Volume 1 – 2018
From the Editor
Wish you a Happy New Year! This newsletter explains which BUworks form(s) you will use (along with the order of submission) for various business scenarios. You may recall that Organization Management (OM) actions relate to creating/maintaining/delimiting positions while Personnel Actions (PA) deal with maintaining employee records. All submitted forms go through a workflow for approval. In some scenarios, an OM action of Maintain Position may need to precede a PA action that changes the employee’s record. In such situations, please note that you must wait until the form completes approval by Central HR departments before submitting a Personnel Action (PA form). The sync between OM and PA forms runs every two hours. Note that if you submit the PA form before the approvals on the OM action are successfully completed, the updates will not be reflected correctly in the employee’s record.
Click here to view or print the Form Selection and End to End Process Matrix.
As always, it is important to be familiar with payroll calendar deadlines for OM & PA actions so that forms are submitted in a timely manner.
Please email me at srao22@bu.edu if you have any questions or comments regarding the current newsletter or suggestions for future HCM newsletters.
Thank you,
Shuchita Rao
FAQs about Form Selection & End to End Process Matrix
Q1. I would like to hire a new staff/faculty member in my department. How long does the process take in SAP?
A. It can upto two weeks for the entire process to be completed. If a candidate is brand new to the BU community and does not have a presence in SAP (including as an active temporary employee or volunteer), they are considered a “new hire”. There are separate forms for creation/maintenance of position and hiring action. Contact your compensation analyst to discuss the position – evaluations of new positions can take upto two weeks of time. To hire an employee, a vacant position that needs to be filled MUST exist in the department. If a current employee is leaving and their position needs to be filled, you must terminate the current employee (can be done ahead of the employee’s last day of work) and maintain the position to MARK IT OPEN it for hire. In cases where the position is brand new to the department, the position must be created from scratch and MARKED OPEN for hire. The “earliest hire action date” on the Create/Maintain Position form serves as the actual employment start date for the employee. Approvals for submitted forms can take upto five business days. Therefore, to hire a candidate you may want to initiate the OM action two weeks in advance. Once the OM action is approved, you must use the Hire/Re-Hire form which can take upto 5 business days for approval by Central HR departments. Please note that while the Central Human Resources-Talent Acquisition team assists in the hiring of regular exempt as well as non-exempt staff, departments are responsible for hiring faculty.
Q2. Are the “Hire” and “Re-hire” forms one and the same? How do I re-hire a candidate who has previously worked for BU?
A. If the candidate worked for BU previously, get their BUID and enter it into the HIRE form. The form will automatically change to a “Rehire” if the candidate was in SAP at any point. If that does not happen, please contact HR to confirm their status. If the candidate was a student employee, they must be terminated from the student employment system before you can re-hire them as staff employee.
Q3. What are the documents that need to be submitted for hiring/re-hiring a candidate?
A. For all populations (except temporary employees meaning assignment duration <= 8.8 months), an Offer letter, candidate’s CV, IP (Intellectual Property) information and signed conflict of interest are needed. For faculty, an appointment letter (if it has been finalized) and an amendment letter (if applicable) are needed. For FPF populations, all of the above plus a salary letter and a practice agreement are needed.
Q4. What about additional assignments for existing faculty members?
A. The Hire form will automatically change to an Additional Assignment Hire form if the employee has already been hired into their main assignment in SAP. If the form does not change, you must not proceed. If you are hiring a faculty member into a concurrent assignment (CE), an offer letter or an employment letter are required.
Q5. How does the “Termination” process work? Is there an OM action to be submitted before an employee is terminated?
A. No OM action is required before processing a termination. The Termination form is to be used ONLY when an employee is resigning and voluntarily leaving BU. If the employee is changing positions within BU, the position change(changing positions within same department)/transfer(moving to a new department and reporting to a new manager) forms need to be submitted. A termination form must be processed before the PA payroll deadline in the month/week the employee is leaving BU. If it is submitted after the employee leaves BU, the termination will result in an overpayment which must then be attempted to recover by payroll department. For staff positions, a resignation letter and for faculty, either a resignation letter or email from faculty must be attached to the termination form. Contact your HR Business partner for any termination scenario that is not a voluntary resignation.
Q6. What is the eligibility for retirement? What form is to be used to process a retirement?
