Frequently Asked Questions for
Pay and Appointment Administration
When do employees get paid?
Monthly paid employees receive their pay on the second last workday of each month. Weekly paid
employees receive their pay every Friday.
What types of employment are paid monthly?
All regular full time employees and temporary full time employees are paid on the monthly cycle. They
receive all their payments on this cycle, even if some of the payments are for non-employment reasons
(e.g. consulting, awards) or if some are for part time hourly work.
What types of employment are paid weekly?
Temporary part time employees who are paid by the hour are paid weekly. If an employee is
compensated hourly but works the same hours every week, consideration should be given to including
them on the monthly cycle or appoint them as exceptional hourly (where they will be paid the same
amount of hours each week unless you key the hours otherwise). Non-employment payments to
individuals who are not on a monthly paid cycle are also made on the weekly pay cycle.
I was late getting appointment and pay information to the Deans Office/Faculty Relations and Human
Resources and an employee is due funds, when will they get paid?
If the employee would normally be paid on a monthly pay cycle, has not received any employment
income to date and did not receive any funds from other appointments during the regular pay scale, an
off cycle (manual) payment will be issued at a time determined by Human Resources, but before the
next monthly cycle. In situations where an employee has already received a pay for the pay period but
was missing funds, the missing amount will be added to their next monthly pay.
Why didn’t an employee have income tax or statutory deductions taken from their pay?
The employee may have claimed a full tax credit and/or the income paid is considered non-employment
and therefore non-taxable, non-pensionable and non-insurable. These earnings will be reported on T4A
tax slips at year end.
How can we get a replacement for a lost cheque?
Lost paycheques are a problem to replace. All employees and non-employees who receive regular
payments are asked to provide banking information on line using myHuman Resources for all future
pays. Contact Human Resources at hr-communication@uwo.ca or x82194 with the details of the lost
cheque. We will contact the employee regarding replacement; however it may take several weeks due
to the restrictions in the Canadian banking system.
How do I requisition missed hours for an employee?
You may use the on-line pay sheet input functionality on the HR system during the next pay period. You
will need to add a row to the current pay period (use the + in upper right corner of the pay sheet), key
the pay period for which the hours are owed and the amount. This pay will be added to the pay cycle for
which pay sheets are currently open.
How do employees review and elect tax credits?
They need to sign into myHuman Resources and use the option elections.
How do employees change their address and bank information?
They need to sign into myHuman Resources and use the personal data change option and the pay
options.
What should be given to an employee asking for a confirmation of their earnings?
Human Resources prepares these letters on request. The banking institution or other interested parties
may also accept a print out of their latest earnings statement form the University.
Is a T4 produced for each job that an employee has at the university?
No only one T4 is produced which accumulates earnings from all jobs. If the employee received nonemployment funds, a T4A slip will also be produced.
How do employees get copies of their T4 and T4A slips?
T4/T4A tax slips are produced and distributed to their departments by February 28 each year. If the
person has left the university, the slips are mailed by the department to the home address last recorded
on the HR system. Replacement copies may be arranged by contacting Human Resources.
How do employees get a Record of Employment?
Records of Employment are electronically filed with Service Canada after the last pay period for an
employee going on leave or terminating. When applying for Employment Insurance Benefits, the
employee will be able to view their Record of Employment using the on-line Employment Insurance
application system. Occasionally, data errors have interfered with the electronic filing. In this case the
employee may contact Human Resources with the last date they were paid, their social insurance
number, their employee number and their phone number to request an electronic transfer of the
outstanding Record of Employment.
How do I verify a Social Insurance Number for a new employee?
As part of the anti-identity theft initiative, federal regulations require all employees to ask to see the
Social Insurance Card issued by the Government of Canada when collecting a new employee’s SIN.
When the SIN is keyed into the HR system, an algorithm is run to ensure it is a valid SIN. Hiring managers
and supervisors who collect this information must ask to see a new employee’s card to verify the SIN
number prior to sending the appointment notice to Human Resources.
