Learning Tuesdays: Program TranscriptHR Updates: Benefits, Compliance, What’s New in 2016

Learning Objectives

Participants will be provided with an HR update, and specifically will learn about how the following:

Benefits: Employee Orientation Checklist, Retirement (TIAA-CREF), Wellness Program Compliance: Pay Transparency Act, Independent Contractors, Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Reporting What's New in 2016: E-Time Reporting, Learning and Development

Carolyn Mattiske: Welcome to Learning Tuesday. I’m Carolyn Mattiske learning and development manager for the Research Foundation and I’m proud to introduce today’s program, HR Updates, Benefits, Compliance and What’s New in 2016. I’m joined by my HR colleagues from the central office – Kathleen Caggiano-Siino, Susan Zaffers-Vincelette, Kate Malia, Christa Taylor, Barbara Pell, Tim Orcutt and Ms. Laurel McAdoo. We’ll also here from Mr. Mark Miller, a research engineer in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery from Upstate Medical University, as well as our TIAA CREF partners, Ms. Selma Fox and Mr. Alan Lallier.

Specifically we will learn today about how the following benefits related topics apply to you – the employee orientation checklist, TIAA CREF resources that are now available to you, as well as the employee wellness program.

With regard to compliance, we’ll talk about the Pay Transparency Act, independent contractors and Affordable Care Act, ACA reporting.

There are also some new 2016 topics that we’ll cover including the E time reporting project and learning and development initiatives. The panel will address as many of your questions as they can during the next hour and a half or so. And we encourage you to submit questions to be addressed live. You may email the studio or use the chat feature through Live Stream.

Emails should be directed to studio@hvcc.edu. Alternatively, use the chat feature right embedded in the Live Stream Tool. You could also interact with the full audience by using the chat feature.

So this information will appear at the bottom of the screen throughout today’s program. So send along those questions.

With that, I’ll turn it over to Mr. Tim Orcutt to begin today’s program. Thanks, Tim.

Tim Orcutt: Thanks, Carolyn. So what I wanted to start today with was a way for you to find the employee orientation checklist on our website. Under policies you actually have three choices – policies, procedures and forms, A to Z. so we’re gonna go

to forms, because that’s a form. And then we’re gonna scroll down and you can go forms A to Z. Now this is actually under N for new employee orientation checklist. So you click N and there it is.

So what’s neat about this is that you have everything you need to get your employees set up. We have links now to almost everything here. Which is super convenient. So over here we have the materials that everybody’s gonna get, all employees would get this information. Okay. There is also information that’s gonna be specific to your campus. So that’s why there’s not as many links here because it’ll vary from campus to campus. Then we’ve got tax materials for all employees. And these are all convenient IRS links that will get you to the forms that you need depending on each employee situation.

Then over here, benefits eligible employees. So there’s information on our wellness plan, which I’ll talk about in a minute. The benefits handbook, very handy to have. The quick reference guide and so on. So all this benefits information is here.

And then for those who are salaries, there’s a couple other programs that they’re eligible for, including the flexible benefits plan and the voluntary short-term disability program which is especially great for new hires that haven’t built up their sick leave yet and if something happens to them early on in their careers that could be a really helpful program.

Moving on to the graduate student employees, there’s a link for everything here. All the great stuff from Pomco and various brochures for each one of the benefits that are offered under the graduate student health plan. And then remember that summer employees are also eligible for retirement. And I’ll talk – I’ll send it over to TIAA CREF in a minute to talk about the retirement plan. So those are gonna be given to regular and summer employees. And it has basically our RF webpages, our benefits webpages for those three benefits. Information on employment service credit. Then we have the TIAA CREF microsite. And the fee disclosure information which by law we have to provide to you, so there it is in a very handy way.

And then, of course you’re gonna want to show employees how to get on the internet in the first place. Our website, and make sure that they can get access to some of the documents that are available only to RF employees. And then we have – there was a special rule for employees working in New York City. So there is a sick leave notice of employer rights there that the city requires us to have.

So this is a very convenient one stop shop for anything that you might need regarding employer orientation. So please take advantage of it. And we hope it’s helpful. If you have suggestions for other things that we should be including here just let us know.

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So I’d like to go back to the presentation now. And what I’ll do is now that we’re gonna throw it over to TIAA CREF to talk a little bit about the new microsite and a virtual learning environment. Now we’re gonna hear from Allan Lallier and Selma Fox. So I’m gonna send it over to them.

Allan Lallier: Hello everyone. My name is Allan Lallier. I’m a relationship manager at TIAA CREF. And I oversee the relationship between TIAA CREF and RF SUNY. Today we are going to review the TIAA CREFF RF SUNY microsite. I will discuss what is the microsite, then focus on two specific areas – detailed and context within the site. These two areas will allow you to see investments and details about your retirement plan. We will then take a look at how to access information on the site to determine your campus contact and TIAA CREF contact for one on one counseling sessions on campus or in one of our local offices.

I will then hand it off to Selma Fox, director of marketing. Selma works closely with RF SUNY to create initiatives that increase retirement awareness and education. Selma will introduce you to accessing webinars from the TIAA CREF RF SUNY microsite.

So let’s go ahead and get started. What is the TIAA CREF RF SUNY microsite? First off, the site can be accessed by typing the URL www.tiaa-cref.org/rfsuny. The site is a one stop location where you can find out an array of details regarding retirement plans, along with various educational tools. Some of the tools on the site include being able to review details about your TIAA CREF retirement plans. For example, you can click on plan and investments at the top of the page. From here you can select the appropriate retirement plan. The basic plan is where RF SUNY contributions would be contributed and the optional retirement plan is where you can defer contributions from your paycheck on a pre-tax basis.

If you click on either of the plans, you can view additional information. Today we are going to select the retirement plan to give you a feel of what the page will look like.

On the left hand side you can click to see investment choices. This is marked with a blue star. Or you can view investment performance. This is marked with a blue smiley face. And just to the right of those markings you can view more in depth information regarding your retirement plan. Such as rules around contributions, taxation and distribution options.

I would also like to show you where you can access information to determine your TIAA CREF contact for one on one counseling sessions on campus or in a TIAA CREF local office. In addition, you can also view your benefit contact on campus.

This information can be found by going back to the homepage. Toward the bottom right under need help click on contact your financial consultant or your

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benefits office. Again, this is located on the homepage on the bottom right under need help.

Once you click on the link, you can select your campus. The TIAA CREF financial consultant and your benefits contact will populate. If you would like to contact TIAA CREF with any questions or to schedule a one on one appointment, please give us a call at 1-800-732-8353. A general rule of thumb is to meet with us once a year regardless of your age. This ensures your investment allocations meet your risk tolerance, you are on track to retire at the age you would like to retire and to ensure we have your correct contact information and beneficiaries.