A. An employee is eligible for retirement if they are over 55 years of age and have served BU for ten years. If an employee eligible for retirement is not leaving BU but changing to a volunteer position, you must use an Employee Position Update form and use action reason as “Move to Non-Comp Retired” with a monthly salary of zero. A resignation letter for a staff member or an email announcing intention to retire from a faculty member are the documents required to be submitted with the retirement form. A retirement form must be processed before the payroll deadline for the month/week the employee is retiring from BU else it will result in unnecessary overpayment.
Q7. If an employee’s percent time changes, should an OM form be required to be submitted as a pre-requisite?
A. When an employee is part-time (under 100%) and is increasing or decreasing time so they still remain under 100%, no OM action is required – only an Employee Position Update PA form must be submitted. When an employee is less than 100% but increase to become 100% OR is 100% and moves to anything less than 100%, an OM Maintain Position form must be submitted and approved before Employee Position Update is submitted. For staff as well as faculty, department authorization in the form of an offer letter or email must be attached to the submitted forms.
Q8. What are Additional/Recurring/Secondary Payments forms? Do they need an OM action as a pre-requisite?
A. Additional payments are for a one-time payment for exempt employees. Recurring payments form is for the same amount to be paid to an exempt employee multiple times over an indicated period over and above the regular base salary pay. Secondary payments are for payments to non-exempt weekly paid employees who do work outside their regular duties for a different department at BU. While no OM action is needed before processing a secondary payment for non-exempt staff and an additional/recurring payment for exempt staff, for concurrent faculty assignments especially for administrative assignments such as Chair etc.., the additional pay for assignment must be noted in the stipend field (if applicable) in the OM form of Maintain Position and submitted and approved before the Recurring Payment PA form is submitted. Depending on the amount and reason, an authorization letter/email from the department/school/college/provost’s office must be submitted as documentation along with the form.
Q9. If an employee’s work schedule is changing, what form do I use?
A. You can change an employee’s work schedule in the PA form “Employee Position Update” (EPU). No OM action is required prior to using the EPU form.
Q10. For salary changes to an employee’s record when “additional duties are performed, is an OM form required as a pre-requisite action before submitting the PA form?
A. No. When an employee performs additional work outside their position’s work scope, the Salary Change form can be used with action reason “Commence Additional Duties”. No OM action of Maintain Position is required before this action. Please note, however, that if there are changes in the essential duties to the employee’s current position, budget or percentage time, you MUST process a Maintain Position action and once approvals are completed, you can submit the Salary change form.
Q11. What about multiple changes such as title, salary, mail code, employee subgroup changes? Must the position be maintained prior to submitting the Employee Position Update (EPU) form?
A. Yes. The Employee subgroup (ESG) is tied to the Employee Group (EG) and you MUST Maintain Position prior to making changes to employee ESG. Some examples of ESG changes are:
Faculty to FY-Accrual
Temporary to Volunteer,
Volunteer to Faculty,
Admin < SG to Admin > SG
Admin-Rsrch>SG to Admin-Rsrch<SG
AcadRsrch-EE to FY-FPP
For multiple changes to an employee’s record such as Title, Salary and Mail code changes, you MUST Maintain Position and once approvals are completed, you can submit an Employee Position Update (EPU).
January and February, 2018 Training Calendar
Click here for Instructor Led Training schedule in January & February, 2018
These sessions present to new employees – or employees assigned a new business role – the important BUworks forms in the Human Capital Management (HCM) module. The sessions are a great way to review material, too. Even if you previously attended an intro session, you are likely to learn new things about HCM or to be reminded of concepts that you had forgotten.
Here are course descriptions for upcoming trainings:
HCM Overview: This training gives you an understanding of Boston University’s Enterprise structure, OM & PA forms, Time and Hiring functions.
Display Organizational Chart: Nakisa Org Chart tool/PPOSE transaction allows a user to see Organization Staffing and Display within Boston University. Learn how to search by Org name, position id or position name, employee name, how to navigate and print the Organizational chart.
Hiring: This training show how compensated as well as non-compensated staff/faculty as well as international scholars can be hired into SAP. The need for pre-requisite of open/vacant position to exist before hiring can begin is discussed in the training. The Create/Maintain Position OM actions will be demonstrated in a test environment.
OM & PA forms: This training takes a detailed look at the purpose of OM (Org Management) actions such as Create/Maintain/Delete Positions and PA (Personnel Actions) related to Employee Position Update/Employee Movement/Salary Changes and Additional/Secondary Payment. Pre-requisite OM actions to certain PA actions and what documents to attach to the forms are also discussed in this training.
Tips & Tricks
It takes upto five business days for a form to go through all the approvals in Central HR departments. Please bookmark the website for Payroll Calendar Deadlines so you can submit your form in time.
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