Faculty/academic staff change of status

When a Change of Status Form is Used

The change of status form is used when changing employment characteristics during an existing appointment period. This includes:

  • Changing employment percent
  • Changing employee group (i.e., union/non-union)
  • Changing UNTF teaching effort %
  • Changing appointment basis (i.e., AN/AY)
  • Changing primary position type (among no-pay, on-call, fixed-term)
  • Adding or removing an administrative increment in conjunction with a title change
  • Adding, removing or changing titles or ranks to an existing appointment
  • Adding, removing or changing department relationships to an existing appointment
  • Adding, removing or changing an acting or interim administrative assignment
  • Adding or removing a no pay assignment
  • Changing within an employee type* 

*Note: The change of status form is used when changing within an employee type. There are two employee types for faculty and academic staff: 1) tenure/continuing employees, and 2) no pay, on-call, fixed term, rolling/fixed term, and contract employees. The change of status form may be used when changing within an employee type. For example, the change of status form is used when an employee is changing from on-call to fixed term. However, the form is not used when changing between the two employee types. For example, it is not used when an employee is changing from fixed term to tenure system. In this case, a change of position form is used.

The change of status form is not used for:

  • Extending appointment end dates. Use the reappointment process.
  • Changing termination, leave or retirement dates. Use the Termination, Leave of Absence or Retirement forms respectively.
  • Changing pay or cost distribution only. Use the Change an Employee’s Pay Rate and Cost Distribution. 

Determining which Form to Use

If you are placing an employee in a centrally-approved position (posted positions, MSU extension positions, and exceptions) and you do not have a valid position number, you will need to request a position using the Academic Position Request form. An example of when a centrally-approved position would be needed in a change of status scenario would be if a faculty member has accepted a Chairperson position. The Chairperson position would have its own position number. 

When hiring employees into a centrally-approved position, the system verifies the position number to ensure it is valid for the selected hiring process. If you are reusing a former position number it may be necessary to modify the position before using it to hire a new employee. Once the position is approved by central HR and you have a position number, return to the Hire/Reappointment/Change of Status form to complete the process. 

Determining the Process and Creating or Reviewing the Position

Initiate the process, from Actions:

  1. Select HR Forms: Pay & Cost Redistrbutions.
  2. From Select Employee Process, choose Change an Existing Appointment/Assignment.
  3. From This employee will be, choose Faculty or Academic Staff.
  4. Select Start Employee Process.

While creating or reviewing a position, you cannot save the position and resume the process later.

Appointment Type

The first step is to select an Appointment Type. The appointment type selected should be the appointment type relevant to the effective date of the action. Some appointment types in the drop down are not widely used (e.g., Contract). Select from appointment types you are already familiar with unless advised otherwise. 

Search for Employee and Enter Effective Date

First the system determines the employment status of the person you wish to hire. When you click Search Employee, the system displays any information currently in the system about the person.

To search for an employee

  1. The first prompt for the employee search is “Does the employee have an MSU NetID/ZPID?”
    1. For an existing employee the answer should always be “Yes”
  2. Enter the appropriate value in the ZPID/NetID box, or click on the double squared box to search for the employee:
    1. Person ID
    2. Personnel Number
    3. Last Name
    4. First Name
  3. Enter the Start Date of the change in MM/DD/YYYY format.
  4. Click the Search Employee button. The system searches for information about that person. 

Evaluate Position

  • The next phase in the process is to evaluate the position information. The system uses information regarding the appointment type, employee and start date from the previous step along with the following information to determine the type of an action/form to direct the initiator to. 

Appointment Type

  • If the appointment type is changing, the next step is to select the hiring process to be followed (see Hiring Process section below). 
  • If the appointment type is not changing, the system will ask if the employee is terminating from their current job. Answer yes if the employee will no longer be working in their current position. For example, if the employee is vacating their current fixed term position and is taking on a new fixed term position in a different department. Answer no if the employee will still perform duties in their current position. 
  • If the employee is terminating from their current job, the next step is to select the hiring process to be followed.

