Office Management and Clerical Staff

Introduction   

Most departments have one or more classified staff members, usually an office specialist or administrative assistant.  Some have other classified personnel, which may include laboratory technicians, outreach coordinators, grants officers, etc.  Some smaller units may share staff with other departments, or in some cases have no office staff.  Office support staff are critical to the effective operation of departments.  They are the front-line respondents to inquiries from students, staff, faculty, and the general public.  Four primary areas related to departmental operations are discussed in this section: office management (meetings, employee benefits, office hours, salary adjustments); hiring (vacancies, interviewing, offers); evaluations (annual appraisals); and dealing with staff employment disputes.

Office Management

Meetings

Good management practices include open communication with office personnel.  Chairs are strongly urged to meet on a daily or weekly basis with the head office specialist or administrative assistant, and make themselves accessible to other staff.  The head office specialist or administrative assistant should have access to the chair’s calendar to know when the chair is available and to schedule appointments.   

Business Hours

All department offices with full-time staffing are expected to be open during regular university hours: 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the academic year. Offices should also remain open during the lunch hour by using student workers or by staggering lunch breaks. When offices are closed during regular university hours, the Dean's office should be notified and a sign should be posted outside the department office indicating when the office will be open and who should be contacted if immediate assistance is required (the Dean’s Office can always be listed).  Additionally, a recorded telephone message should include hours and alternative contacts (again, the Dean’s Office may be listed as a backup). 

Classified staff must receive a 15-minute break for every 4 hours worked if they are working eight hours a day five days a week, or a 20 minute break every 5 hours if they are working ten hours a day four days per week.  The lunch period is not considered work time. See the SEIU-OUS Collective Bargaining agreement for more details on work conditions for classified staff.

Classified staff submit monthly timesheets to you for approval and signature.  These sheets indicate which days they worked and for how many hours, and hours or days taken off for vacation, illness, or other purposes.  Once signed, these timesheets are turned into Human Resources.  Some care should be taken to ensure that the sheets are correctly and accurately filled out.

Sick Leaves, Vacations, and Other Leaves

The classified personnel have available a number options for leave and vacation time, both paid and unpaid.  For more complete information, chairs should refer to the section of the HR website describing the various leave options (see employee leave). 

   Following are the leave options available to the classified staff.

• Vacation:  Classified employees who have completed six months of service are entitled to vacation leave.  Vacation leave should be approved by you, as their supervisor, and requests to use five days or more of vacation at one time should be submitted in writing 15 days before the desired starting date.  Requests for vacation time less than 5 days are to be made at least five days in advance. 

       Vacation Accrual Rates (Years of service accrual rate per month in hours)

       Up to 5 years             8 hours or 12 days each year.
       6-10 Years               10 hours or 15 days each year.
       11-15 Years             12 hours or 18 days each year.
       16-20 Years             14 hours or 21 days each year.
       21 Years and over   16 hours or 24 days each year.

• Holidays: 

  The holiday schedule for 2009-10, as described in OAR 580-022-0025, will be as follows and the University will be closed on these days: Veteran's Day - Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Thanksgiving Day - Thursday, November 26, 2009 Day after Thanksgiving - Friday, November 27, 2009 Christmas Day - Friday, December 25, 2009 New Year's Day - Friday, January 1, 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday - Monday, January 18, 2010 Memorial Day - Monday, May 31, 2010 Independence Day - Monday, July 5, 2010 Labor Day - Monday, September 6, 2010 Hourly temporary, hourly student and hourly academic wage employees are not eligible for holiday pay, including the Governor's Day or the Special Day of paid leave. Whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is the day off. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is a day off. Employees on leave without pay are not eligible to receive holiday pay. Classified employees must be in pay status at least 1/2 of the last workday before the holiday, and 1/2 the first workday after the holiday in order to receive holiday pay. Employees who are required to work on a holiday receive compensatory time off or cash at the rate of time and one-half.  Special provisions apply to part-time employees. Governor's Day for Unclassified Employees Governor Kulongoski has discretion to grant 12-month unclassified employees an additional day of paid leave (Governor's Day) in conjunction with Thanksgiving,Christmas or New Year's Day. This leave is eight hours for full-time employees and is prorated for part-time employees. The employee must be employed as of the day prior to the applicable holiday to receive this leave.  This leave does not apply to represented classified employees for whom the collective bargaining agreement outlines holiday provisions (see below). If granted by the Governor, leave is to be taken on one of the following days: Pre- Thanksgiving: November 25, 2009 Pre-or post- Christmas: December 24, 2009 Pre-or post- New Year's Day: December 31, 2009 The unclassified employee and the institution must coordinate schedules to maintain regular services on those days. If those days are not available to an employee, the day of leave may be requested and taken on or before January 31, 2008.