Now I’m going to hand it off to Selma where she will introduce you to accessing webinars from the microsite.

Selma Fox: Thank you, Allan, and hello everyone. My name is Selma Fox and I am the communications consultant from TIAA CREF assigned to RF SUNY. Retirement information and education are indeed just a click away. Today, I would like to introduce you to the TIAA CREF virtual environment. A new source of information and education that is widely diverse in topics and available to you in real time.

Because effective money management and retirement savings are some of the most important aspects of your financial life, RF SUNY has teamed up with TIAA CREF to offer financial live webinars through TIAA CREF’s online virtual environment. All you have to do to take advantage of this resource is register to become part of the virtual environment then click the webinars you want to attend based on your schedule. It’s easy.

You may be asking what topics will be covered in the virtual environment? Well, there will be a wide range of topics. This is a summary of the type of webinars that will be offered. Topics about spending, budgeting, savings topics for women, 529 savings, demystifying life insurance, dismantling myths about annuities, social responsible investing. We will also host some webinars focused on current economic outlooks and others on understanding social security, paying yourself income options in retirement. Just a wide range of topics. You may get a copy of this curriculum by visiting the RF SUNY microsite at www.tiaa-creff.org/rfsuny.

On the RF SUNY microsite you will also find a calendar. Each quarter the webinars are updated. Topics are chosen. Dates and times are established in the virtual environment. All you need to do is to select the topic and plan to attend. And I will be updating the calendar on the RF SUNY microsite.

So reserve your spot. So how do you take advantage of this resource? Well, the first thing you have to do is register for entrance in the virtual environment if you haven’t already. So let’s start doing that.

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Let’s assume that you’re gonna register through the RF SUNY microsite. On the right there is a new section called virtual environment. It’s outlined in red. Here you will find the curriculum that I covered earlier. The middle area is where you can go to register and revisit the virtual environment at any time. And lastly, quarterly calendar will be posted here as well.

So you’re gonna start to register. Once you visit the URL, either directly or through the RF SUNY microsite, you’ll get to this page to create your login credentials. Please make sure that when you register you include RF SUNY as your employer and please identify your RF SUNY campus location.

Once you complete this page, the next time you visit the environment you will come to a page like this. Once you go into the virtual environment, the auditorium, all you need to do is to click on the webinar you want to sign up for. And you will get a confirmation registration from the virtual environment to let you know that you have been registered for this course.

Let’s say that after the webinar you missed a few points and you want to go back and revisit some things. Or let’s say that you had all the intention of attending this webinar but something happened. What you can do is go back to the virtual environment, to the webinars down at the bottom. I’ve highlighted it in red here. After each webinar an on demand version of that webinar is posted in the virtual environment for 30 days. So you can review it any time you want to on your own time. How about that?

So what’s next? Again, you need to register for the environment. Once you register for the environment then you’re gonna start getting emails from TIAA CREF to announce new webinars, to affirm that you have been registered for a particular webinar that you signed up for. It’s just gonna be wonderful.

And so with that, thank you and please reserve your spot today.

Tim Orcutt: Thank you, Allan and Selma for that presentation. So what I wanted to talk to you next about is our wellness program. It’s been around for a little over a year. I just wanted to give you some reminders. It’s available to help you be your best. And you can earn up to $400.00 a year in cash rewards. And there’s many ways that you can earn the points or the health miles you need to get those cash rewards.

You can track your steps with a pedometer. You can track your food. You can even track your sleep and still get points towards cash rewards. It’s free to join. And you can join any time. All you have to do is sign up at join.virginpulse.com/rfsuny. And be sure to use your full name as it appears on your paycheck or paystub because that’s how they match you up. Because we do send them a list every few weeks as to who’s eligible for the program.

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So what I want to do now is introduce Mark Miller from the Upstate campus. Upstate has done a great job in promoting the program. In fact, they were part of the reason why the central New York area won the back to cool challenge last fall. They are very, very active. And I want him to tell you about some of their success stories in those challenges. So I’m gonna hand it over to Mark for that presentation.

Mark Miller: Good morning. Virgin Pulse endeavors from SUNY Upstate Medical University. The general theme in this talk is replacing names with people to cultivate a healthy community.

People that have participated in a step challenge by Virgin Pulse probably recognize this picture. Now I’m not talking about people recognizing myself, Mark, as always being ahead of Coach Tim in steps. But I’m talking about this picture of a leader board, of a step challenge through Virgin Pulse. If you haven’t participated in a step challenge, the goal is to accumulate as many steps with a pedometer over the course of two weeks. Listed in turquoise color is the number of steps each name as compiled. When you’re in these challenges you see _____ _____, _____ _____ or drop below you. And if you are Tim Orcutt you see Mark always ahead of you.

Over the right is a message board, which is a place to interact with other contestants where you might offer encouragement, a question or maybe even a boast. Through the challenge I have participated in – I recognize a lot of these names. One name would always be close to mine in steps. She would offer great encouragement and positive thoughts to me via the text board. One day I received a SUNY Upstate email. And I said, hey, wait, I recognize that name. I didn’t realize she worked at Upstate. I read through the email and at the end she had listed her address. Wait. So I got up and walked about 50 yards from my lab, went into her office and introduced myself. This name that I recognized was a woman that I saw but didn’t have any interactions with. Now we chat about upcoming Virgin Pulse events, we take walks and discuss life. It is a very positive relationship. I think through our endeavors at SUNY Upstate we are changing names with people to cultivate a healthy community.

My name is Mark Miller and I am a person participating in Virgin Pulse’s program at SUNY Upstate. This program has pushed me to be healthy again. I love the community of people that I have met in the program. I really enjoy step challenges.

I would first like to start by introducing you to some people and thanking those that have insisted in cultivating a community here at SUNY Upstate.

Suzanne Brisk has been very supportive and helpful in all endeavors we partake here at Upstate. She is a real go-getter and makes things happen. Lisa Carroll is a Virgin Pulse participant and a big part of cultivating this community by volunteering her time and effort and connecting with people with a warm smile.

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Sara Hagan, the SUNY representative at Virgin Pulse, has gratefully fulfilled all of our requests entirely and quickly. And I also want to thank Tim Orcutt for providing us lists, information and materials.

So what are the endeavors here at SUNY Upstate? In the fall, several names participated in the back to cool step challenge. This challenge groups SUNY schools into four regions and pitted them against each other. Lisa and myself were co-captains for the central team. Lisa was the first name I replaced with a person. She was a great co-captain. In the end, our team gelled, encouraged each other and rallied to win. This started to feel like a community. Hey, did I mention the central team won?

