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Human Resources Management

Overview

The purpose of this section is to orient you to Human Resources Management. MIT's goal is to provide a healthy, positive work environment for all employees that supports the business and academic cultures that make up the Institute. As an administrator in the School of Engineering, you'll frequently have to tackle a variety of work-related issues, which may range from hiring and retaining employees to navigating hot legal issues such as discrimination and sexual harassment. Fortunately, you can work with and rely on MIT's Human Resources Department to help you.

Just to give you an overview, the Human Resources Department at MIT is broken down into several areas: Benefits, Labor Relations, Disability, Compensation, Organization and Employee Development, and Employment and Employee Relations. This chapter will give you a brief description of the services available to you through Human Resources and some information on common MIT policies and procedures.

The various employment ranks at MIT are grouped under one of two types of appointment categories: academic and non-academic appointments. As a result, appointment transactions, such as hiring, request for personnel, or termination, are categorized accordingly. New administrators should be aware that academic appointments and subsequent maintenance are managed within the DLC and the School. Human Resources plays a larger role in non-academic matters. The information presented here focuses on processing non-academic transactions. For details on processing faculty transactions, please refer to the appropriate section of the DLC chapter.

All changes in employment status, including salary increases, promotions, and life changes, require associated transactions. HR will assist with these, many of which require Senior Officer approval. The SoE/HR Transactions Authorizations Table (Excel file) identifies all categories of employment and types of associated transactions and indicates when you need Senior Officer approval. (This means the Dean's Office must approve the action.)

It is common practice to contact your Human Resources Officer on work-related and legal issues. It will take time for you to become familiar with how these policies and procedures have been practiced in the past. Human Resources is a valuable resource that prides itself on its commitment to servicing the community and maintaining a relationship as your strategic business partner. Therefore, think of HR as your lifeline. We all know that such issues can not only affect employee morale, but they can also prove costly to your department, lab or center. Stay in contact with your Human Resources Officer when you need help, especially when dealing with sticky issues.

A valuable guide for administrators in handling matters relating to non-academic staff is the Personnel Policy Manual. It details the policies and practices established by the Institute's Department of Human Resources. Topics include hiring, employment, pay, leave, termination, and labor relations.

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Human Resources Administration

Human Resources Administration is made up of several key management members within HR, led by Laura Avakian, Vice President of Human Resources. HR Administration strategically aligns itself with their academic and business partners to ensure that the overall goals of MIT are met and carried out. For more information, see Human Resources Administration.

Human Resources Officer

The School of Engineering Human Resources Officer (HRO), Jim Dezieck, can be contacted by e-mail or telephone (x8-9660.) He is specifically assigned to the School of Engineering. Jim is a Human Resources Generalist with working knowledge of all facets of Human Resources, including the bullet points listed below and some working knowledge of DLC Operations. However, do know that during discussions with your Human Resources Officer, he may refer you to a specialist who works in an area such as Staffing Services, Compensation, etc,. who may provide you with more comprehensive information. Jim is your first point of contact and can assist you with contacting or introducing you to various members of Human Resources and can answer a wide variety of human resource related questions. He is available for consultation in the following areas:

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Affirmative Action

The School of Engineering encourages equal opportunity practices at all levels and considers each hire an opportunity to build a diverse staff. The Office of Affirmative Action is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment. MIT does not discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, veteran status, ancestry, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, employment policies, scholarship and loan programs, and other Institute administered programs and activities, but may favor US citizens or residents in admissions and financial aid.

The Office of Affirmative Action is the gateway for resources on handling such matters as sexual harassment and disabilities. Information on the Office of Minority Education, and the Ombudsstaff is also available.

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Benefits Office

The MIT Benefits Office is available to assist employee with questions regarding all their MIT benefits, including Health and Welfare, Retirement, and Life Events. Representatives are available for assistance from 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM and are located in E19-215. To contact a Retirement Specialist please call x3-0923.

