Requesting TCards reminder

Please do not submit TCard applications directly to the Controller’s Office because additional local approvals are required to complete the application. All applications for new credit cards should be sent to ASRCentral@umn.edu following director approval, so the remaining required approvals can be completed. Incomplete applications sent to the Controller’s Office will not be processed, which can add significant delays to your card’s arrival (regularly 6-8 weeks).

Year-end financial reminder

Fiscal year-end is fast approaching. To ensure your documents are paid in FY23, please submit the following by the end of the day on Monday, June 12:

• Requisition / Purchase Order requests (this includes supplies and tech purchases in UMarket)
• PCard transactions reconciled in MyWallet
• ChromeRiver expense reports

If they are not submitted by June 12, they will be part of the following fiscal year beginning in July.

Chrome River reminders

As conference opportunities increase and travel plans are made, please be mindful of these common errors when filling out your expense reports:

• The business purpose (aka justification) needs to clearly address how attending the conference benefits the department/University. Simply stating conference, professional development, or PERR# does not meet the policy standard. Please see the Justifications/Business Purpose job aid for additional guidance.
• When itemizing your lodging expense, always complete the Allowable Total worksheet/calculation on the Room Charge portion. This field coordinates the verification between expense and per diem limit, which will resolve many of the compliance warning scenarios related to lodging. Please see steps 3c-e of the Lodging Itemization job aid for additional guidance.
• If your travel includes extra personal time either before or after the main conference, always include documented comparisons for airfare (i.e. Conference only vs. Conference plus additional days) from the date airfare was originally purchased so we can document that the department is not taking on additional expenses.

COVID-19 emergency paid leave reminder

The University will continue to provide emergency paid leave for employees and student workers affected by COVID-19 for the 2023 calendar year. This emergency paid leave is available for employees and student workers who:

• Are unable to work due to COVID-related illness
• Need to quarantine or isolate because of exposure to COVID-19
• Must care for someone or a child who is ill with COVID-19
• Need time off to get a COVID-19 vaccine or have an adverse reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine

For more information, including how to request time off under this policy, see Emergency paid leave.

Personal holiday reminder

As a reminder, University employees have until June 30 to take any remaining personal holidays, including the two additional holidays President Gabel announced in December. The Board of Regents approved the two extra personal holidays to acknowledge the dedication of faculty and staff during the pandemic. Check your personal holiday balance in the My Time tab of MyU. For details on eligibility and scheduling your holidays, visit the Office of Human Resources.

Performance appraisal reminders

As a reminder, Performance appraisals are due tomorrow, Friday, February 25. The evaluations will cover the 2021 calendar year. Supervisors will only be using overall rankings and not the individual competency ratings. If you have specific questions about the time frame or your goals from last year, talk with your supervisor.

The timeline for the performance appraisal is available below:

• Friday, February 25 - Employees submit their form in Jadu.
• Friday, March 11 - Supervisors submit completed forms in Jadu.
• Monday, March 28 - Directors complete review on all appraisals for their unit.
• Friday, April 1 - Directors complete review for consistency across ASR.
• April 4-29 - Supervisors and employees meet to review the appraisal.

Chrome River reminder & feature updates

As activities continue to return to normal, please remember that all of our purchases need to include a statement of how the purchase benefits the department/University. The business purpose job aid provides guidance on writing strong justifications.

Chrome River also recently updated two features for improved user experience. The corresponding University job aids available online and in the system are still being updated to reflect the new functionality:

• Labels in the eWallet have been clarified based on user feedback.
• You should now see Out-of-Pocket Expenses and U Travel Card which replace Offline and Credit Card, respectively.
• Out-of-Pocket items continue to be created based on receipts emailed into Chrome River, but they may belong to a Travel Card purchase if the receipt is emailed before the credit card transaction is reported by the bank (approx. 2-5 business days depending on the supplier).

• Expense owners will now have the ability to Recall an expense report that has been Returned by an approver.
• Expense reports in Returned status have limited edit capabilities. If you are asked to make a modification but the field(s) are not editable or an action is not allowed, try Recalling the expense report to your Drafts folder which should make the report fully editable.

Complete Preventing Sexual Misconduct module reminder

As a reminder, the online education module "Preventing Sexual Misconduct, Discrimination, and Retaliation" must be completed by May 27, 2021. If you have not completed the module, you should have received a reminder email earlier this week.

You can complete the module in Training Hub, and a step-by-step guide is also available to help you navigate the course. The education module will take two or three hours for you to complete, so make sure to block off time accordingly. If you believe you may have difficulty completing this course because you have been negatively impacted by sexual misconduct, please contact the Aurora Center or Gender and Sexuality Center, and they will be able to assist you in waiving the course.

Mandatory reporting reminder

As a reminder, misconduct is serious and may present itself in different ways, whether that be sexual misconduct, discrimination, or harassment. As an ASR staff member, you might come across a student who self-reports an incident either verbally, via email, or through submitted documentation such as an appeal form. You may hear of a case of misconduct from a colleague, or you may personally experience or witness misconduct. Whatever the case may be, the University of Minnesota takes misconduct, discrimination, and harassment seriously, and it is your responsibility and obligation to report misconduct.

The Bias Response & Referral Network (BRRN) provides support resources to impacted parties and promotes education and dialogue. They provide referral services to those who report incidents to appropriate campus offices that can effectively respond. Individuals can submit anonymous incident reports online at BRRN UReport, or they can report an incident via email to endbias@umn.edu.

Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action staff address reports of discrimination, harassment, nepotism, sexual misconduct, and related retaliation. University employees are required to report possible sexual misconduct that they learn about through the EOAA Reporting page. For more information, please see the EOAA Sexual Misconduct Resources for Staff, Faculty, and Student Employees brochure.

The University has both required and optional training for staff and students. A few weeks ago, all ASR staff received the email to take the mandatory training entitled “Preventing Sexual Misconduct, Discrimination, and Retaliation.” You may have also received an email to complete Clery Act training.

If you have any questions about these policies or training, you can talk to your unit director or get more information as directed in the training.

Performance appraisal reminder

Thank you for submitting your performance appraisals. Supervisors should be meeting with employees to review appraisals between now and the end of April. Supervisors, please let your staff know how these will be scheduled. Once the reviews are completed, supervisors should put a copy of the PDF in the employee’s personnel file in Google Drive.

The performance review meetings are a good time to check on job descriptions and make sure they are still accurate. You can review the job descriptions in the ASR HR Toolkit Shared Drive.

Please let Carin Thoms (ande8670@umn.edu) or Megan Wollner (woll0122@umn.edu) know if you have any questions.