After eating too much gobble and feeling the wobble, I created a personal step challenge called the Thanksgiving stepper. At Virgin Pulse website you can create personal healthy challenges where you invite people or groups to join you. With my Thanksgiving stepper I wanted to compete against other SUNY RF participants. Luckily a SUNY RF group was already established and prior to the challenge Sara Hagan sent emails to SUNY Virgin Pulse participants to join the SUNY RF group. The email worked great having additional people join the group. There was some confusion being this was my first I organized in a personal challenge. But was solved by creating the Thanksgiving stepper 2.0.

In total we had 89 people join the SUNY RF group and over 60 people participate in the two challenges. I just want to give a shout out to Terrance of SUNY Poly Technic Institute for winning the Thanksgiving stepper and Beth of the SUNY Press for finishing as runner up. A big congrats also goes to Ellen as the winner of the Thanksgiving Stepper 2.0. If you know them, give them a big high five for me.

To get more people involved at Upstate, Suzanne, Lisa and myself were involved with a good morning Virgin Pulse sign up. We set up in lobbies of various buildings throughout campus for three mornings from 7:30 to 10:00 AM in high work entrance locations. We greeted people as they came to work and fell just short of badgering them to join Virgin Pulse. We also had Virgin Pulse send emails to RF employees _____ _____ location _____. Virgin Pulse also lent us a tablecloth so we could look official.

We offered the research employees a healthy breakfast muffin. There was also a raffle for a Max pedometer. We had three laptops that were available to sign people up on the spot and orient them to the Virgin Pulse program and website. There was a couple of challenges with the sign up in that some people didn’t have time to talk before work. Some employees didn’t have access to the internet work to access Virgin Pulse website. And a few were unclear what Virgin Pulse was. Oh, yeah, there was a snowstorm in Syracuse one morning to overcome. Imagine that.

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With that in mind, we are very busy most of the time. Although it seemed like _____, 27 people joined the group. Five people were going to do research. And we reoriented approximately ten nonactive Virgin Pulse members to the website. Most importantly, we met people, not just names.

These 27 people that joined during the sign up moved Upstate closer to the SUNY goal of having 30 percent enrollment in Virgin Pulse. At the beginning of 2016, SUNY Upstate had 189 people out of 899 employees or 21 percent enrollment. We are now at approximately 24 percent. But must continue our endeavors to get more people involved.

Suzanne Brisk, the wellness coordinator at Upstate, has developed unique ways for members to gain Virgin Pulse health mile points. If a participant completes the monthly behavior challenge, they’re rewarded with 150 points. If members complete eat right, move, lose it, a weight management program, they earn 600 points. Participants that complete the smoker sensation earn 500 points.

Similar to the SUNY RF group, we have created a campus group called Upstate Pulsers. Another goal for SUNY Research Foundation is to have members connect with a group or friends. Currently we are trying to increase enrollment in this group by emailing Virgin Pulse participants at Upstate. Tim Orcutt has been very helpful with providing emails of the Upstate Research Foundation employees and the Virgin Pulse participants. Which has been very useful in conversing with others about events and groups.

The hope of this group is to instill local community, to build personal challenges, to create conversation and answer questions and to coordinate walk, runs and activities. Future endeavors at Upstate include a personal challenge in March with the Upstate Pulsers group. At the end of the challenge we plan to have a lunchtime social at a café at University Hospital. During the social the café will offer free water. Medical students will have a blood pressure station and a Max pedometer will be raffled off. We also plan to celebrate the participants and winners of the March personal challenge. We are also challenging current Virgin Pulse participants to bring a SUNY RF friend to the social. And we will have laptops available for people to sign up.

I would like to conclude with this. The Virgin Pulse program can bring personal change to you. It’s fun and inspiring, especially when you are part of a positive healthy environment with people having similar interests. So I challenge you today, reach out to those names and replace them with people at your campus to cultivate a healthy community. Thank you. Please feel free to call or email me if you have questions or suggestions.

Barbara Pell: good morning. My name is Barbara Pell. I’m the manager of employee relations and affirmative action for the Research Foundation at Central Office. Today I’d like to get into the compliance area of our program and talk about new legislation that became effective on January 11, 2016. And it’s Executive Order

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13665 called the Non-retaliation for Disclosure of Compensation Information. And that’s a mouthful. So now we’re calling it – it’s better known as the pay transparency rule.

It amends Executive Order 11246 and it’s enforced by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs better known as OFCCP, which I’m sure many campuses are familiar with their work. It applies to federal contractors like the Research Foundation who enter into or modify existing covered federal contracts greater than $10,000.00 on or after the January 11 date.

The purpose of the rule is to promote pay transparency and openness in the workplace by allowing employees to – and applicants – so share information about their pay and compensation without the fear of discharge or discrimination. It helps to level the compensation playing field for women and people of color. And it also prohibits organizations from having pay secrecy policies.

Now I know that we all know that the Research Foundation does not have pay secrecy policies. But there are some organizations who do have them. And this is really to promote getting away from having those policies.

The protection of the rule applies to employees or applicants who obtain compensation information – compensation or compensation information through ordinary means. Such as conversations with coworkers. And compensation includes but is not limited to salary, wages, overtime, pay, shift, overtime pay, shift differentials, bonuses, commissions, vacation and holiday pay, allowances, insurance and other benefits, stock options and awards, profit sharing and retirement. Compensation information includes, and I spoke about that before, is basically think about the Research Foundation has pay structures. And you would be able to talk about those pay structures with this new rule.

So I think the crux of my overview here is what does this mean for campus HR administrators? So for employees or applicants, they cannot be discharged or discriminated against because they inquire about, discuss or disclose their own compensation or the compensation of another employee or applicant. However, you may be able to take adverse action or disciplinary action against an employee if, for example, he or she discusses compensation but in doing so violates a workplace rule. So at the bottom of the screen you’ll see that we have an example of an employee who is disrupting the workplace by standing on his or her desk and shouting out compensation information. And this is an actual example that is in the OFFCP regulation so don’t laugh.

The employee may be disciplined for disrupting the workplace provided that there is a policy prohibiting the disruption. For example, the RF has a code of conduct which would prohibit employees from being disruptive in the workplace. And of course it – they can be disciplined for doing this if the RF has consistently handled such violations in the past.

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So we’re gonna continue on and talk about what this means for HR employees, which I think is important to a lot of our listeners today. What they can’t do.

So HR employees who have access to compensation information as part of their essential job responsibilities. So for example, a person in payroll or a compensation specialist. There are many others. Or have a duty to protect and maintain privacy cannot discuss or disclose information about other employee’s compensation. However, they must be allowed to discuss or disclose compensation information in response to a formal complaint or other similar action. For example, if they get an information subpoena that they need to complete they can discus or disclose that information.

What HR employees can do. Well, they can discus or disclose to others their own compensation information. And they are allowed to discuss possible compensation disparities with a member of management staff or by using the RF’s internal complaint procedure.