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Career Planning

Career Planning at MIT, a part of HR's Organization and Employee Development, provides career planning services to MIT organizations and their employees at all levels, as well as Educational Assistance and career assistance.

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Center for Work, Family, and Personal Life

The MIT Center for Work, Family and Personal Life (formerly Family Resource Center) offers MIT staff and students a broad range of services to assist with balancing work and family life.

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Compensation

The mission of the Compensation Office is to establish and implement fair, equitable and competitive compensation programs for the Institute's faculty, research, administrative, and support staff, in accordance with the Institute's reward philosophy and strategy.

HRO Role in Compensation

Your Human Resources Officer partnering with you and the Compensation Team can assist you in your various needs revolving around compensation. It is important to partner with your Human Resources Officer when creating new jobs that require a salary range and before making job offers. Several other areas where the HRO and the Compensation team can assist you are with promotions, questions around the review process, bonuses or lump sum payments, lateral transfers, classifying or reclassifying jobs and providing you with market data related to your compensation needs.

Pay Decision Guidelines

You will often hear your Human Resources Officer refer to the term internal equity. Internal equityis based on our desire to pay employees equitably based on the complexity of the job and the experience that they bring to their role. The Human Resources Officer and the Administrative Officer oversee pay decisions. This is why it is vital to analyze internal and external market data on jobs before making job offers or promoting employees. The worst case scenario is a lawsuit alleging discrimination based on a pay equity issue and these can be costly. Please consult with your Human Resources Officer or the Compensation Team if you are unsure about whether your decision to promote or hire someone will create an internal equity issue.

The Institute's pay decision guidelines emphasize continued development and expansion of skills, knowledge, performance, and the ability to be flexible. Our goals are the following:

The pay decision guidelines cover all transactions including:

Pay Ranges

Your Human Resources Officer gathers information about the responsibilities of the job from the Administrative Officer, takes that information to Compensation and looks at internal and external market data to identify a job and an appropriate salary range.

Service (hourly) Staff position's job ranges are set by the collective bargaining agreement. The School of Engineering works with one union, the Research, Development, and Technical Employees' Union (RDTEU). Please consult the collective bargaining agreement for RDTEU employees, available through your HRO, for information on the job ranges of positions covered in this payroll category.

Performance Reviews

The School of Engineering takes performance management very seriously and believes an effective process is vital to the success of employees and DLCs. For more information, see Performance Review and Development in Human Resources.

All annual review evaluations are completed on a review cycle based on the payroll category that the job is in. The review cycle is listed below.

Payroll

With respect to ensuring payment of employees, you'll also be working with the Payroll Office. All payroll categories – faculty, research, administrative staff, support staff, and student – are managed through the Payroll Office. Staff are either hourly or salaried. If they work hourly, they are paid weekly. If they are salaried, they receive their pay monthly.

Faculty are appointed through their home department. Faculty salaries are charged against general cost objects as well as research accounts. Faculty appointments are kept on the Summit system and show up on the monthly SANDI. Faculty have either nine-month or 12-month appointments. They are paid monthly.

All faculty are on the Modified Annual salary Plan (MAP) and are paid over 12 months for nine months of active service. Faculty are eligible for two months of summer pay if they can identify funds to cover their summer support. Each spring the faculty are queried about their plans for summer salary. [See Faculty Summer Salary memo (downloadable Word document).] If faculty choose to be paid for a third summer month (or a part thereof), they must sign a vacation waiver (downloadable Word document). All summer salary payments are made in July for activities in June, July, and August. Therefore, administrators must process a summer salary request (PDF) to the Payroll Office prior to the July payroll cutoff.

Sponsored Research Staff (SRS) are typically paid from fund-sponsored or research accounts. SRS appointments are for a specific amount of time based on the duration of the particular project to which they are assigned, or based on the terms of the funding source. SRS appointments are kept on the Summit system and appear on the monthly SANDI and DACCA report. SRS are paid monthly.