Editing the Current Assignment

  • If the employee is not terminating from their current job, you will be asked if the employee is adding/removing an administrative title. If yes, you may provide a new position number relevant to the new administrative assignment or you may alter the current position to add an acting/interim administrative assignment.
  • If no administrative assignment is going to be added, the current position will be used and the hiring process will default, you will be able to review the position for editing next.

Hiring Process

  • The hiring process is only asked in specific instances. These instances include when an employee is changing within an employee type, or if the employee terminates their current faculty/academic staff position. Skip this section if the hiring processes defaults and the drop down does not appear. 
  • The hiring process options include the academic hiring process listed in section 3.1, Use of Waivers in the Academic Hiring Manual. In addition, the MSU Extension posting process and the Postdoctoral Fellow process are listed as options.
  • The Hiring Process options available to you depend on the Appointment Type you selected. Some hiring processes are not applicable with certain appointment types and have been excluded from the options. 

Academic Hiring Processes

1) Post a Position
2) Post an MSUE Position
3) Exception
            1. Recruitment and Retention Contingent Hire – Spouse/Partner
            2. Recruitment and Retention Contingent Hire – Non-Spouse/Partner
            3. Emergency Hire
                       1. This will be allowed for non-Tenure/Continuing appointments
             4. Internal Hire
             5. Senior and Executive Management Hire
             6. Position will last 3 days or less
                       1. This will be allowed for non-Tenure/Continuing appointments

Other Hiring Process Options

  • No Pay Appointment- Allowed when any unpaid appointment is the employee’s primary assignment.
  • Post Doc Fellow Appt- Allowed when the primary unpaid assignment will be a Postdoctoral Fellow only.
  • Resident/Intern Pool- Allowed for fixed term appointments in the medical colleges as a residents, interns, or fellows as the employee's primary assignment.  Follows national pool selection and matching policies. 
  • Visiting/Exchange Prg- Allowed for an appointment that must not exceed 2 years without a 1 year break between appointments, and appointment must be designated visiting .
  • GA Summer App- For summer only fixed term Assistant Instructor/Instructor appointments of former graduate assistants, the position will be created as part of the appointment form. 
  • Recurring Reappointment- Appointment must be into a designated recurring position held by the employee within the last year (must be the same organizational unit, similar job and job duties)
  • On-Call Agreement- For appointing an employee into an on-call position immediately following the completion of a paid appointment, provided that the position duties do not change (e.g. employee has agreed to stay on-call for a transition period). 
  • Retiree Return to Work- Appointment must be awarded to an official University Retiree that has retired within 2 year of the appointment’s start date.

Create or Review Position

  • If prompted for a position number a centrally-approved positions should be provided.  The position entered must be valid for the selected hiring process. This means it must have received approval for the selected hiring process. If it is not valid and/or approved, you receive an error message. If you do not have a valid position number, click the link provided to start the Academic Position Request process. Once you provide a valid position number, click the Review Position button to continue. 
  • When not prompted for a position the form will either create a new position or reuse the employee's position.  Click the Academic Titles link for a list of academic titles to determine if the title you intend to use is an Executive Management, Management or another administrative title. There are three categories of administrative titles: 1) executive management, 2) management, and 3) other administrative titles. Many “Director” titles do not fall into the category of Executive Management or Management titles. If this is the case and the employee will not hold a rank, answer No to both questions. These questions are asked because the job with the highest EEO code is stored as the primary assignment, and this process is establishing the primary assignment. 
  • If you answer No to the above question, it then asks you if it has a paid rank. Click the Academic Positions link to get a list of ranks/positions. 
  • Based on the information provided either the Create Position button or the Review Position button appears.   

Note: If you are reviewing a position, go to the Position Attributes Overview section of this document.

Specify Position Attributes  

Position attributes include the job title and enterprise structure combination, as well as work contract. Assignment type may also apply depending on the job and/or hiring process.  For posted processes at this point, the organizational unit can be changed.  If the position was posted as open rank then the job may also be changed here. 

