May 2015

Plan to Attend 20-Year Club Dinner


The annual 20-Year Club celebration will take place on Wednesday, May 20, at 5:30 p.m. with a reception, dinner and awards ceremony. The event will be held in the Kent Student Center Ballroom.

Thirty-one employees will be inducted this year. Please join in the celebration with these classified and unclassified employees who have achieved 20 years of continuous service at Kent State University. You may visit the 20-Year Club website to see a list of inductees and to register for the event.

The university community is invited to celebrate this milestone with the inductees, their families and their friends. Please share this reminder with your department. Registration deadline is May 12.

For more information, please contact Geraldine Hayes-Nelson, Ph.D., at 330-672-2901 or ghnelson@kent.edu.

Empower Timekeeping System Rollout - Kent Campus


The current Kronos timekeeping system is being replaced by Empower WFM.  Currently, all regional campuses have been moved to Empower, while just a few departments across the Kent Campus have made the transition. 


Beginning Sunday, May 31, 2015, the remainder of the Kent Campus will be transitioned to Empower. In order to assist in this transition, supervisor training on Empower will be offered beginning the week of May 11. Emails will be sent to supervisors with further information regarding the training sessions, including dates, time and registration links. Once supervisors have attended training, supplemental information will be provided electronically to review with their employees. 

For questions regarding the Empower transition, contact Lisa Heilman, payroll manager, at lheilman@kent.edu or by phone at 20987.

Career Services Center Launches Flash@Work


The Career Services Center is very excited to announce the launch of a new on-campus recruiting management system on Monday, May 11, 2015. This new system is called Flash @ Work, and will replace the Experience Job & Internship Board for managing employers who recruit on campus through the posting of jobs and internships, interviews on campus, career events, etc.  Departments employing student employees will continue to use CampusWorks to complete the hiring activity.

Prior to the launch date of May 11, all jobs posted in the Experience Job & Internship Board from July 1, 2014 through May 4, 2015, will be copied into Flash @ Work. However, Career Services highly recommends that department contacts log into Experience to copy any jobs posted prior to July 1, 2014, into a Word document for future posting. Access to the Experience Job & Internship Board will be inactivated after May 11 and Career Services staff will be unable to retrieve the data.

Department contacts with an account currently in system will receive a reminder email prior to the Flash @ Work launch with additional details including a user guide and temporary password. Any questions regarding Flash @ Work, student employment or employers recruiting on campus may contact Ami Hollis at ahollis@kent.edu or 28380.

Free Annual Health Screenings Offered in May


Kent State University's Division of Human Resources is pleased to partner with University Health Services and Be Well Solutions to enhance our commitment to promote the health and well-being of the university community. Below, you will find a listing for upcoming health screenings and we ask managers to encourage participation in this wellness initiative. 

All full-time, benefits-eligible employees are invited to participate in a FREE, comprehensive wellness assessment. Participants must fast for at least 10 hours before their onsite screening. Results will be provided for the following:

  • Glucose
  • Total cholesterol, including HDL and LDL
  • Triglycerides
  • Blood pressure
  • Body mass index

Scheduling for your screening appointment must be completed on Be Well Solutions' website at www.bewelldata.com. If an employee is not already registered on Be Well Solutions' website, instructions on how to register can be found on the OneWellU website.

All employees who complete the personal health risk assessment and screening for the first time will receive a free MOVBand, a wrist-worn activity tracker. Employees who complete their second annual health screening will receive a free $25 gift card for Dick's Sporting Goods.

For questions, please contact Laura Kenney, wellness coordinator, at 330-672-8313 or lkenney2@kent.edu.

Performance Evaluation Time is Here


Please make sure staff in your unit are aware that performance evaluations for classified and unclassified employees are now underway. March 18 through May 29 has been designated as the time to conduct the 2015 online performance evaluations for classified employees. The period for unclassified performance evaluations is April 1 through June 5.

There are two archived webinars available for supervisors and managers. "Navigating the Online Evaluation Process" will familiarize evaluators with the online assessment tool and was offered on April 2 and again on April 28. "Assessing and Improving the Performance of Others" is a webinar for new managers and supervisors. This webinar was offered on April 7. If you were unable to attend one of the sessions, they can be viewed at www.kent.edu/hr/management/performance-evaluation-resources.

If you would like an HR representative to come to your unit and present an overview of the evaluation process, contact Karen Watson, hearing and labor relations manager, at 330-672-4636 or kswatson@kent.edu.

If you have any problems accessing the information on the website or the evaluation process, please contact Watson at 330-672-4636, Janine Bogden at 330-672-8526 or Courtney Calhoun at 330-672-8330.
Total Compensation: Understanding the Value of Your Paycheck


Please remind your employees that Total Compensation statements for calendar year 2014 are now available in FlashLine. Total Compensation statements for calendar year 2014 are now available in FlashLine for all full-time employees hired before Dec. 31, 2014. This annual statement provides faculty and staff with a complete picture of the financial value of their Kent State employment.

The statements include a summary of the employee's earned income (salary, vacation and sick leave), university contributions for health benefits, tuition waiver, workers' compensation, Medicare and employee retirement plans (Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System or Alternative Retirement Plan). 

Employees recently received an email with directions on how to access their individual statements. To reiterate, the Total Compensation Statement may be viewed by selecting Employee / Resources / Compensation & Labor Relations from the main menu. From the My HR tab, the statement may be accessed through the Total Compensation channel by selecting the Your Total Compensation Statement link, and then selecting the appropriate year.

For assistance with technical problems accessing statements, contact the Helpdesk at 330-672-HELP. For questions regarding information contained in the statement, contact the Benefits office at benefits@kent.edu or 330-672-3107.

Dates to Remember
National Asian/Pacific Heritage Month
National Older Peoples Month
May 8 Spring Advanced Degree Commencement, 6 p.m., Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Kent Campus. Visit the Commencement website. Spring Commencement at Regional Campuses; contact individual campuses for times and locations.
May 9 Spring Baccalaureate Commencement, 9 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, Kent Campus. Visit the Commencement website above for more information.
May 10 Mother's Day
May 10-17 Campus Steam Shutdown (6 p.m. on May 10 to 6 p.m. on May 17)
May 15 Summer classes end for third- and fourth-year podiatric medicine students Doctor of Podiatric Medicine degree commencement
May 16 Armed Forces Day
May 18 Summer intersession classes begin
May 20 20-Year Club Dinner, 5:30 p.m., Kent Student Center Ballroom. Reservations required. See article in this issue. Reservations due by May 12. Visit 20-Year Club website for details.
May 25 Memorial Day (university closed)

Tell Us What You Think


This e-newsletter is designed to keep you, the managers and supervisors, informed. Please take a few minutes to let us know what you think of it, along with any comments or suggestions. You may contact us at managersfeedback@kent.edu. We look forward to hearing from you.
For information about events and programs for university employees, please check out the Faculty and Staff calendar and share the information with your staff.

POSTED: Friday, May 1, 2015 12:00 AM
Updated: Friday, October 28, 2016 02:54 PM