Transfer or Separation from Employment

Policy 1314
Transfer or Separation from Employment

Date of Current Revision: September 2017
Primary Responsible Officer: Director of Human Resources
Secondary Responsible Officer: Assistant Vice President for Information Technology, Director of Financial Aid, Director of Payroll

1. PURPOSE

This policy protects the university's interests by establishing procedures for supervisors, Human Resources, Student Employment, Information Technology, Payroll Services, and other departments to use in ensuring that university-owned property is retrieved and that proper security is maintained when an employee transfers, ends a job, or separates entirely from university employment.

2. AUTHORITY

The Board of Visitors has been authorized by the Commonwealth of Virginia to govern James Madison University. See Code of Virginia § 23.1-1600; § 23.1-1301. The Board has delegated the authority to manage the university to the president.

3. DEFINITIONS

Classified Employee
At JMU, a non-faculty, full-time employee who is covered by the Virginia Personnel Act.

Electronic Personnel Action Request (ePAR)
Electronic form used for personnel actions such as Hires (includes hires, rehires, and transfers), Job Changes, and Status Changes.

• The Hire form encompasses the hire, rehire, or transfer personnel action requests, the pay action worksheet (PAW), and the onboard form and hours reporting (when part-time account codes are entered).
• The Job Change form is used to make changes to current jobs.
• The Status Change form is used to terminate a job or put an employee on leave.

The ePAR will route to approvers based on routing rules set up by department. At any point in the routing of an ePAR, the initiator can check the status of the ePAR. IT Training provides training to ePAR initiators and approvers in the use of the ePAR.

Employee
Any person employed by JMU in any capacity.

PAR Form
Personnel Action Request form. The paper document used by some departments to affect any personnel action related to employment status or salary including, but not limited to, hire/rehire, separation, pay increase/decrease, role change, change of working title, etc. The PAR Form is neither a contract nor an offer of a contract.

Separation 
An action that results in the employee ceasing the employee/employer relationship.

Student Employee
A student hired by the university to perform regular employee duties. Student employees may be paid either under Federal Work-Study, Institutional Employment, or Graduate Assistantship policies.  A student employee is not serving in an internship, an assistantship, or a fellowship to obtain training or work experience necessary for the completion of a degree.

Transfer
An action that results in an employee of the university moving from one position to another, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

4. APPLICABILITY

This policy applies to all university employees.

5. POLICY

Action must be taken by the department when an employee moves from one position to another, ends a job, or separates from the university to ensure that the transfer/separation process protects the university's property and security. It is very difficult to retrieve property and information after an employee is no longer in a department; therefore, supervisors are responsible for ensuring immediate compliance with this policy.

6. PROCEDURES

6.1 Transfer procedures – department employee is transferring into:

6.1.1 The hiring department submits an ePAR/PAR to transfer the employee into his or her department and out of the former department.

6.1.2 The department the employee is transferring into requests access to core systems, as needed, for the employee’s new position. See IS Access Request form. The department also requests access to department-specific resources, as needed, for the employee’s new position. See request Network File Storage.

6.2 Transfer procedures - Human Resources:

6.2.1 Forward the transfer ePAR/PAR submitted by the hiring department to Payroll Services after processing through HR.

6.2.2 Run a daily query and send an email to notify supervisors of their responsibility to complete and retain the Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring Employees. 

6.2.3 Run a daily Transfer Clearance Notification query for all transfers (student employees and employees) and send an email to notify the following departments:

6.3 Transfer procedures - department from which the employee is transferring:

6.3.1 Collect university property from the transferring employee. The transferring employee keeps his or her JACard and parking permit when transferring into another university position.  

• See HR’s Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring Employees.
• See Student Employment’s Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring or Separating Student Employees.
• Checklists are retained in the department’s files for five years and may be audited by the Auditor of Public Accounts or JMU Audit and Management Services.

6.3.2 If, after six (6) months into the performance cycle, a classified employee transfers, is promoted or demoted into a new position with a different supervisor, within an agency or between state agencies, then an interim evaluation should be completed. The interim evaluation should be completed by the supervisor prior to the classified employee’s departure. For transfers to another agency, the interim performance evaluation will be completed on the original form and sent with the personnel file to the new agency for retention by the new supervisor. (DHRM Policy 1.40)

6.4 Transfer procedures - Student Employment:

6.4.1 Forward the transfer ePAR/PAR submitted by the hiring department to Payroll Services after processing through Student Employment.

6.4.2 Run a daily query and send an email to notify supervisors of their responsibility to complete and retain Student Employment’s Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring or Separating Student Employees. 

6.5 Transfer procedures - departments receiving Transfer Clearance Notifications:

6.5.1 Departments receiving transfer notifications from HR are responsible for taking necessary actions before the employee transfers.

6.6 Separation procedures - department from which the employee is separating:

6.6.1 Submit an ePAR/PAR to Human Resources or Student Employment as soon as the supervisor becomes aware of the employee's/student employee’s separation.