For all processes, the Enterprise Structure describes the position. To define the appropriate enterprise structure the following questions will be asked:

  • Is this a union position?
  • The employee basis will be?
  • Work Contract
  • Assignment Type

Enter an Administrative Address

The Administrative Address is the most direct MSU mailing address for the employee; the address where mail is sent for the employee. When completing the form you will have the opportunity to enter an actual (physical) work location on the form, if it differs from the administrative address. If the work location does not differ from the administrative address, the work location is not required. 

To enter an Administrative Address

  1. Specify the Location ID, either by entering the number or looking up and selecting the building by name.
  2. If necessary, press Enter to populate address information and see a range of valid room numbers.
  3. Enter the room number. Alpha characters are allowed.
  4. Enter the Telephone Number and extension, if applicable. The telephone number must be in the format 5173551234, with no dashes in between numbers.
  5. Click the Position Overview button. 

When entering the Location ID, it is not necessary to enter the preceding zeroes.  

Position Attributes Overview

  • Review the position information for accuracy, clicking the tabs to view each subject. You may change editable fields as needed.
  • Once you have determined the position is correct, click the button to proceed to the next stage. The button name is dynamic based on the information you have provided and displays one of the appropriate processes: Hire, Reappointment, Rehire, Change of Status or Change Position. In this reference guide, the Change of Status button should be displayed.  

Saving the Form

Save a draft at any time by clicking the Save Draft button. Note that as soon as the hire form opens, the position number being used is put on hold to ensure it is not used by another process. If you close the hire form without saving or submitting, the position number is still held for 24 hours. We recommend you save a draft of the form rather than simply closing the window. By saving the draft you may then open the draft and delete it, thus releasing the position for reuse immediately.

Filling Out the Form

Once the change of status form opens, the personnel number (PERNR), will appear. 

You move through the steps in the process using the navigation buttons on the form.

  • Red asterisks indicate required fields.
  • Click the Next button to validate the information on the screen and advance to the next step. If you receive a red system message, the error on the page must be corrected before moving onto the next step.
  • Click the Previous button to go back to the previous screen.
  • If you receive a yellow or green system message, click Continue to acknowledge the message and advance to the next step. 

You can also go directly to the final summary step and enter all the information on one screen. However, this bypasses the validations that occur when clicking the Next button. When entering data on the summary step, all validation occurs after you click the Check button and you receive all error messages in one long list. Because different options presented are based on information previously entered, you are less likely to encounter errors when progressing through the form step by step.

Here are some additional tips for completing the form:

  • Press Enter after typing information into a field to have the system validate the information entered.
  • Use the Tab key on the keyboard to move from field to field. When you tab into a date field and type, the system automatically formats the field for you. For example, if you type in 07012013, the system will format it to appear as 07/01/2013.
  • Where you see a search button, you can press the F4 key to open the search window, rather than clicking on the button. 

Data Changes Table

To easily identify changes, a Data Changes table appears on some screens. It is closed initially. To expand it and view the table, click the square.

Once open, the Data Changes table shows any changes that will be made to the employee’s record as a result of submitting the form. A single change on the form may change multiple values. For example, changing a person’s job title may change related values such as Employee Subgroup or Personnel Sub Area. 

The table changes as you fill out the form. You can also refresh the table manually at any time by clicking the Refresh button.

Personal Details

Personal details include name, citizenship and other personal data. This information is pre- populated. Some fields may be editable. For example, if an employee is changing from no pay status to a paid status and I9 may not be on file. In this case, all related I9 fields will be editable.

  • Citizenship: Depending on the option selected, you may be asked for additional information such as Country of Citizenship, Visa Type, and I-9 Expiration Date. If the person is being hired on an annual basis and the I-9 expires before the assignment end date, you will need to adjust the end date to match the I-9 expiration date. 

Organizational Assignment

  • Information from the position and about the current appointment is pre-populated here. This is also where you enter any changes to the primary assignment details, employment percent, and/or additional assignments. 
  • Note that many fields on this page are interdependent. It is best practice to press Enter after updating fields to ensure related fields are properly updated. To double-check, you can also click the Next button to validate all fields, if the form advances to the next step, click the Previous button to return to this page and review the results. 

Organizational Data

Much of the position information in this section cannot be edited, other than the Primary Assignment End Date (in limited circumstances), Supervisor, and Enterprise Structure. If any other information listed here is incorrect, you must start again from the beginning.

