To Our Non-Medical Center Managers,
Our goal is to keep you informed as the University continues to respond to the COVID-19 situation. We have a few developments related to non-Medical Center hiring, guidelines for temporary, contract, and time-as-reported (TAR) staff, performance evaluations, and staffing of open positions that we want to share with you.
Hiring
As you know, we are committed at this time to continuing full salary and benefits for all our part-time and full-time faculty and staff for the foreseeable future. To help us meet this commitment, we have initiated a freeze on hiring for all open positions and replacement staff positions until further notice, unless an offer was extended to a candidate as of March 20, 2020. Any exceptions must be approved by senior leadership who report directly to the President.
During this time, no new faculty recruitments should begin unless essential to operations and approved by senior leadership. In addition, all overtime in non-clinical areas should be kept to a minimum and will require approval by senior leadership.
We realize that this will be disappointing to some units who were right in the midst of searches, but we feel it is financially necessary in order to assure that we can pay our existing faculty and staff during this challenging time.
Guidelines for Temporary, Contract, and Time-As-Reported Staff
Until further notice, all work being performed by temporary, contract, and TAR staff should be reviewed to determine if that work can now be done by an available University employee who is not actively working remotely and able to assist. We should be ending all temporary, contract, and TAR employment immediately unless the position is considered essential and cannot be done by a current University employee. Please contact your HR Business Partner with any questions related to these categories of employees.
Performance Evaluations
Given all the recent changes in our workplace, and in our lives, we understand that additional time may be needed by staff and managers to complete self-assessments and performance evaluations. We request that if possible, managers work with their staff to complete their reviews on time using the normal process and timeline. If your workload is such that you cannot complete these by the due date of April 30, please discuss a revised timeline with your Cabinet-level leader. It is our goal to have performance evaluations completed by the end of the fiscal year.
Temporary Assistance in Other Areas
Our staffing needs continue to evolve on a daily basis as we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. You received a message from us on March 22 in which we noted that staff that who are unable to work remotely may be asked to perform other functions for their units or schools, or to take on tasks elsewhere at the University or in the Medical Center. Just to clarify, these are primarily administrative tasks and we will not be asking any non-Medical Center employees to support patient care at the Medical Center. We are currently in the process of identifying our most pressing staffing needs and tasks and will communicate further in the coming days as we complete our evaluation.
Thank you for your attention to these important developments. We will keep you informed of any changes or updates as the situation progresses. Please do your best to stay healthy!
Yours sincerely,
Tony Kinslow
Associate Vice President for Human Resources/Chief Human Resources Officer