Administrative staff are salaried and are usually paid from general funds. Summit tracks administrative staff appointments, which show up on the monthly SANDI and DACCA report.

Support staff are paid hourly. Each week, you will receive paper time cards from payroll. Support staff hours are entered into the Summit system weekly using E-time, an electronic time sheet. The Payroll Office usually sends notices along with the paper time cards regarding the deadlines for entering the time cards. For example, if there is a Monday holiday, time cards are usually due in Payroll by 2:00PM of the first working day of the new pay week. Summit tracks support staff overtime, vacation, sick time, and other leave balances. Support staff are charged to general funds, as well as fund-sponsored accounts, and appear on the monthly DINDI and DACCA.

Research assistants and teaching assistants are given appointments and are typically paid from fund-sponsored or research accounts, though occasionally students are paid from general cost objects. Students receive a monthly stipend and tuition. These appointments are made through MITSIS, the MIT Student Information System, and get sent to payroll. The Payroll Office then monitors student appointments through Summit. The Summit system indicates the amount of pay, the cost object charged, and the term of the research or teaching assistantship. RA and TA salaries show up on the monthly SANDIs as well as the monthly DACCA report. Notices regarding the monthly cutoff for making any changes or new appointments are sent out from the Central Accounting Office.

You can pay temporary help using the voucher system. "Voucher payroll," by policy, is intended for short-term or sporadic work. Voucher or casual employees are not benefits eligible and are therefore legally limited to six months of continuous, full-time employment. You enter payroll vouchers through Summit in E-Time, which is basically an electronic time card. Voucher payments are kept on the Summit system and appear on the monthly DACCA report.

Electronic processing of timesheets for support, student, and voucher payrolls is available on E-Time. For information on authorizations, call x3-6730. Contact the Accounting Officer (x3-7715) in the Controller's Accounting Office, who can send you copies of everything you will need to know to use the Summit system quickly and easily.

Note: for an explanation of Summit, SANDI, DINDI and DACCA, please refer to Acronyms and Terms in Financial Management. Also see Payroll Reporting in the Compliance section of Financial Management.

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Disability Services

Disability Services works with employees and students that currently have disabilities or may develop a disability. If an employee approaches you with a request for a reasonable accommodation or to let you know that you they have a disability, please contact both your Human Resources Officer and the Disability Services Office.

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Employee Services

The HR Personnel Policy Manual details the procedures for all non-academic employment policies. Employee Services provides services to employees and supervisors, campus-wide. Included among the services provided by human resources officers are the following: staffing assistance, job counseling, policy interpretation, performance evaluation, salary administration and conflict resolution.

Your HRO is your Employee Services contact.

Corrective Action and Termination Policies

Terminating an employee's employment or placing an employee on some form of corrective action should be performed with the assistance of your Human Resources Officer. Making mistakes during these processes can be damaging and result in a costly law suit. This section of the Personnel Policy Manual will outline some of the basics of terminating an employee or placing them on corrective action. There are several keys to ensuring that you get an employee back on a productive track. Ensuring that the action taken is corrective and not punitive in nature, effectively documenting an issue or having appropriate documentation to support your action and writing effective warnings are all items that make this process successful. Once again, please consult with your Human Resources Officer if the need to terminate or place an employee on corrective action.

The termination form for both academic and nonacademic terminations should be used on all employees who are terminating employment for any reason whether it is for retirement, a violation of MIT policy or that they received a better job opportunity somewhere else. To access a termination form, see Termination Form (MIT certificate required).

Layoffs occur for lack of work or lack of funds. The department, lab or center is responsible for sending the laid off employee a layoff letter which tells them how long the lay off period will be. Layoffs should not be a substitute for corrective actions. Please ensure that no one is abusing this policy. As always, please make your Human Resources Officer aware of any layoffs. For information on administering a layoff, see the Termination Policies.