So what have we been doing to be in compliance with this new rule? We are currently revising our equal employment opportunity clause to include it in the new nondiscrimination provision, in contracts, subcontracts and purchase orders. We’re working with our sponsor programs folks to do that. We have already incorporated the OFCCP nondiscrimination language into the RF employee handbook. That is in the compensation section of the handbook. And we’re also disseminating the same OFCCP nondiscrimination language to employees and applicants by posting the pay transparency notice. And it needs to be posted in the workplace. And we are also in the process of updating the career page on the RF website to have that pay transparency notice.

And on the next side you will see the actual OFCCP pay transparency nondiscrimination provision that is included in our handbook. Will be on our website. And should be posted in conspicuous places in the RF workplace.

That concludes my portion of the compliance piece. And I want to turn the program over to my colleague Kate Malia who’s going to discuss independent contractors.

Kate Malia: Thank you, Barbara. Independent contractors is an area that continues to prove challenging in classifying contractors correctly. The following clips are from the February 11, 2014 learning Tuesday on independent contractors and they provide some good guidance to consider in classifying and documenting these relationships. The first clip is our own Amy Coates, contractor and grant specialist at Central Office. She will provide some sponsor considerations when classifying this relationship.

Amy Coates: Thank you. My name is Amy Coates, contract and grant specialist at the Research Foundation for SUNY Central Office. I’d like to touch upon some

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additional considerations when determining whether an entity or individual is an independent contractor. After you rule out an employee classification, it’s important to remember that there are other factors to consider besides an independent contractor classification. Other buckets an entity could fall into include participant stipends, fellows, a sub award issued to a sub recipient or even a simple purchase order for a vendor. This decision is best made at the proposal stage and should involve communication between your PI and pre-award HR and accountables payable contacts.

Okay. Now that you have determined the individual is not an employee, consider the following. Is the entity working in collaboration with the PI to perform a significant portion of a programmatic effort on an award or represent a significant portion of the programmatic decision making? Does he or she have the authority to make administrative and programmatic decisions to control the method and results of work? May the work results involve intellectual property or lead to publications? If you have answered yes to any of these, you want to look more at a formal sub award agreement where the entity would be subject to the same terms and conditions as the funds in the original award.

Alternatively, do any of the following apply? Does the individual provide similar goods or services to different customers as part of their normal business operation? Is the individual offering goods or services only? That is no analysis or discretionary judgment required on his or her part. Is there no potential for patentable or a copyrightable technology to be created through the project from activities of the entity? Are the goods and services secondary to the central purpose of the project? If any of these fit, the entity may be viewed as a simple vendor and a purchase order would suffice.

An independent contractor falls somewhere in between a sub recipient and a vendor. The independent contractor is an individual or business whose expertise is required to perform the project. These services are typically temporary and may be specialized or highly technical. The independent contractor typically would not have been involved with the development of the project objectives nor is he or she responsible for the overall outcome of the project. The scope of work is defined by the PI, but the independent contractor will have discretion on how they accomplish the work.

In summary, the decision to treat an individual as an independent contractor has to be determined based on the particulars of the situation, the nature of the work and the expectations of the outcomes or the deliverables. Misclassification can be costly to the hiring institution, so be sure to open the lines of communication early in the process. Thank you.

Kate Malia: Thank you, Amy. That was very informative. And there clearly demonstrates there’s a lot to think about when you’re classifying these types of payments. We have a lot of information on the RF website to help you out in this endeavor and

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we certainly here at central office can assist when you’re faced with these decisions.

Now let’s put this into practice as we look at a scenario, a short scenario and determine how we’re going to classify and document this scenario.

Kathleen Caggiano-Siino

Welcome back. So hopefully you all put your heads around this scenario and we’ll talk a little bit about some of the things that we’d want to do here. So certainly we’re gonna look and see do they have a business? That makes our life easy if they have a business. They have an actual corporate company structure, then we’re paying them as a vendor through their business and we’re pretty clean. Some of the things you look at for individual contributor or sole proprietors would be LinkedIn, business cards, letterheads, websites as we talked about. Are they representative of a consulting firm? Do they have clients? Do they have other clients that they’ve worked for that can provide some recommendations there?

And Bridget and Kathy pipe in if you have any thoughts on what you would do with this. The relationship. We’re gonna document the solicitation process. So it doesn’t, as Dave and Bridget are gonna talk about in a minute, doesn’t have to be huge, but we want to document how did we get this person? How is it this person we chose this one to write this report? What is their expertise? What do they have? Is there a proposal? We’d like to see, even if it’s a short write up. Here’s what I propose to do. Here’s how I’m gonna, what I’m gonna charge. Here’s when it’s gonna be due. This is how I’m gonna accomplish this work. Do we agree? Is this right? Do we have anybody else that’s in the wings that could do this work? They may be the only expert on the migratory paths of Canada geese. And we need to use them.

The documentation should talk about the scope of services, deliverables and deadlines. Not how they’re gonna get this done. Preference for flat or project billing if possible. Appropriate allocation of expenses. And then what’s the invoicing requirement? And we’re gonna see Dave and Bridget are gonna take us through some of those steps as well.

So I’m sure you had all of these things as you looked at this scenario. And please ask questions as we now will be looking at them at the end. So Dave and Bridget are now gonna take us through the steps in the documentation that you need to actually engage an independent contractor.

Bridget: Once it has been determined that a vendor has been properly classified as an independent contractor there are certain documentation requirements that we need to ensure that we have prior to engaging them. When the independent contractor is an individual or sole proprietor there are two types of required documentation. The first is the independent contractor services form. Or

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campus equivalent form. This form is used to document the criteria utilized for classifying the person as an independent contractor. The independent contractor citizenship status. The description and dates of services to be performed. And the maximum amount to be paid. This form is utilized by the AP purchasing department to establish purchase orders.

This next slide shows the independent contractor services form, which is available on the RF portal. Some campuses, however, have developed their own form which captures similar information which is equally acceptable.

Dave: The other documentation requirement when the independent contractor is an individual or sole proprietor is either the working relationship form or the RF standard independent contractor agreement. These documents are utilized to meet the RF requirement of notifying the vendor of their status as an independent contractor when the fees and expenses are expected to exceed $600.

This next slide has the RF’s working relationship form which is available on the RF portal. Some campuses have developed their own forms which capture similar information. Regardless of whether the working relationship form or the RF standard independent agreement is utilized, they need to be signed by both the vendor and the campus operations manager or designee prior to any services being performed.

Now let’s talk about the procurement instruments that can be used to enter the binding agreement with the independent contractor. The procurement instrument should outline the scope of work, the term of the agreement and the maximum amount to be paid to the independent contractor. The procurement instrument can be either – can either by the standard RF purchase order, a formal contract or the RF independent contractor standard agreement. The RF purchase order is the least preferred if it’s a high dollar agreement or the work is being provided – or the work being provided is complex and has several deliverables.