  • Primary Assignment End Date: This field is not editable unless you are changing the employee’s appointment basis (AN/AY), or changing within an employee type (e.g., no pay to pay).  If the employee is being hired on an academic year (AY) basis, the end date must be August 15th.
  • Supervisor: Required for all positions.

Primary Assignment Details

The Work contract selected earlier is shown here and display only based on the value entered on the initial screen. If the employee has a joint appointment, it will be displayed here. You may add or remove departments as needed.

Up to four additional departments can be entered. You can search for the department if you do not have the number. Please note, additional departments are not allowed on the primary assignment when the primary assignment is on-call.

Planned Working Time

If necessary, revise or enter the Employment percent in the box provided, up to two decimal places.  If relevant, revise or enter the UNTF Teaching Percent in the box provided. The UNTF percent is the amount of the appointment that qualifies as UNTF. For example, if all of a 50% appointment is UNTF, the UNTF percent is 100. For on-call and no pay faculty and academic staff, fields in this section default to valid entries and cannot be edited.

Additional Assignment Details

If the employee has additional assignments (ranks/titles), they will display in this section. You may add or remove additional titles/ranks and/or departments as needed. Up to four additional departments can be entered. You can search for the title/rank and department if you do not have the number.

To enter an additional assignment

  1. Enter or search for and select a Title/Rank.
  2. Press Enter to evaluate the information and update any related fields.
  3. If necessary, select an Assignment Type. The system validates the selected Assignment Type against other data provided on the form. For example, the Affiliate assignment type can be used only for the College of Law.
  4. Enter or search for and select a Department 1. Repeat for other departments as necessary. 

You can also perform these actions:

  • To add more assignments, click the Add Assignment button, then repeat the above steps for up to 4 additional assignments.
  • To delete an assignment, click the Remove Assignment button in that assignment section.  

Education

The employee’s current education information on file with HR will be pre-populated here. Educational information that is pre-populated is not editable. If an employee has obtained a new degree, click the Add Degree button to enter a new degree. Each employee must have one degree denoted as the Most Relevant Highest Degree (unless the employee does not have a degree). If you are adding a new degree and it is the highest most relevant degree, you will need to modify the existing education to remove the “Most Relevant Highest Degree” indicator. An attachment for HireRight degree verification results may be required if a new Most Relevant Highest Degree is added to an existing employee’s record.

To enter educational information

  1. For Degree, search for and select a degree. If none of the options are appropriate, select Other and enter degree information in the Other Degree box that appears.
  2. For Institution/School, search for and select an option. If none of the options are appropriate, select Other and enter degree information in the Institute/Location box that appears.
  3. Enter the Date Degree Received in the box provided. If you do not know the exact date, enter the first of the month in which the degree was received.
  4. If desired, select a Branch of Study 1. This is for your records only; central HR does not require this information. Repeat for Branch of Study 2 if desired.
  5. To enter another degree, click the Add Degree button and repeat the above steps.
  6. For the Most Relevant Highest Degree, check the checkbox for the applicable degree. Only one degree can have the Most Relevant Highest Degree checkbox checked. This is the degree that is the highest degree and most relevant to the employee’s position. For example, if an individual has a PhD and an MD, both are doctorate degrees and you will need to choose which is most relevant to the employee’s position.
  7. If relevant, enter information regarding Current License and Specialty, which are required for some health/clinical positions. Provide the actual license number for health/clinical positions. 

To remove a degree that you have added, click the Remove Degree button in that section. You will not be able to remove a degree that exists on the employee’s record in the HR system and pre-populates onto the form.   

Contact Information

Personal contact information is required for all employees.  Business Contact Information is required for all employees (except no pays).

  • Administrative Address: The administrative address you provided or reviewed earlier is pre-populated here. You are able to modify this information if necessary.
  • Actual Work Location Building: If a work location is on file, it will be pre-populated here. You are able to revise or enter this information if necessary. 

The Actual Work Location phone number must be entered in the format +1AAANNNNNNNxEEEEE (+15173533121x534), as follows. This format is required in order for data to be displayed correctly via the portal, on MSU PeopleSearch or through the data warehouse. This format is only required for the Actual Work Location phone number. 