6.6.2 Collect university property from the employee, as appropriate: 

• See HR’s Checklist for Supervisors of Separating Employees.
• See Student Employment’s Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring or Separating Student Employees.
• Checklists are to be retained in the department’s files for five years and may be audited by the Auditor of Public Accounts or JMU Audit and Management Services. 

6.7 Separation procedures - Human Resources - upon receipt of an employee’s separation ePAR/PAR:

6.7.1 Forward the ePAR/PAR to Payroll Services after processing through HR.

6.7.2 Run a daily query and send an email to notify supervisors of their responsibility to complete and retain HR’s Checklist for Supervisors of Separating Employees. 

6.7.3 Run a daily Exit Clearance Notification query of employee’s completely separating from the university and send an email to notify the following departments:

6.7.4 Send a Benefits Information for Exiting Employees memorandum to separating full-time employees with the following information:

• Health insurance and COBRA information
• Life insurance, long-term disability, and tax-deferred annuities

6.7.5 Send separating employees an email with the following information:

• Only full-time employees with health benefits through the university – A reminder to schedule an exit session with a benefits representative.
• Only part-time employees – An offer to schedule an exit session with an HR consultant.
• A request to complete on online exit survey.
• A reminder to return university property.

6.8 Separation procedures - Student Employment - upon receipt of a student employee’s separation ePAR/PAR:

6.8.1 Forward the separation ePAR/PAR to Payroll Services after processing through Student Employment.

6.8.2 Run a daily query and send an email to notify supervisors of their responsibility to complete and retain the Checklist for Supervisors of Transferring or Separating Student Employees.  

6.9 Separation procedures - departments receiving Exit Clearance Notifications:

6.9.1 Departments receiving Exit Clearance Notifications from HR are responsible for taking necessary actions before the employee leaves the university.
 

7. RESPONSIBILITIES

Supervisors have primary responsibility for adherence to this policy by closely and quickly overseeing the process of their employee’s transfer or separation. Supervisors are responsible for initiating ePARS/PARs in a timely manner.

Supervisors are responsible for collecting university property and completing and retaining the transfer/separation checklist when an employee transfers or separates from employment.

Supervisors are responsible for completing an interim performance evaluation for their classified employee in accordance with this policy when a classified employee transfers out of a department.

Supervisors are responsible for requesting access to core systems and access to department-specific resources, as needed, for the transferring employee’s new position.

HR and Student Employment will process the transfer/separation ePAR/PAR upon receipt and forward it to Payroll Services for further processing to facilitate the transfer or the timely distribution of termination pay, when applicable.

HR and Student Employment will contact the managers of supervisors who fail to initiate ePARs/PARs in a timely manner.

HR and Student Employment will email supervisor notifications to complete transfer/separation checklists.

HR will email supervisor notifications to request systems accesses, as needed, when an employee transfers into a department.

HR will email Transfer and Exit Clearance Notifications to departments who may have processes impacted by an employee’s transfer or separation.

Departments receiving Transfer and Exit Clearance Notifications are responsible for taking necessary actions on or before the employee's transfer or separation date.

HR will notify separating full-time employees by email to schedule an exit session with a benefits representative and will notify part-time and full-time employees to complete an online exit survey and remind them to return university property.

Information Technology is responsible for removing the employee’s access to central systems access (e.g., Student, HRMS and Finance), departmental network file systems, shared mailboxes, shared calendars, Advancement, remote access, VDI, SSLVPN, and elevated account access (i.e. WA accounts) after the notification of a transfer is received from Human Resources. (Grant org to grant org transfers are excluded to minimize the automatic deletion of needed accesses.)

Information Technology is responsible for ensuring that the employee's access to all university technical accounts and data is ended upon the employee’s separation from the university.

8. SANCTIONS

Sanctions will be commensurate with the severity and/or frequency of the offense and may include termination of employment.

9. EXCLUSIONS

Grant org to grant org transfers are excluded from IT’s automatic access deactivation when an employee transfers out of a department and into another.

Because the majority of adjunct faculty for whom separation ePARs/PARs are submitted to HR have agreed to return to their part-time assignment the following semester, system access will not be removed until 120 days following the separation date indicated on the ePAR/PAR. This will allow adjunct faculty to retain access to email, course websites, Canvas and other relevant systems.

Employees may retain access to some or all services because of their continuing status as a student.

The employee's access to the MyMadison and email systems will usually end 30 days after the effective date of separation indicated on the ePAR/PAR. However, all access to university-wide systems may be terminated immediately when an employee is terminated for cause, or when it is otherwise deemed to be in the best interest of the institution to terminate an employee’s access. In this case, HR or Student Employment will contact IT for immediate systems termination.

10. INTERPRETATION

Authority to interpret this policy rests with the president but is generally delegated to the director of human resources.

Previous version: March 2014
Approved by the President: January 2009