The formal contract is usually provided by the independent contractor and would need to be approved by RF legal prior to engaging the contractor. The RF independent contractor standard agreement is the preferred option because it has already been approved by RF legal and provides the best protection of the Research Foundation’s interests. Including ensuring that the independent contractor carries insurance.

Kate Malia: Thank you, Dave and Bridget. While these clips provide a short synopsis of classifying and documenting an independent contractor, I encourage you to watch the full Learning Tuesday which goes into much more depth on this issue. This slide also has links to resources that are on the US Department of Labor website which are there to assist you in determining the appropriate classification. It should be noted that since the original Learning Tuesday aired

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the Department of Labor has published new material, in particular the administrative interpretation number 2015-1 which is listed in the links on this slide.

We will be evaluating the impact of this administrative interpretation on RF policies and procedures in the coming months. I hope you liked this short recap on independent contractors. Now I will turn it over to Christa Taylor, associate director of benefits programs, to discuss Affordable Care Act reporting requirements.

Christa Taylor: Thank you, Kate. Good morning. My name is Christa Taylor, associate director for benefit programs. And I’m here today to talk about the Affordable Care Act forms. More specifically forms 1095C and 1095B. Hopefully after you see the presentation today it will demystify a little bit of the Affordable Care Act reporting. We hope to cover what are forms 1095C and form 1095B, who will be receiving both of these forms and also cover some of the frequently asked questions.

So what are form 1095C and form 1095B? Under the Affordable Care Act these are new IRS tax forms. And the main purpose of the forms is really to notify employees of the health insurance that they and their dependents were enrolled in for the previous year. So for this first year we’re referencing the 2015 tax year. The Research Foundation and its insurance companies will send forms to employees by March 31, 2016 and to the IRS by June 30, 2016.

So what is the form 1095C? Next slide, please. Employees who were ACA fulltime in 2015 will receive form1095C. So what is ACA fulltime? So there are many definitions of fulltime, however, under the Affordable Care Act, fulltime is defined as employees who are regularly working an average of 30 hours or more per week. So anyone in that category would receive a 1095C for tax year 2015.

In addition, individuals who are enrolled in any of the Research Foundation’s self-insured plans, which are the Blue Cross PPO plans and Pomco, would also receive form 1095C. So this includes part-time employees, retirees, fellows and COBRA enrollees.

This slide is referencing the layout of the 1095C. Just to give some familiarity, the RF form differs slightly from the IRS template that you might find online. However, this is an approved substitute form. Part one contains information about the employee and the Research Foundation as an employer. Part two contains information about the RF’s offer of coverage to employees. And Part three contains information about the employee and dependent enrollment in either the Blue Cross PPO or Pomco. Part three will be blank for employees who are enrolled in HMO coverage or if they are not enrolled in a Research Foundation health plan at all.

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More specifically, in referencing the layout, part two of 1095C is really used to confirm the RF’s compliance with the Affordable Care Act employer mandate provisions. And really that provision is as an employer the Research Foundation is required to offer minimum essential and affordable coverage to its ACA fulltime employees. So, again, that 30 hours per week that I previously referenced.

Line 14 of the 1095C is populated with an IRS code. That’s why many people think that these forms will be really confusing and employees may not really understand, fully understand the forms when they receive them. But line 14 is really an IRS code to detail the type of offer of coverage that employees receive.

Line 15 will be blank because the coverage offered by the Research Foundation is deemed affordable using a federal poverty limit safe harbor. Which means that the Research Foundation doesn’t actually have to indicate the cost of the coverage on the 1095C.

And lastly, line 16 is populated with another IRS code to indicate why an offer of coverage may not have been made to an ACA fulltime employee. So as an example, if someone was in their waiting period that’s consider an acceptable reason why someone might not be enrolled in coverage. This field 16 will be blank for many employees.

So who will receive the 1095B form? So individuals who are enrolled in any other Research Foundation’s fully insured health plans. So this would be CDPHP, MVP, Independent Health and Excellus. And so that would be anyone enrolled in those plans. So that would include employees, retirees and COBRA participants.

The insurance carriers themselves will issue form 1095B directly to employees and some employees may have already have received these forms.

And this slide is just showing the 1095B layout. It does differ from the 1095C. But it does contain similar fields. Part one is identifying information for the employee. Part two will be blank. Part three contains information about the HMO provider. And part four contains information about employee and dependent enrollment in the HMO.

So this brings us to some of the frequently asked questions. Why are these forms really important? So the forms, the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act requires individuals to maintain health insurance. And failure for them to do so could result in a tax penalty when individuals file their tax return. So this form is really proof of their enrollment in health insurance and proof that they’ve satisfied the individual mandate.

Secondly, the form provide – or I apologize. Secondly, the submission of the form to the IRS shows the Research Foundation is in compliance with the

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employer mandate to provide that minimum essential and affordable coverage. So it really has two purposes.

Another question we’re getting this time of year, obviously it’s tax time, and can employees submit these, their taxes without these forms? So yes, employees can submit their taxes without receiving the form. The question on the employee’s tax returns really stems around do they have coverage, did they have coverage for the entire year? And since most employees would know if they had health insurance during the year, the expectation is they would be able to answer those questions. They should, however, when they receiver their 1095C or B, they should store that with their tax return information.

SO when will employees receive the form? So this is a very big question because in December 2015 the IRS extended the deadline to mail forms. They were originally due January 31. However, with the extension the new IRS deadline is now March 31. So the Research Foundation will be in full compliance with the IRS deadline and will mail form 1095C by March 31, 2016.

And, again, what should an employee do with the forms? It’s really simple for this. This year they should be reviewing the forms for accuracy and storing them with their other tax documents. If an employee feels that the form is incorrect, has incorrect information, there is a phone number that will be on the forms and they should contact the number on the form to report the discrepancy.

And lastly, where can employees get more information? Employees can find more information about both forms 1095C and 1095B on the IRS website. There is a lengthy frequently asked questions document that really provides a good overview of these new tax forms.

And lastly, we just wanted to remind everyone that they could use the chat feature or they could email the studio with any questions they might have regarding the Affordable Care Act forms 1095B and 1095C.

Kate Malia: Christa, I have a question that may be on the website, but can an employee receive both form B and form C?

Christa Taylor: That’s actually a great question, Kate. Employees can actually receive both forms. So you would receive the 1095C if you’re ACA fulltime employee. So regardless if you were enrolled in a plan or not, if you’re that fulltime employee, you will receive form 1095C. And then if you’re enrolled in HMO coverage, yes, you would receive also one from the HMO carrier resulting in both forms.