How do I get access to reports from the HR system?
As a manager or administrator of pay and appointment transactions you may request access to a variety
of reports that can be run using your own parameters. The reporting output is downloadable to EXCEL
for your use. You need to talk to your Director in your school for approval. Alternatively, you can
complete the Request for Access form on the website for pay and appointment administrators and have
it signed by your budget unit head or their delegate for these purposes.
Will a hard copy of earnings statements for current employees be mailed to their home address? If so,
what is the effective date for this?
Beginning March 1, 2009, all new employees added to the HR system will not have hard copy earnings
statements produced, unless requested through myHuman Resources, in which case they will be mailed
to their home address. Beginning April 30, 2009, all existing employees who elect to continue to have
hard copy earnings statements produced will have them mailed to their home address. The effective
date of this distribution change is coincident with the April 2009 monthly pay. After this date, unless an
employee specifically requests a hard copy of their earnings statement, they must view the statement
on line using myHuman Resources.
When searching for data on the manager home page in the HR system, do we need to use the faculty
appointment or staff appointment pathways first or can we just search an employee number?
Searches for personal or job data can be used at any point for either faculty or staff without specifying
their employment category. The pathways in manager home are designed to help users get to the
information they need quicker when they are unfamiliar with the system.
Where is the marital status information?
Marital status is a piece of personal information which was historically collected upon employment.
After a thorough review of privacy statute accountabilities and the need for this information, the
university is not justified to collect or retain this information except in the case where the employee
becomes entitled to benefits and pension. In this case, spousal information is collected in the benefit
and pension system but marital status is not collected or stored in the HR system. Historical marital
status information has been deleted from the HR system.
What is the ultimate cutoff time period for pays?
The pay calendar highlights deadlines for submitting pay requisitions for each pay cycle. The
administrators’ deadline is usually 1.5 business days prior to finalizing all pay calculations. If you have
missed the administrators’ deadline, notify human resources as soon as possible. If you notify us before
the final pay calculations we will do what we can to get an employee paid. We cannot accept these
requests on a regular basis due to an unpredictable workload and therefore, we may not be able to
meet your needs. You will need to notify HR no later than 12:00 noon on the day of the pay.
An employee transferred out of my department and I can no longer see the employment information
for them. Has that history been deleted?
No, the data is not lost. However your security has been designed to only see the information for which
you are accountable and that security is driven by the current department code of an employee. To get
access to information you need on that former employee from your area, contact Human Resources.
When an employee works in multiple departments, as a manager, can I see all employment
information?
You can see all employment information for all jobs only if you have accountability for all the
departments the employee works in. If they work in a department for which you have no accountability
you will only see their job title and the department they work for by using the employee list search.
As an appointment administrator, do I have access to change an employee’s address on-line?
No. The security features of the HR system require employees to change their own addresses using
myHuman Resources. Other than the employee, only records administrators in Human Resources, who
have security privileges to change all data elements, can change an employee’s address.
Is it possible to see a faculty member’s teaching load in other departments and faculties?
Yes. For administrators who have access to faculty appointment data, the teaching load looks up will
provide access to course information for the faculty member in all areas across campus. This is to
facilitate the determination of UWOFA membership rights and cross appointments.
Are there any limitations on the use of the HR system reporting output in EXCEL?
Yes. You are bound by the University’s policies on the protection of personal information for employees.
All reports from the system, electronic or otherwise, need to be stored in a secure location, preferably
password protected and on university servers. They should never be stored on hard drives for a desktop
or laptop and never on a USB portable drive. They should be destroyed once they are no longer needed.
Is there a report to highlight Visa/Permit expiry dates?
Yes. The Upcoming Termination Report will include employees whose work permit or Visa is expected to
expire. In these cases, an automatic termination date, equal to the expiry date, has been added to the
HR system.
Is there functionality on the HR system for managers to track sick time, vacation time, medical
appointments, etc.?