  
  

• Sick Leave:  Classified employees are entitled to sick leave according to a somewhat complicated formula.  The Dean's Office strongly suggests that chairs read Article 40 of the OUS-SEIU Collective Bargaining Agreement.  In a nutshell, classified employees are entitled to sick leave, they accrue sick leave (with pay) at the rate of 8 hours per month of employment, they can take sick leave for illness, injury, or other physical issue (either personally or within their immediate family), and the University can ask for medical certification should it choose.  In addition, when a classified employee has used up his or her accrued sick leave, they may "borrow" additional unpaid sick leave from the University.  Employees may also add other accrued leave time, such as vacation, to their sick leave.
  
• FMLA/OFLA Leaves:  FMLA stands for the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act.  It was originally designed to protect the jobs of new mothers, and later fathers, but has been greatly expanded to include most medical situations.  It is unpaid leave, although employees can take FMLA concurrently with a paid sick leave.  The employee requesting an FMLA leave must have been employed for at least one year, have worked at least 1250 hours in the last 12 months, and, if possible, give 30 days notice.  The employer is required to continue to pay for health benefits, and the employee has the right to the position they previously had before the leave, or another position of equivalent pay.  OFLA refers to the Oregon Medical Family Leave Act. It is similar to FMLA except that it covers employees who do not meet the FMLA standards.
  
• Personal Leaves:  After completing trial service, full-time employees receive 24 hours of personal leave each fiscal year. Personal leave is prorated for part-time employees, and to be eligible for personal leave, an employee must be expected to work 1040 hours during the fiscal year. This time does not accrue from year to year and is not payable in cash. Personal leave should be taken in increments of one hour or more and may be used for any purpose. This leave, like all others, must be scheduled with supervisory approval.
  
• Other Leaves with Pay:  Employees also have the right to leave with pay for jury duty, testifying in court, or for military leave.  Each of these has its own requirements and rules. (see Leaves with Pay).  Military leave is for periods of less of 10 to 15 days and is not intended for employees on active duty.
  
• Leaves without Pay:  There are a number of situations in which classified employees may go on leave without pay.  (see Personal Leaves)

Classified Hiring

Classified hiring is coordinated with the Office of Human Resources.  The steps are described in the HR link Manager's Corner,  which deals with the recruiting and hiring of classified staff.  In addition, the Office of Human Resources has put most of the process online using software called "PeopleAdmin," and, as a part of the hiring process, you must obtain an account on PeopleAdmin and be trained by HR in how to use it. 

The steps in the process are described there on the site listed above.  Some of the highlights include:

• Meet with Dean's Office: Before beginning the process of hiring a classified employee, you must be certain that you have permission from the CLAS Dean's office to do so.  Before doing anything, therefore, you should meet with the Fiscal Officer to make sure that you have the money in your budget and the line open to hire.

• Meet with HR:  They will review the hiring process, discuss affirmative action issues, explain advertising and background checks, etc.
• Submit a requisition and position description: This is done via PeopleAdmin.  This assumes that you know how to use PeopleAdmin and have an account on it.  If you do not, you will need to get an account before you can submit these items.
• Create and educate the search committee:  The search committee needs to be able to access PeopleAdmin and should understand the rules of interviewing, etc.
• Meet with HR again: The Hiring Committee and HR meet to review the process again.
• Submit Interview Questions for approval:  HR must approve the questions you are going to ask the candidates.
• Select finalist on PeopleAdmin:  Candidates apply via PeopleAdmin, so you and the committee can look at the candidates online.
• Conduct interviews:  Enough said.
• Submit Hiring Proposal via PeopleAdmin to HR.
• Hire

Making an offer

These templates contain all of the required elements for the Letter of Offer/Notice of Appointment. If you wish to include additional information or statements, choose the Word version and edit as needed while retaining the required elements (see Classified Letter of Offer).  

Employee benefits

Information on benefits for the classified employees is available on the Human Services' benefits website.   Department chairs should become familiar with this document.  Please note that employees enjoy a number of benefits, including various types of leave, insurance, retirement, training opportunities, and health and retirement benefits. The clerical employees are represented by the SEIU Local 503, OPEU, AFL-CIO, CLC Union.  The collective bargaining agreement is available online (OUS-OPEU Collective Bargaining Agreement), and department chairs with clerical staff should become familiar with that document.  