And another thing is you actually might not receive one at all. So if you were a part time employee who was not enrolled in an RF health plan, you would not receive a 1095B or a 1095C.

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Kate Malia: Oh, okay. Good to know. And good to know that we don’t have to wait to file our taxes to get both of these forms. That’s even better news.

Christa Taylor: Absolutely. Very, very popular question that people ask. But, again, any other questions feel free to email the studio or use the chat feature. And now we’re going to take a short five minute break and when we come back we’ll be talking about what’s new in 2016 with E Time reporting and learning and development.

Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: Good morning. I’m Susan Zaffers-Vincelette and I’m happy to kick off our what’s new in 2016 segment by talking to you about a product that we’ll be rolling out later this year called E Time Reporting. As the name implies, this system will allow employees to go on self-service and enter their timesheets online, their supervisors will get notification that their timesheets are ready to approve and then it’ll transfer to HR for review prior to processing their accruals or pay as appropriate on the timesheet.

There are many benefits with this new system. They fall into two categories. Primarily those benefits for the employee and the supervisor and those for the HR administrator. Employees will no longer need to remember all the rules that you require of them when they enter a paper timesheet, cause we know paper timesheets don’t actually enforce any rules. The new system will be able to direct them on the types of time they should be entering, how they should be entering it and especially beneficial to the employee is that it will not let them use any accruals that they do not have. So for example, if they are trying to take a vacation and there is no vacation balance, the system won’t let them do that.

So on the HR side, the administrator side, the same philosophies apply. You will have confidence that when the timesheet comes in employees haven’t overused balances. It will also do all your overtime calculations based on your campus rules. So all the review you do today where you recalculate, look at the timesheet, check that they’ve entered their hours correctly, is no longer necessary. Not to say that you will be – have no review whatsoever. But it will be more focused on things like absences and how many they have and sort of monitoring those things as opposed to worrying about whether balances are correct or not correct.

I just wanted to take a moment as we talk about this product to acknowledge the team members that have been working on this a little bit of a year now. This team has been extremely supportive and has been very diligent in providing a campus driven with their needs and their processes system that we believe will work for all of you even if you weren’t a part of our working team.

Just a little bit about the impact to your campus if you choose to use this system. First of all, I wanted to emphasize roll out is going to be campus specific. So although we will have a time when we are live with this system, which will mean that all the technical components are available, it does not mean you have to use it that very first day. You can take a look at your campus processes

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and readiness and determine the best time for you to go live. Once you are live, also I need to emphasize that not all employees have to use that. Paper is always accepted here at the Research Foundation so if you have some employees who do not have access to computers or have sort of a don’t want to be using that technology, you can certainly still accept paper and you can offer it to those of your employees who you know will make the most out of the new system.

The second impact to campuses whether or not you are going to use the system, there are some changes to timekeeper. Which is the function we use to enter hours today. There will be – they’re minimal. They will not impact you if you are really doing paper input, but there will be some changes that we will want to make sure you are aware of as we get ready for go live.

Another impact will be on the effort reporting side. So as you know, a lot of you use your nonexempt and hourly timesheets for effort reporting purposes. If you use the new system you will no longer have that ability. Instead you will use the E cert system to do your effort certification for your nonexempt and your hourly employees. This is a win-win because the supervisors and your process to recertify timesheets when changes happen is very labor intensive, as you well know, so this will help you manage that through the E cert system and then use your timesheets purely for leave accruals and pay.

Finally, two other items that you will need to make sure are in place before you can use the system are that supervisors should be in your Oracle assignment form. Some of you have been keeping them up. Some of you not. But just make sure that those are there before you turn it on otherwise supervisors will not be able to approve timecards.

And finally, leave balances must be available in Oracle. In order to make sure that all of these system benefits are available to you, you should have all of the leave accrual balances available so that employees know what they can take and the system will appropriately manage that for you.

Finally, where we are here in this project right now is user acceptance testing. So as I said, we’ve been working on this over a year and we are at the point where campuses can go in and test the new system and see how it works for them. Anybody is able to do this. It is in our sandbox instance on our training page. If you would like to find out more about that or how to access it, as well as all of the guides that employees would need to actually enter their time, you can go to our website at www.rfsuny.org and it’s under our work, RF projects and the E time reporting project. There is a lot of information there, including how to access the sandbox and all calls that we are offering throughout the testing period. So please, if you have not yet tested and want to, time is still available and we would welcome your participation.

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As we said before there on the bottom of your screen you can use the chat feature or email the studio directly if you have questions regarding E time reporting I’m happy to take them.

Female 1: Susan, I have a question. It’s really around the campus team that you’ve formed. What types of things are you finding out right now with user accepted testing right now? What kinds of things are you seeing?

Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: We have been seeing lots of good things. I have to tell you that the hardly any questions about actually how to use the timecards. So that is very encouraging to me as the employees are not really having questions about entering time. We do have some questions regarding the backend processing for HR administrators as they’re working through that. But that’s all new to them so it’s all good questions. And I’ve been very pleased with the questions and the amount of testing that the campuses have been doing. It’s very encouraging.

Female 1: Any challenges?

Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: I think the biggest challenge as we work through, which is also to me the greatest thing to watch, is the amount of different ways we do things out there at the campuses. So a timesheet is a timesheet is a timesheet until you actually dig in and you find out that everybody just uses it slightly different or has a different process. So the team has been working very hard, and they actually have been collaborating – I’ve been doing a lot of facilitating not actually trying to say here’s how it will work or here’s how it won’t work. They ask me a question I say, well, how do you want it to work? And they all work together and come up with a compromise that would work for all of them. And that’s what we wind up implementing. So, again, I have to say the system has been driven by campus needs and processes. So it will be applicable to everybody.

Female 1: Laurel, you’re using it in central office, right?

Laurel: I am. I had the opportunity to go in and play in the sandbox if you will. And I have to give you a shout out because I found it to be very easy. It’s intuitive. You get in. you get out. I think it’s going to be an easy switch for people to be able to go from the paper to the online timecard.

Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: Great. I’m really looking forward to the rollout later this year.

Female 1: And since you gave her a shout out I have to as well. Susan, thank you for being the team lead on this project. When I first came to the Research Foundation about three and a half years ago it was the number one operational issue that we would hear about. And so the fact that you’ve taken this on, you’ve got this great team of campus contacts, I think you’re doing a great job.

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Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: Thank you so much. It’s been fun. I love this project.

Female 1: And you’re doing great on Learning Tuesdays.

Susan Zaffers-Vincelette: Thank you.

Female 1: You’re welcome. All right. I think I’m gonna go ahead and talk a little bit about learning and development. And so we actually look at learning and development really in a team approach. We have Laurel and Carolyn are here. We have Jamie Frakes in the control room who’s helping us today too. Most all of our learning and development actually happens in teams. And so while these are the central office team members, we have design teams that are actually much more expansive and many of the folks that have helped put these programs together, you won’t see their names today but you know who you are and thank you for all your help.