At the current time, there is no absence tracking functionality that has been delivered to administrators
in the HR system. This functionality is in the system development plan with an estimated
implementation date in 2011. Some units across campus use Timetracker, a software product designed
and maintained by ITS for these purposes.
Is it possible to hire a graduate student from September through April instead of each academic term?
Currently graduate students who are eligible for employment are appointed using an online system. The
graduate student must be a registered student in the program in each academic term to be eligible to be
appointed to a teaching assistant or research assistant roles. The data used for the appointment comes
directly from the student enrollment system. As academic terms end in December and begin early in
January each year, the graduate student must be appointed for each academic term in which they are
enrolled as a graduate student.
Can the on-line graduate student appointment functionality be used for all types of appointments,
regardless of the funding source?
Answer is being drafted.
Can employee choose to deposit their pay to more than one back account?
This flexibility has not been provided to the employee. This significantly increases the complexity of an
already complex payroll.
Does the expected job end date automatically generate a termination date for all employment types,
including Work study student?
Yes. A job information row is added with the action of termination and reason of contract end with the
effective date of the day following the contract end date. If the employee terminates before the
contract end date, you will need to complete a Termination Notice and submit is to Human Resources in
order to accurately reflect the employment record.
What are the significant changes in the HR system version 9.0 versus the previous version?
The navigation to get to the information you need has significantly changed. The placement of fields,
like expected job end date, has changed to a different tab on the job information. New functionality was
implemented for applicants applying on line for career opportunities. There have been significant
changes to how the security is established for system users, including a change to allow new employees
access to myHuman Resources prior to the effective start date of their job. While many customized
reporting and security was available in the previous version for certain administrators, the orientation
for the new version reminded end users of the tools available to complete their accountabilities.
Does the Employee List search on the HR system provide data for the whole campus or just for the
group of employees I am accountable for?
The Employee list search is available for pay and appointment administrators to look up an employee ID,
job or department of any person with an employment or non-employment relationship which is
currently active. Administrators are encouraged to use this functionality to provide employee numbers
and to identify multiple job situations which may impact the appointment offer letter and
compensation.
Does paperwork need to be completed to change a funding account for the salary of an employee?
No. There is on line funding account change transactions for administrators. The change can be initiated
where the administrator has the security to do so and can be approved by others electronically. In this
case, no paperwork is needed.
Can I see an employee’s Normal Retirement Date on the system?
Yes. Special dates including Normal Retirement Date, Actual Retirement Date, Part Time Start Date, RF
Start Date, and Faculty RF Date can be seen on the UWO Options/UWO Employee Data screen. The
same has student number information and identifiers for former Robarts Research Institute employees.
If part time faculty members are encouraged to complete the Self Service Employment Equity
questionnaire, are units still required to complete statistic reports for Faculty Relations?
The self-service employment equity questionnaire collects data from individuals who become
employees of the university. Some of the statistics collected by Faculty Relations includes data about
candidates for part time faculty positions- many of whom will never become employees and will not be
included in the data on the self-service application. Faculty Relations is working on improved electronic
processes which will be designed to minimize any work duplication that may currently be in the business
systems.
Can the payroll system automatically calculate statutory holiday pay?
No. Pay administrators need to determine the statutory holiday pay and requisition this. The pay system
has not been designed to automatically calculate this. For hourly paid employees the amount is
dependent on the hours of work in the 4 weeks preceding the statutory holiday and this level of detail is
maintained at the department level, not on the human resource system. Human Resources will consider
this automation in future development, along with absence tracking functionality.
Can an administrator view the amount of professional expense reimbursement allowance available
for a faculty or staff member when approving the claims form?
This cannot be viewed on the Human Resources system. Expense reimbursements are processed
through accounts payable. As a supervisor you are being asked to approve an expense which is required
in order to support the individual’s professional development. You are not being asked about the
amount eligible for reimbursement- that will be determined by the staff in the Department of Finance
and in Human Resources.