Handling Investigations

Please read the following information about how to handle a complaint or grievance before meeting with employees to discuss serious concerns such as sexual harassment or discrimination. Your Human Resources Officer should be brought into the loop to help you investigate these concerns. It will also outline the process for you to follow should you have a complaint or grievance against MIT or anyone who is a representative of MIT. For more information, see the Complaint and Grievance Procedures section of the Personnel Policy Manual.

The following sections provide recommendations on handling a complaint or grievance.

Leave Policies

Leaves are granted for various reasons such as the need to take care of an employee's own serious health condition; for the adoption of a child; for the birth and care of the employee's newborn child; and for a serious health condition of the employee's child, parent, spouse, or same-sex spousal equivalent. (Refer to FMLA in MIT Policies and Procedures 7.5.2-3 or in the MIT Personnel Policy Manual 4.5.) Leave of absences may be paid or unpaid. Please consult the following websites for more information. If you have any questions, please consult with your Human Resources Officer. For general information, see Leave Policies.

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HR-Payroll Service Center

A new service that accompanies the transition to SAP in Human Resources is the opening of the HR-Payroll Service Center. Located in Room E19-429, the Center is responsible for timely and accurate processing of all HR transactions.

Transactions

HR has also improved how employment transaction information reaches the HR-Payroll Service Center by introducing new and updated online HR Forms. When you use the revised forms, your transactions will be processed with a greater degree of accuracy and you will receive a confirmation so that you can verify that your transaction was processed correctly.

Many transactions require Senior Officer approval. The HR Transactions Authorizations Table (Excel file) identifies all categories of employment and types of associated transactions and indicates when you need Senior Officer approval. (This means the Dean's Office must approve the action.)

Pending the implementation of HR/Payroll SAP, please note that procedures for academic and nonacademic transactions differ. For any changes to an academic appointment, such as a promotion, transfer, reclassification or salary change, increase/ decrease in hours or percent effort, please use the Academic Appointment (AAF) Form (AAF). (See additional information in the section on Faculty in the DLC chapter.) The AAF is submitted to your Senior Officer.

For similar changes to a nonacademic appointment, please use the Nonacademic Employee Transaction Change Form (ETCF) (MIT certificate required). The ETCF is submitted to Human Resources and then processed pending approval by the Senior Officer in your DLC and the Human Resources Officer.

On the other hand, these same changes to an academic appointment require , All out-of-cycle increases need the approval of the Senior Officer in the School of Engineering, Sheila Kanode, and the Human Resources Officer. There needs to be a written recommendation made for any out of cycle increases that should be submitted to both your Senior Officer and your Human Resources Officer.

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Labor Relations

Labor Relations provides advice on how to deal with issues within the union. The School of Engineering currently only has one union, RDTEU, that represents the rights of certain employees within SoE. A list of positions and the departments, labs, and centers that have these positions are listed below.

Union Representing Staff within the School of Engineering

RDTEU stands for Research, Development, and Technical Employees' Union. Please consult with either the Manager of Labor Relations or your Human Resources Officer before taking any type of corrective action against an employee in a union position. It is important that we follow the collective bargaining agreement between the RDTEU and MIT. The only areas of the School of Engineering that currently have RDTEU employees are in the following DLC's.

For more information on the collective bargaining agreement and process, please consult:

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Organization and Employee Development (OED)

Career Planning

Career planning at MIT provides career planning services, as well as educational assistance and career assistance, to MIT organizations and employees at all levels. The programs and services offered support the Institute's commitment to help employees assume responsibility for their own successful development and career management as well as MIT's recruitment and retention efforts.

Consulting Services

OED offers consulting services to departments, labs and centers to improve effectiveness in planning and implementing organizational change, developing leaders and teams, and facilitating meetings and retreats. This might involve helping to reshape how an area is organized, redefining roles and responsibilities, or implementing new processes or programs.