So Carolyn put together a Prezi for us to use. And this is actually just a little bit of a presentation on the five or six programs that we currently offer. We wanted to give you an update on all of them. So I think the first one’s on the leadership academy. And I just wanted to let folks now that this is a 12 month program that actually is nearing its end. We’ve been together for a little over a year. And we’re having our graduation next week. It’s on the twenty-ninth. And during that time we will be celebrating 27 individuals who have gone through this program and are graduating with what I call flying colors. Laurel McAdoo is one of the members. And we’re really excited. We have a little surprise for the participants. This program really was designed, again, you know by many of our campus HR leaders and directors of grants and contracts. Our OMs reviewed the list of applicants that came through. We weren’t able to accept all of them, but the 27 that we were able to accept have been very involved.

And the research shows that about two-thirds of individuals who are in programs like this actually experience some professional development opportunities that those people who are not in one would otherwise receive. And that includes usually a lateral experiences. So you put people in front of opportunity they tend to do well. And so we’ll see promotions. We’ll see lateral change. We’ll see additional work assignments. And that’s no different for this leadership academy. We’ve seen a lot of change. And in fact, two individuals who are in the program, not necessarily because of this leadership development program, but they were actually courted and promoted and left the organization. So that’s not uncommon that you see the spotlight is on people who really take their development to heart.

So is there another slide on this Carolyn? Maybe a picture?

Carolyn Mattiske: Yes.

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Female 1: Okay. So this next slide shows some of the campus tours that were part of this program. So this is at Maritime. And individuals got to really look at the ship, as well as some of the professors who teach at Maritime. And so this was a wonderful opportunity for Tannie Tung, who is in the leadership academy, to arrange a program site visit at Maritime. That happened in September.

We had two more campus visits. One at the University of Buffalo, as you can see here. And then we also had one at U Albany where there was a mock IRB. And the reason that we’re touting these three campus visits, that was part of the curriculum of the leadership academy. So we have mentors. We had public speaking. A four part series on increasing your public speaking abilities. We had mentors from all over the state. We had the CEO of the American Red Cross to the directors of grants and contracts at a university. So the pair ups were I think really important. And although Michelle Obama did not say yes to our request, we do believe we got a personalized email from the White House saying that she declined but knew that the program would be successful. That just gives you a sense of who our leadership academy people asked for. Just no limits on who they wanted to have mentor them.

So we’ve been really proud of this program. And like I said, we’re graduating next week. And we hope to design the new program some time in the summer of 2016. And we’ll launch another leadership academy program in January 2017. And this, again, is for individuals who really want to take that next career step and increase their professional development to a place where you’re ready to be promotable. And that’s exactly what this program has done. I’m really proud of the work that folks did. So thank you.

Carolyn Mattiske: Thanks, Kathleen.

Female 1: You’re welcome.

Carolyn Mattiske: And to stress that the program is open to anyone no matter what level of the organization they’re in. I think that’s been a real plus to the dynamic. And I’ve had the opportunity to mentor a young professional from Stony Brook University. So she looks forward to being a part of that design team to help us design a program going forward.

Female 1: Yeah, I like that. And like Carolyn mentions, most of our programs are in the hands and the hearts of the participants. So people who are in the program now, either as a mentor or as a leadership academy participant, they’ll design the next class. They’re far better positioned to do that than we are.

Carolyn Mattiske: Yeah, we’ll fill the pipeline at all levels. So another program that’s open to everyone in the RF SUNY system, as you know we’ve got about 40 or so people logged in right now and we know some of those 40 are in groups. So quite a few people watching Learning Tuesday today. Just want to throw a little quiz to the

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group. A question. How man Learning Tuesday programs do you think we’ve done since we started? I don’t have any fabulous prize but –

Kathleen Caggiano-Siino

How many?

Female: I’ll say 40.

Carolyn Mattiske: Forty. Okay. Any other guesses?

Female: yeah, I’ll say 62.

Carolyn Mattiske: You’re both close. Fifty-six. So today is program number 57. And so Learning –

Female: I’m closer.

Kathleen Caggiano-Siino

Kathleen Caggiano-Siino

Carolyn Mattiske: Thank you for being good sports. So today’s program 57. And we have a full spring program planned. And the plan for 2016 is to offer monthly programming again. So beginning in July we’ll have hopefully a new calendar that is filled with all of your good ideas. So we really look for input from you doing the jobs out at the campus and let us know what information is relevant and valuable to you. We’ve offered a lot and all of those past 56 programs and today’s program will all be archived. And they’re available whenever you need them.

Going beyond the 90 minute program, we’ve also made an effort to take the best clips. So getting to the best five minutes of each program. Not that it’s not all valuable, but there are some bits of information that are really useful. So you saw the Amy Coates clip on an independent contractors. And so those short excerpts have been posted on the RF’s YouTube channel.

So the goal is to create a repository of learning resources for you to access when you need them. So look forward to the Learning Tuesday calendar for 2016. And here are some of our past programs. So you can see we do make an effort to invite you from the campuses to join us on the panel whenever we can. We want this to be a collaborative program and to be a joint group.

So that takes us to another very important program that we’ve been offering. And I’ll pass it over to Laurel to talk about the mentoring program.

Laurel: So we are presently in our fourth cycle of our mentor protégé program. The mentor protégé program is a 12 month personal development program that matches knowledgeable mentors with protégés across the RF enterprise. This

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program is designed to hone in on your strengths and improve your knowledge around topics such as diversity, servant leadership, and we spend quite a bit of time going through programs around communication.

We have a public speaking program. We have a couple of modules to help people improve their public speaking. We’ve found that many people find that public speaking is their greatest fear. And we also find that at the end of this program it’s no longer their greatest fear and frequently they’re involved in things like Learning Tuesdays and then they come back and actually present at some of our programs.

We also have a program around – oh, I’m thinking. Crucial conversations. So it’s helping people to be able to navigate many difficult conversations that they might have in their daily work life. The current participants are expected to complete their program in June and we are actively on the heels of that opening up another program in July of 2016. You can find all of the information about the mentor protégé program on our website. We ask that you consider being a mentor. We have found that it’s mutually beneficial. Our mentors often come away learning as much from the protégés as the protégés do from the mentors.

If you’d like to experience being either a mentor or a protégé, you will find that your professional and your personal life will be enrichened by participating in this program. We can find the information out on our L&D page. Certainly if you have any questions about this program you can send a message to the training unit L&D.

Carolyn Mattiske: Yeah. Learning@rfsuny.org.

Laurel: That’s it.

Carolyn Mattiske: Mm hmm. Okay. Thanks, Laurel.