Evaluation of Classified Staff

All personnel, including classified employees, are evaluated annually.  Unlike unclassified employees, who are reviewed at fixed times during the year, the classified employees are reviewed at a yearly date that depends on when they were hired, reclassified, or promoted.  A classified employee hired in, say, August will be evaluated every August.

The annual evaluation of classified personnel is important and chairs should take care to make sure that it is done.  For staff who are performing well or exceptionally, the annual evaluations are a chance to reward their performance with good evaluations.  For staff who need to improve, it is an opportunity to point out the ways in which they are underperforming, and and how they might improve.  If it becomes necessary to begin the process of sanctioning or disciplining a poorly performing classified employee, the annual evaluations will be an important part of that process.  There are also times when the classified staff receive salary merit increases based on their annual evaluations.

The procedure for annual evaluations of classified staff is as follows: 

What the HR Office does:
*notifies supervisor of upcoming evaluations one month before the review date;
*offers guidance in the evaluation process;
*maintains the official file for the classified employee, which includes past evaluations.

What you need to do:
*review the job description;
*revise the job description (with the employee) if it is no longer current, and forwards this to HR for review;
*review the prior year’s evaluation form, including goals and objectives for the current year;
*review the evaluation guidelines;
*provide the employee with a self-evaluation form and website information, and request return of the evaluation form by a given date;
*review the self-evaluation form--if received--before meeting;
*complete the evaluation form and use the current (or updated) position description to identify job functions;
*meet with the employee to review and discuss the evaluation form;
*keep a copy and return the original signed form to the HR office for the personnel file;
*set occasional checkup times with the employee.

What the employee needs to do:
* review the job description;
* revise the job description (with supervisor) if it is no longer current;
* review the prior year’s evaluation form, including goals and objectives for the current year;
* review the evaluation guidelines;
* complete the self-evaluation form if desired;
* meet with the supervisor for a performance evaluation of:
     * specific job functions
     * common performance factors
     * goals, objectives, and development
* keep the original copy of the performance evaluation
* meet occasionally with the supervisor for checkups.

Policies, Handbooks, and Regulations

Portland State University operates under a complex set of Oregon State, OUS, and PSU rules, regulations, and policies.  In addition, classified personnel procedures are governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between OUS and OPEU.  Below are links to policies, internal management directives, the Union Contract, rules about public employees' political activities, and State of Oregon regulations.

Policies
* Drug Free Policy
* Code of Ethics
* Acceptable Use Policy
* Telecommuting Policy
* Vehicle Rules for State Drivers - A link to the DAS website - useful if you drive State Vehicles.
* Work/Life Policy
* Inclement Weather/School Closure Policy
* Professional Standards of Conduct
* Consensual Relationship Policy

Internal Management Directives

* Sexual Harassment Policy
* Alcohol & Tobacco Policy
* HIV Policy
* Financial Irregularity Policy (revisions in process)
* Gifts, Grants and Contracts Policy (under development)

Union Contract

* SEIU Local 503 Labor Contract, OPEU represents classified employees

Public Employees and Political Activities

* Restrictions on Political Campaigning
* Election Law Summary for Candidates and PACs

State of Oregon Regulations

* Oregon Administrative Rules
* Oregon Revised Statutes

Staff Employment Disputes

Sanctions, Discipline, and Discharge

Articles 17 and 18 of the Oregon University System/SEIU Local 503 Collective Bargaining Agreement discuss the principles and rules for progressive sanctions-- including dismissal-- of classified employees, and their rights to grievance (Article 18).  The agreement specifies that the principles of progressive discipline shall be used when appropriate.  That is, discipline should take place in measured steps appropriate to the situation.  Discipline shall include, but not be limited to: written reprimands; denial of an annual performance pay increase; reduction in pay; demotion; suspension; and dismissal. Discipline shall be imposed only for just cause.

If you are contemplating sanctioning a classified employee, the Dean's Office strongly suggests that you talk to the Human Resources Office before proceeding.

Appendix F of the collective bargaining agreement shows a table of the timelines and steps involved in progressive discipline.

Training and Development

The Office of Human Resources offers a wide range of professional, managerial, career development, and computer courses for all staff.  The University also encourages staff members to become lifelong learners by offering discounts for undergraduate and graduate level courses taken at PSU and elsewhere in the Oregon University System through the Staff Fee Privilege (SFP) Program.

For further information on these programs and others available here at PSU, please click on one of the links below.
Training Schedule
New Employee Briefing Schedule
Staff Fee Privilege "Tuition Benefit"
Professional Development Center