There have been several questions asked about the implications of the Notice of Maintenance of Status Quo order as it pertains to new grad assistant appointments, reappointments, and fellowships. In all cases, the order to not change wages, hours, and all existing conditions of employment IS NOT implicated so long as appointments, reappointments, and fellowships were previously planned and are being established and communicated as part of normal unit practices.

For example, a unit who normally reappoints TA's during the summer can proceed with these reappointments. Where the order WILL BE implicated will be in situations where a unit wants to change, for example, wages due to equity or retention concern. For now, these types of wage changes will not be permissible pursuant to the order. The rule of thumb should be -- proceed with changes to wages, hours, and conditions of employment if there is standard practice to do so and where it's supported by existing University/College practice. If there isn't a standard practice, you'll likely be unable to make changes until the order is lifted. Please work directly with your ELR Consultant if you have any questions. 

If you have not done so already, please review the status of your faculty in PeopleSoft to ensure those who should be faculty emeriti are coded correctly. This should be completed by December 2024. There are a few emeriti training resource links available (note that you will first be asked to log in to the HRMS Instruction page): 

• Retiring Emeriti Faculty
• Add a Person / POI
• Tenure Data Fields

Feel free to replicate the PDF form CEHD uses to gather information from their departments. Contact Lori Mein (l-mein@umn.edu) with questions.

The goal-setting portion of the new PAT platform goes live on Monday, July 29, 2024. At that time, supervisors and employees will be able to log in and set goals to start the performance cycle. Talent Strategy recommends HR leads send either option A or B of email number four from the PAT Transition Guide depending on whether or not they will host workshops for supervisors. 

The ability to document ongoing check-ins and write evaluations will be available in early January 2025.

Additionally, PAT Administrator Training launches next week via Canvas. Those designated as PAT administrators (except view-only admins) will receive an email invitation to complete the course.

We are pleased to welcome Jessica McCann back to the University as the HR lead for University Libraries!  Jessica recently worked as an HR manager for a local IT company. However, many of you have partnered with Jessica in previous years as an HR colleague on the ELR team, the College of Education and Human Development, and the College of Design. Jessica has a wealth of HR experience and we are excited to welcome Jessica back to the University in this HR leadership role. 

The presentation materials from the June 24, 2024, session are now available:

• Slides
• HR competency architecture
• Selecting Talent Certificate (self-paced)  

The next step is for HR leads to complete the Selecting Talent Certificate which prepares you to hire for HR positions and how to use the HR competency architecture resources. 

Organizers kindly request that you also complete the post-session survey by the end of next week.

Planning is underway for this year’s HR summit scheduled for Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at Huntington Bank Stadium. Last year we learned that some members of local HR teams are not in the HR job family. To ensure that those team members are invited to this year’s event, please take a moment to add their name to this form so that we include them in the August “save the date” email.

Natasha Rodich will join the College of Veterinary Medicine as HR Director on July 9. Natasha has extensive experience in progressive human resource management including strategic partnering, employee relations, talent acquisition, policy and program development, and compensation. Her career includes years of HR roles within Sysco Corporation, the medical device industry, the University of Minnesota, and the University of St. Thomas. Please help us welcome Natasha back to the University.

Hiring letter templates have been streamlined to eliminate multiple versions for each employee group. The new templates prompt hiring managers to insert the offer information into a table allowing the candidate to see the details at a glance rather than search for the information in blocks of text. The new letters are available on the OHR Hiring Letter Templates webpage and match those auto-generated for units transitioning through PEAK.

Supervisors must complete outstanding evaluations on the soon-to-be-retired PAT platform by Sunday, June 30, 2024. Access to the platform becomes view-only throughout July and August. Prior evaluations are not migrating to the new platform but will be automatically transferred to personnel files. Local HR must approve all evaluations that they want automatically transferred, including all previous years. Instructions on how to do this can be found in this PAT Admin Guide under the "approving multiple." Evaluations that are not through the approval stage will not be transferred. Employees do not need to sign their evaluations for them to be moved to the new platform. 

ELR created a new resource available to the HR community to provide resources for uncommon situations HR professionals may manage. The webpage shares steps to take if an employee has not reported to work and may need a wellness check. Additional topics will be added to the page as resources are developed.