I-9.

If the employee is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, the employee must visit the International Students and Scholar’s office to complete their I-9 prior to the hiring process. Please visit their website for more information about their walk-in hours and requirements.

Once temporary employees are set up and can access BUworks, they should enroll in direct deposit and submit their W-4 information in Employee Self-Service (ESS). If you have any questions about hiring temporary employees, please contact the CAS Business Office.

Time Entry and Payment

Temporary employees will enter their hours each week in ESS like regular non-exempt staff, and supervisors or timekeepers will approve the hours in MSS or WebGUI.

Terminations

When a temporary employee is done working, please notify the CAS Payroll Coordinator with the employee’s last day of work and the reason for the termination.

Independent Contractors

For information on engaging an independent contractor (i.e. consultants, freelancers), please visit the Service Providers page on the Sourcing & Procurement website.

Federal and state tax and labor laws require the University to ensure that its external service providers are properly classified as either independent contractors or employees. The former are paid as vendors through Accounts Payable and are issued 1099 tax forms at the end of the year, while the latter are paid through Payroll and are issued W-2s.

Sourcing & Procurement provides guidelines and related documentation on its website for qualifying external service providers in advance to ensure appropriate classification. If you submit the Worker Classification Pre-Qualifying Questionnaire and it is determined that the individual needs to be paid through Payroll, they will need to be hired and paid as a temporary employee (see above).

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