Pay and Cost Distribution

Pay and cost information is required only for paid positions. Pay and cost information will automatically pre-populate onto the form in almost all cases. Exceptions include if an employee is changing from on-call to a fixed term position, or no pay to a paid position. 

For no pay positions this step is automatically skipped. For pay and cost distribution, you review or enter the different funding lines or sources you wish to use, and the dates for each funding source. It is not necessary to fund fixed term faculty and academic staff through 12/31/9999. On- calls must be funded through 12/31/9999; list any accounts they could possibly be paid on through that date.

Once the funding is entered, for salary positions, the system then helps you compute the amounts to fund from each source based on either amount or percent. The system also checks against FTE salary minimums and requests an attachment justifying paying someone below the FTE salary minimum for a particular job. In addition, the system checks to see if a raise was provided, or if the appointment basis changed from annual to academic year or vice versa. Attachments may be requested to provide rationale for the pay increase or for using a AN/AY salary conversion outside of the normal formula. 

For definitions of terms and fields, click the link on the screen. The web address is: https://hr.msu.edu/ebshelp/1placeforshared/faspaycost.html.  

To calculate salary

  1. Revise or enter the Base Salary in the box provided.
  2. If applicable, revise or enter an administrative increment in the Admin Increment field.
  3. Click Enter. The system calculates the actual pay. 

To enter funding lines

  1. Enter a Start Date and End Date in the boxes provided.
  2. Search for and select a Fund. If you have created a Personal Value List, you may have to press F4 to override your personal values. If you type the account number, press Enter after typing it to default the other required accounting information.
  3. If necessary, search for and select other funding elements. If a WBS Element (sub- account) does not appear in a row after the account number is entered this means that there is more than one option for that account. If no sub-account is entered, WBS Element defaults to “No_Sub-Account.”
  4. Select a Wage Type from the list provided. If an administrative increment is provided, the system requires a separate funding line with the Admin Increment wage type.
  5. Repeat the above steps for each additional funding line. To add more rows, click the Add Row  button and repeat the above steps.

To remove a row, click the Remove Row button.

If a Do Not Change Funding box appears, you have the option to select it if the pay and cost information has not changed. Select the check box to default the existing cost distribution information onto the form. If you select the Do Not Change Funding box, no further action is needed, and you may proceed to the next step. 

To enter cost distribution

  1. Click the Compute Cost Distribution button. The system creates the correct funding lines for each funding period. If a single fund is selected per period, it fills in the information for you.
  2. Do any combination of the following to edit each line until you reach full funding for each period:
      1. To enter an Amount, click Edit Amount if necessary and enter an amount.
      2. To enter a Pct. (percent), click Edit Percent if necessary and enter a percent.
      3. To calculate an amount based on a percent, click the Calculate Amount button.
      4. To calculate a percent based on an amount, click the Calculate Percent button. 

When viewing cost distributions, you can choose from Simple View (the default) or Advanced View by selecting an option from the View list. In both views, green or red indicators appear in the second column indicating whether or not the person is fully funded for that period. 

Simple View shows individual lines. The green squares indicate the person is fully funded.  

Advanced View also includes a subtotal for each funding period. Ignore any total lines, which simply add up the funding period subtotals. Any red circles in the funding period indicate the person is not fully funded for that period. 

The buttons visible above the table change depending on what you are currently doing. If you are editing amounts, you see buttons that allow you to calculate or edit percentages. If you are editing percentages, the reverse is true. You can switch back and forth as many times as you wish.

If you need to add accounts once you have started computing the cost distribution or you need to change the base salary or administrative increment amounts, click the Change/Edit Cost Distribution button. This cancels your entries and returns you to the opening list so that you can add additional funding lines or change the base salary or administrative increment amounts. To start again from the beginning, click the Reset Cost Distribution to remove all data.

Memorandum

The Memorandum screen appears for fixed-term and health programs appointments, and contains information used to populate the FT or HP memorandum as required. Information does not pre-populate onto this form as it is not stored in the HR/Payroll System; it must be entered. To ensure the memorandum matches the form, please use this screen to generate the memorandum.

