July HR Management meetings
Denver Campus and Anschutz Campus Thursday, July 23, 2015
MINUTES:

Welcome
o Introductions
o HR staff updates
 Alejandro “Ale” Lleras has been hired as a Senior HR Consultant in HR. Departments he
will cover are: School of Dental Medicine, School of Public Health, and University Police.
 Kevin Jacobs returns August 10th – we look forward to his return.

FML and Medical Certification documents to ORLD
Please remember to send to HR copies of medical certifications, designations and return to work
documents. HR will scan and archive the documents for reference. NOTE: medical certificates
should be kept current.

Holiday accrual for working Classified PERA retirees
PERA retirees in regular Classified positions will receive Holiday pay based on their percent
appointments. Temporary employees are not eligible for Holidays.

Due dates for PMR and additional pay
Due dates for both are approximately one week before the 1st and 15th of each month. The due
dates can also be found on the Payroll Calendar.

Verifications of Employment (VOE)
All VOEs should go through HR and can be emailed to: HR.EmploymentVerifications@ucdenver.edu.
Hardcopies can also be sent to HR for completion. The turnaround time is typically 2 days.

Staff working retiree requests
A new email box has been created for these requests: HR.staffworkingretiree@ucdenver.edu.

OPs questions
o Background check status updates for applicants can be received from HR by emailing:
HR.backgrounds@ucdenver.edu . With HCM we believe you will be able to see the status of all
the applicants in your organization.
o I-9 hard copies do not need to be sent to HR if a copy has been scanned and emailed to HR.

Affordable Care Act (ACA) update
o Employee Services sent notices in July to two groups regarding qualifying under the ACA. Copies
of these letters along with a breakdown of employees will be shared with business partners if
you have someone in your department who is on either list.
 ACA list: This list includes hourly employees including student workers who worked an
average of 30 hours per week during the lookback period between April 2014 – April
2015.
 CU 75 list: This list is generated monthly. If an appointment is set up at 75% or greater,
the employee will be eligible for benefits and will be notified by Employee Services.
o
We have received additional guidance from Legal on how to handle Research Assistants (1505),
Graduate Assistants (1502), and Teaching Assistants (1506) for purposes of the Affordable Care
Act.
Initially, we asked that the FTE and percentage of time for all of the above job codes be adjusted
to zero/2.5% due to the legal opinion that compensation for this group is categorized as a
stipend for purposes of the Affordable Care Act (see e-mail below). After further research by
Legal, it has been determined that we will only reduce the FTE and percentage of time for
Research Assistants who are working directly on a funded research project that is directly
connected with and part of their progress towards earning a master’s or PhD.
Our office has made adjustments in the PeopleSoft system for some of these job codes so we
will adjust any Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants back to the FTE and percentage
populated previously.
We will work with Employee Services to ensure that any Teaching Assistant or Graduate
Assistant who should have been eligible for benefits receives a notice as soon as possible.
o
We have requested that Employee Services re-word the notification letters in the future so it is
clear that there is a cost if there is no action. Please inform those who receive letters of the
importance to notify Employee Services if they wish to waive coverage. If they do not waive
coverage they will be auto-enrolled and incur financial costs for health benefits.
Our understanding is a qualifying event will be required to waive the benefits once entered into
the system for the benefit period. Benefit specific questions should be directed to Employee
Services.
o
Questions/Comments:
 Letters of Offer for Research Assistants – wording was requested based on ACA changes.
HR will work with Legal for language.
 RAs and EPers: Below are questions and answers about this submitted to Grants and
Contracts and answered by Amy Gannon.
Question: What are the repercussions of changing the FTE to -0- and the percent of time to 2.5 for
those whose time is charged to a Fund 30 and those on NIH grants? These folks have to submit ePERs
which certifies their time and effort. The system would only see a 2.5% effort on the grants which
won’t be accurate.
OGC Answer: Effort reporting is based on salary charged and not related to the “effort field” entered
in HRMS – so the 2.5% effort would not be impacted. The report takes the salary charged in total and
then calculates a percentage based on amount charged to each grant – they would still certify 100%
effort regardless of the number of hours worked.
Question: Another concern regarding accurate FTE is that the grant applications require confirmation
for both FTE and salary and the FTE can’t be -0-.
OGC Answer: Per Pre-Award Manager, this should not be an issue as long as there is a dollar
amount and it is consistently applied.

Need clarification on impact of cost if employee has multiple appointments. We will
check with Employee Services on this.

Volunteers and Trainees
If you have questions about volunteers or Trainees, please contact Florie Montoya. We are looking
at revising the policy based on feedback received. We are also working on a matrix that will help you
identify what documents should be completed for volunteers vs. trainees.