Professional Development Courses

Organization and Employee Development (OED) provides a wide range of Professional Development Courses to members of the MIT community to develop professional skills in communication, management, leadership, critical thinking and problem solving, and financial management. Most courses are offered throughout the academic year. Courses are centrally funded and are scheduled in the Fall, Spring and Summer.

Professional Learning Center

The MIT Professional Learning Center offers a variety of meeting rooms and technical training rooms to the MIT community. Staff members work in partnership with various MIT departments to provide a training facility that supports learning opportunities for the MIT community. In addition to six computer training rooms, the Center also offers two meeting rooms, each of which holds 20 to 25 people.

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Rewards and Recognition

The Rewards and Recognition program was designed to recognize individuals and teams, in a timely and effective way, for their outstanding contributions to their office, department, or to the Institute as a whole. The program provides opportunities to recognize and reward members of MIT's administrative staff, support staff, service staff, sponsored research staff, and, when appropriate, faculty. It is also meant to supplement, rather than replace, existing reward mechanisms, and is separate and distinct from base pay. See the website for a complete description of the program.

Area Contacts

Each department has an area contact that administers the various programs.

How Awards are Funded

While the budgets for both the SoE's Infinite Mile Awards and the DLC ("local") Appreciation awards are allocated to the School, both types of awards are funded centrally through Human Resources. The budget for Infinite Mile Awards is managed in the SoE Dean’s Office; the DLC-based Appreciation awards budget is distributed by the SoE Dean's Office to the DLCs each Fall term based on headcount.

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Staffing Services/Recruiting and Hiring Process

Staffing Services is a new offering within Human Resources. Partnering with the HRO, Staffing Services creates and maintains an efficient, responsive and proactive hiring process that brings the most qualified, talented, and diverse staff to MIT.

New administrators should be aware that HR transactions are categorized as academic and non-academic. Academic appointments and subsequent maintenance are managed within the School and DLC. HR plays a larger role in non-academic matters. The information presented here focuses on processing non-academic transactions. For details on processing academic transactions, please refer to the appropriate section of the DLC chapter.

Many transactions require Senior Officer approval. The HR Transactions Authorizations Table (Excel file) identifies all categories of employment and types of associated transactions and indicates when you need Senior Officer approval. (This means the Dean's Office must approve the action.) This table also identifies what forms you need as you proceed through the hiring process.

All changes in employment status, including salary increases, promotions, and life changes, require associated transactions. HR will assist with these.

Collective Bargaining Agreements (RDTEU, SEIU and Campus Police) have varying requirements for posting, bidding, selection, and salary determination processes. It is, therefore, very important to refer to the specific contract for guidance in these areas.

If a Service Staff position becomes open to outside applicants, refer below to the information regarding the Request for Personnel (RFP) and Advertising Request Forms (both require MIT certificates) as well as the entire sections entitled "Suggestions for Selecting the Right Candidate, Screening and Interviewing" and the "New Hire Processing."

Getting Started

The Institute, through its Affirmative Action Program, has sought to expand its effort to guarantee equality of opportunity in employment and in education and to reduce the underutilization of women and minorities at MIT. For all categories of employment, our objectives are to achieve a representation of women and minorities that is at least in proportion to their current availability. We work to address imbalances through vigorous and systematic recruitment efforts in hiring. This serious search process is followed with efforts to actively support the career advancement of underrepresented employees within the community.

The School's report on progress towards goals can be found in the Affirmative Action Plan of MIT 2002-2003.

Searching for Diversity

All salaried positions (exempt from overtime pay) require an affirmative action serious search. Search plans (MIT certificate required) and the Request for Personnel, or RFP (MIT certificate required), for all salaried positions should be routed through the Dean’s Office. (See the Faculty and Other Academic Staff sections of the DLC chapter for details on the academic search process.) When the search is completed, the Search Results (Excel file) should be forwarded to the Dean’s Office for approval before an offer is extended.