To enter information for the memorandum

  1. Enter a description of the Assigned Duties in the box provided, exactly as you wish them to appear in the document.
  2. Enter MAU/College(s) Recommended To in the box provided. This is the actual MAU or college that the employee will be hired in (i.e., College of Agriculture and Natural Resources).
  3. For each responsibility category, enter the estimated percent of time on each activity (to two decimal places), making sure they total 100%. Some fields may have a red asterisk next to them, indicating a percent time is required based on the title/rank provided on the form. For example, if the employee is appointed as a Research Associate, the research field will have a red asterisk next to it requiring a percent time to be provided since the duties of the position require a research function.
  4. Under Specialty, list the employee’s medical specialty. This is only applicable to the faculty of the Colleges of Human Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine or Nursing who are credentialed by the MSU HealthTeam.)
  5. For UNTF positions and/or positions with a teaching percent a UNTF Exclusion Reason must be provided.  Check all that apply.
  6. Under Return the Memo to, search for and select an organizational unit. This is the organizational unit that the Memorandum should be returned to when it has been signed by the employee.
  7. If necessary, enter text in the Attention box.
  8. Under Unit Name, search for and select the unit associated with the unit administrator who signs the memo.
  9. Click the Generate Memo button to generate a PDF of the memorandum.

Once the memorandum has been generated, make sure it is signed by a department administrator and the employee. You can save a draft of the form and return later to attach the signed memorandum to the form before submitting.

 Additional Information

Depending on the answers to Additional Information questions, additional detail may be required. For example, when reappointing or rehiring a specialist, the system asks if this is a new specialist position for this employee or if the duties have changed. Responding Yes triggers a required specialist position description attachment on the next screen. The new specialist position description will be reviewed by FAS Affairs for approval. A specialist position description is not required if the answer is No.

To enter Additional Information

  1. Answer each question.
  2. If prompted, provide any requested additional detail.  

Attachments and Comments

Based on the information provided, the form identifies required attachments and lists them with a checkbox next to each item required. Important Links are links to policies and procedures that may apply, and to forms that can be attached and submitted. Review this information as needed.

 To enter comments and attach documents

  1. Upload the required attachments indicated.
  2. Enter any comments in the New Comments field.    

To upload an attachment

  1. Select an Attachment Type from the list provided.
  2. Click the Browse button.
  3. Locate and select the file, then click the Open button.
  4. Click the Upload button to upload the attachment to the form.

Repeat this process for each additional attachment.

To delete an attachment

  1. Select the attachment by clicking the check box.
  2. Click the Delete Attachment button.

 Summary Form

A summary of all information is displayed for final review.

 To review the completed form

  1. Click the Check button to have the system perform a final check of the information. Correct any remaining errors.
  2. If desired, generate a PDF by clicking the Generate PDF button. The PDF version of the form opens in a new window and can be saved or printed.

 Submitting the Form

  • You are now ready to send the form for approval. Click the Send button to route the completed form for approval. A confirmation message displays a process reference number that can be used to track the form. 
  • The form then enters workflow. The form follows the standard faculty/academic staff workflow. The form routes for all unit approvals (including units who have been removed), then goes to central HR. Central HR reviews the form, then approves it to update the HR/Payroll system. No manual entry is done by central HR unless required based on comments related to international addresses, etc. 
  • If you previously stated that the employee is terminating their position, the form will route to the old primary unit and will request a letter of resignation to be provided, if it was not uploaded as an attachment already by the form initiator. 
  • When a contract and grant account is used for funding and the form is initiated more than 60 days retroactive, the form routes to CGA (Contract and Grant Administration) for approval.                         
  • When a summer school account is used for funding the form routes to the Provost’s Office for approval. 
  • As the form routes for approvals, approvers can view the form via the Summary Screen or as a PDF by clicking the Generate PDF button. 
  • Attachments are an important part of the hiring process. To ensure that all appropriate attachments are available to all approvers, approvers cannot add or remove attachments, (unless it is the letter of resignation attachment). If attachments must be changed, the approver should reject the form back to the initiator.