Laurel: Thank you.

Carolyn Mattiske: So another partnership that we have, the Research Foundation has long established with SUNY Center for Professional Development. And as a part of our membership we have points to take advantage of their learning and development opportunities. So CPD offers quite a bit of programming. And one of the most popular programs, if you’re not familiar with it, is the grant writing course that they offer. It's an online six week course. It’s based on this book here, Writing Successful Science Proposals. The most current offering was delivered by Professor Katherine Graydell from Fredonia. And she did incorporate the humanities into the proposal writing as well. So it’s not just for science. But it’s been very popular with people working at the campuses. So a lot of our programming does center around the administrator, but this does broaden the offering a little bit. And so CPD offers quite a bit. If you haven’t looked at their website recently they have a great calendar of offerings and

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perhaps the grant writing course will be something that you could recommend to people at your campus if they’re looking to enhance those skills.

So the scholarship program will continue for 2016. So the information, again, is on the website. And those scholarship points are offered on a first come, first serve basis. So this year we offered nine scholarships to a variety of campuses. I think eight different campuses. Two people from Buffalo State. But many people are at least hearing about the scholarship points and the courses that they’re offering, which is good. And we just thank you for further spreading the word.

So with that we will talk about another element of learning and development here.

Female 1: So the professional development plan is yours. And we really hope that every RPF employee will take the time to actually complete a development plan. And Carolyn will show you what one looks like. This is simple. It’s on the learning and development area of our website. It basically is one question, what’s your career aspiration? And what we’re looking for you to do is to write this down and share it with your supervisor. Maybe do it in a team. I can tell you this. That at human resources, in our central office, we actually look at this twice a year. We look at it usually when we’re getting ready to do our budget and then maybe one time in the fall. And we just all share with each other what our goals are.

They can include things like I want to go to an NCURA workshop this year. We’re part of region two. Maybe you want to go to a region two training this summer. Maybe you want to take a class. Maybe you want to visit a campus. I know all of us in human resources identified at least one or two campuses that we wanted to visit this year. And what we’ve done is sort of embed those in trainings that we’re doing. Maybe if we’re going to Binghamton for a training session we’ll grab a couple of other people who had that on their professional development plan so they can go to Binghamton and visit with their staff counterparts.

So the point here is that you put it in writing and share it with your supervisor. And when we do that we’re much more likely to achieve what we’ve written. I always that in my career if I had not put, indicated on a development plan in the year 2002 that I wanted to be on a design team that looked at talent from across the nation I would have never learned what I did and have been able to bring it to the research foundation.

So I put that in writing. I shared it with my boss. I said get me on a design team. And he didn’t choose me the first time. But then he did the second time. The second time I got to work with Mercer Human Resource Consulting and travel around the country and meet other top notch HR people who then I borrowed so much of their material that we actually use here at the RF. That’s because I put it in writing. And I shared it with enough people.

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So do the same. And many times people will say, hey, I just want to retire in two years. And we think that’s a great goal. We just would say during that, you know 24 month period what are you sharing with others so that they can learn more about what your job has been?

So anything goes. And we would certainly say that you want to share these with people in a group if you can. And then also indicate things like I want to be an open chair at a meeting. And an open chair is just a simple organic reference to where two or more people are gathered there’s a place for you. And you can ask to be an open chair at a department meeting. Maybe there is a meeting on campus or an event you’d like to attend. Just ask somebody who’s in charge of the event to just sit in on. And when we use open chairs at the Research Foundation what we do is say, jeez, the price of admission is just at the end of the meeting that you’re attending. Tell us about what you’re working on. And then pay it forward and invite somebody to one of your staff meetings. And that’s what professional development is. We’re a learning organization. The Research Foundation wants individual people all, you know 10,000 of us or so that are working in research and in sponsored programs to actually care enough about your own development that you initiate this. And do it once a year.

Carolyn Mattiske: Thank you, Kathleen.

Female 1: You’re welcome.

Carolyn Mattiske: So that takes us to new staff orientation. And Laurel had a large role in organizing the orientation in December. So I’ll let her share a little bit about that.

Laurel: So as Kathleen mentioned, these programs are constantly evolving. The new staff orientation has now evolved into more of an RF overview. We have learned that orientation kind of misled people about what that day was going to be like. And what we really hope is that people come away from this particular day with a better understanding of who we are as an organization. When you first start working at the Research Foundation you will quickly learn that we work for a very complex place. We’ve heard feedback from people that they might spend a lot of time learning their role maybe in finance or HR and never really get an opportunity to have a broader understanding about all of the many different pieces of the puzzle.

So spend a day going over things like interpreting our financials. Learning where they are. What to look for. And then what they actually mean. We have experiential learning where we’re able to walk people through the sponsored program lifecycle. This past session that we did we were very fortunate to have our friends at SUNY Albany put together a skit that for the first time in my 16 years of employment I finally after seeing this skit got to really understand how complex it is for the sponsored programs lifecycle. And we’ve heard lots of feedback from the participants that when they do come away, because of how

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we deliver the information, they are able to actually go back to their campuses and share what they’ve learned.

We spent some time learning about the different research that is done at the campuses. How the research at the campuses is impacting everyone’s lives around us. We typically take a tour so we can see firsthand some labs and some research and we spend some time, of course, talking about HR and the different learning and development opportunities that we have.

So this is something that we are trying to get on a rotation. We haven’t quite worked it out because the campus schedule with graduation and the different things that they have come up. We’re trying to find a sweet spot so that we’re able to let people know in advance the two times a year that we’re able to offer this and then people can come in and participate. It’s been well received. And, again, it’s ever changing. We take the feedback from the prior participants to make the next orientation overview better.

Carolyn Mattiske: Okay. Thanks, Laurel. So I think the major takeaway we wanted to leave you with is that we are really trying to make the RF a learning organization and a great place for you to learn that’s supportive and transparent and gives you the resources that you need to do the best job you can.

So I will thank you for attending today’s program. Please take two minutes. Let us know what you thought by completing the exit survey. You can access the survey from the email you’ll receive momentarily if you registered in advance. Or from the Live Stream webpage. Your feedback is used to improve future programs.

The next Learning Tuesday program is scheduled for March 29 and it is applicable to everyone. No matter your level or role in the system. We’ll be sharing a program developed and delivered by Michael Burns from Koppett entitled Listening 3.0, Using this Superpower to Build Relationships. Where participants are going to learn to move beyond listening for data and to listen for motivations, emotions and intentions. I think we’re all very excited about that one. Participants will understand the benefits of good listening and how this can be brought to their work relationships.

Thanks, as always, and we appreciate you spreading the word about Learning Tuesday programs. Mark your calendar for March 29. And we hope to see you back. Thanks again. Have a great day.

[End of Presentation 01:21:35]

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