Staffing Services provides assistance for non-academic positions as follows (MIT certificate required for this web page):

Academic areas require the approval of the Dean or Senior Officer, as appropriate. Depending on the DLC, Provost approval may also be required for additions to Administrative staff including promotions from Support staff to Administrative, SRS, or any exempt position.

Administrative areas require the approval of the appropriate VP or Senior Officer.

Suggestions for Selecting the Right Candidate: Screening and Interviewing

Staffing Services provides assistance with screening and selection for non-academic positions. (MIT certificate required for this web page.)

With permission from the candidate, check references with current supervisor and 1-2 previous supervisors.

Securing the Candidate: Salary Determination and Job Offer

New Hire Processing

Information required to process a new hire, i.e., someone new to MIT, should be submitted via Non-Academic Offer Confirmation Form. For an internal hire, i.e., someone moving from one position to another at MIT, use the Non-Academic Employee Transaction Change Form (ETCF).

In general, DLCs will be notified of the employee's ID number within 24 hours of processing. Once the required information is in the HR system, Human Resources will mail the welcome letter (offer/acceptance), benefits information, and forms below to the new hire. The Letter includes:

If the department wishes to send a letter in addition to the official Welcome (offer/acceptance letter), it is suggested that the department letter include:

To ensure timely payment of monthly paid Administrative and SRS staff, required new-hire and/or salary/effort-change information must be received in Payroll (via HR) by the last Wednesday before the last FULL work week of each month. For example, 7/31/03 is on a Thursday. Therefore, the payroll cutoff for July is Wednesday, July 16, 2003.

HR input deadlines for the monthly payroll are generally three working days earlier than published Payroll cutoff dates. During peak periods, (July processing, for instance) HR requests as much time as possible in order to process new hires by the start date and to ensure timely payment of staff.

To ensure timely payment of weekly paid Support and Service Staff, required new hire information must be received in HR by 12:00 PM. the Thursday prior to a Monday start date.

International Scholars Office

The MIT International Scholars Office (ISO) assists MIT faculty and staff in bringing international scholars to campus for a variety of purposes. The ISO advises on immigration matters, issues visa documents, and provides information and guidance on a wide range of issues such as employment of spouses, health insurance, taxes, language courses, and general information about MIT and the Cambridge/Boston area. Weekly orientation sessions for scholars and their families are held throughout the year.

Appointment Process for Visiting Scholars, Professors, Lecturers, and Post Doctoral Fellows

It is important to ensure that each foreign national employed or on academic appointment at MIT either has an immigration status which permits that affiliation or has been granted permission by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).

The International Scholars Office (ISO) handles applications and information regarding visas for foreign academic and sponsored research staff and is MIT's liaison with immigration authorities. The ISO offers J-1 visa sponsorship and is the only petitioner to INS for H-1B visas, O-1 visas and/or permanent residency based on MIT employment. The International Students Office offers similar services for international students.

In order to process a J-1 visa for visiting scholars, the ISO requires you to fill out four forms. The forms are available through the ISO website and are called Forms A, B, C and the Statement of Compliance for health insurance. Form A is the information about the sponsoring Department, Form B is the information regarding the visitor, basically their resume, Form C is the request, or extension, of the J-1 visa application. Note that although you may download these forms from the web, original forms must be sent to the ISO. The ISO website is a very useful resource for procedures, contacts, announcements on travel, and instruction on arranging for your international visitors.

A complete and useful description of employment of foreign nationals is available in the MIT Personnel Policy Manual, under employment policies. When processing appointments for visiting scholars and other academic personnel, you also need to fill out the academic appointment form.

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Acronyms and Terms

TBD (include AAF, ETCF)

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Contacts

Please contact your Human Resources Officer or check with HR for latest contact information.

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Electronic Tools and Training

TBD

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FAQs

TBD

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Forms and References

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Expanded Table of Contents

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