HCM and Taleo update
o HCM is scheduled to go live November 3, 2015. HCM Workshops have begun. Please NOTE:
The HCM Overview Workshop is a prerequisite for the HCM Transactions Workshop and HCM
Paying People Workshop. Because it is required you will not be able to register in SkillSoft for
these workshops until the requirement is met. Employee Services will put the HCM Overview
Workshop training online in SkillSoft for those who did not attend in person.
The on-line training is now available. Following is the information on how to access the course
in SkillSoft:
To access SkillSoft:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Log on to your campus portal.
Click on the CU Resources tab. (Skip this step if you are using the system portal.)
Select Training.
Select Start SkillSoft. (SkillSoft will open in a separate window.)
Select CATALOG.
Click University of Colorado - Courses.
Click your campus folder.
Select the HCM folder.
Select the CU: HCM Overview Workshop and click [Launch].
o
CU Careers is scheduled to go live for applicants on November 5, 2015.
 We need your assistance. Please ensure that all completed searches are closed out in Jobs
at CU. Ensure that search summaries are included and ensure that applicants have been
notified if they are no longer being considered.
 If you are not able to close out a posting in Jobs at CU before we transition to CU Careers
any postings that you need to continue will need to be posted in CU Careers.
 HR will send timeframes and is creating a Frequently Asked Questions document to be used
as a guide for transitioning to CU Careers.
o We need your help with getting Managers accustomed to accessing the system. They will have
a dashboard where they can review all pending actions within their areas of responsibility. Once
we go live with ePerformance, they will access the system to do performance plans, coaching
sessions and performance evaluations.
o Deep Dive Sessions – if you would like to help test and provide feedback before HCM goes live
please email Florie.Montoya@ucdenver.edu . We are holding deep dive sessions beginning in
late August. These sessions are by invitation only.
o If you are really excited about the HCM upgrade and would be interested in being videotaped by
Employee Services please email Florie.Montoya@ucdenver.edu .

Providing the HR Management meetings via Webinar was suggested and will be considered.
From: Montoya, Florie
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 1:44 PM
Subject: Update to Affordable Care Act - Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, and Graduate
Assistants
Hello –
As discussed during recent HR Management Meetings, we have received additional guidance on how to
handle Research Assistants (1505), Graduate Assistants (1502), and Teaching Assistants (1506) for
purposes of the Affordable Care Act.
Initially, we asked that the FTE and percentage of time for all of the above job codes be adjusted to
zero/2.5% due to the legal opinion that compensation for this group is categorized as a stipend for
purposes of the Affordable Care Act (see e-mail below). After further research by Legal, it has been
determined that we will only reduce the FTE and percentage of time for Research Assistants who are
working directly on a funded research project that is directly connected with and part of their progress
towards earning a master’s or PhD.
Our office has made adjustments in the PeopleSoft system for some of these job codes so we will adjust
any Graduate Assistants and Teaching Assistants back to the FTE and percentage populated previously.
We need your assistance in identifying the Research Assistants (1505) who do not meet the criteria
above (working directly on a funded research project and who are working towards a master’s or
PhD). If they do not meet the criteria, please add their information to the attached spreadsheet and
include the FTE and % of time that should be populated in the HRMS system. Please include active
Research Assistants as of, or hired after, July 1 on the spreadsheet. Please e-mail this information to
Luana Tadolini by Wednesday, August 5th.
We will work with Employee Services to ensure that any Teaching Assistant or Graduate Assistant who
should have been eligible for benefits receives a notice as soon as possible.
Please distribute as needed.
Please contact us if you have questions.
Thanks,
Florie Montoya and Kaylene McCrum
From: Mccrum, Kaylene
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2015 11:38 AM
Subject: Affordable Care Act - Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, and Graduate Assistants
Hello,
For purposes of the Affordable Care Act, it has been determined that Research Assistants, Teaching
Assistants, and Graduate Assistants are, based on legal opinion, categorized as being paid via a stipend
and are not eligible for benefits. This does not impact their classification of compensation for IRS
purposes and research grants as it will still be classified as salary.
Therefore, Human Resources will adjust the position and job data information for those with these
active titles by June 30, 2015. The FTE will be set to zero and the percentage of time in job data will
default to 2.5%.
Effective immediately, for students put into these job codes, please follow the same procedure when
entering the stipend in PeopleSoft HRMS. Also, please ensure that you document the position
expectations in an offer letter.
Please contact us if you have questions.
Thanks,
Florie
Kaylene