Termination of Employment

The termination form is used for all employee types. Even employees with end dates (other than faculty/academic staff and graduate assistants) should be properly terminated to end their employment. Faculty/academic staffs with end dates and graduate assistants are terminated via a batch process, and therefore only need to be explicitly termed if terminating prior to their end date. The termination form is also used to cancel assignments.

Before starting the termination process, make sure the following pre-conditions have been met. You will be unable to complete the termination process if:

  • Time (absences and/or attendance) has been submitted but not approved for the employee, if applicable. All time should be approved before termination.
  • Time (absences and/or attendance) has been submitted and approved or unapproved AFTER the Last Day Worked, if applicable. The Last Day Worked must be equal to or greater than the last approved time entry.
  • There is a pay or cost transaction in process for the employee.
  • The assignment has already been terminated, or a termination is already in process. The system checks for this and presents an error message, so you do not have to check for it ahead of time.
  • The employee is on workers compensation or certain other leave types. An error message indicates who to contact. (If the employee is being termed due to death, this does not apply.)

 Two terms associated with terminations are:

  • Last Day Worked: Last day the employee performed duties and worked in the position.
  • Last Day Employed: Last day the employee was employed by MSU. This day can be the same day as the last day worked or can be different from the last day worked. An example of when this date differs from the last day worked is a Clerical-Technical employee who has elected to run out vacation time before separating from MSU. The Last Day Worked would be the last day the employee performed duties, while the Last Day Employed would be the last day of the vacation.

Selecting the Assignment

You begin the termination process by selecting the employee and assignment, entering a last day worked, and responding to other questions regarding the situation surrounding the termination. You can search for an employee based on a number of criteria such as person ID or personnel number, SSN, name, ZPID, or Student ID, etc. The more unique the search criteria, the quicker the search.

Note:  Make sure you are terminating the correct assignment.  An Employee may have multiple active assignments.  If you attempt to terminate an employee from another department, the following message appears:

This employee is not employed with your department.  Please make sure you are terminating the correct employee.  You can still proceed with the termination.

To select an assignment 

  1. Click on Actions
  2. Click on HR/Payroll Forms & Cost Redistributions.
  3. From Select Employee Process, select Terminate Employment.
  4. Click Start Employee Process.
  5. In the Employee Number box, enter the employee person ID (PERSID) or personnel number (PERNR), or search for the person as described below.
  6. Enter the Last Day Worked in the box provided. As noted on the form, if cancelling an assignment, the Last Day Worked should be the same as the effective date of the assignment.
  7. Click the Search Assignment button. A list of assignments appears, along with cost distribution information for the selected assignment.
  8. If necessary, select an assignment by clicking the box to the left of the assignment.
  9. If termination is due to death, select the Yes radio button at the bottom of the screen. A box appears for you to enter the date of death.
  10. Respond to any conditional questions.
  11. Click the Termination Form button. The form opens with information about the person and assignment filled in.

To search for an employee

  1. Click the search search button to the right of the Employee Number field.
  2. Enter the employee information you have.
  3. Click the Start Search button. A list of matches appears.
  4. Click the box to the left of an assignment to select it.
  5. Click the OK button.

The following conditional questions or fields appear based on the situation.

  1. Faculty/academic staff: For Executive Management (ESG-AN), Annual Academic Staff (ESG-AO) and Annual Faculty (ESG-AQ), Last Day Employed is required.
  2. Relevant adjunct/clinical faculty/academic staff: An Emeritus check box is available for employees who meet the criteria for obtaining Emeritus status.
  3. Employees on paid or unpaid leave: Last Day Employed is required.
  4. Clerical-Technical employees: For Union (EG-1) and, Clerical Technical Regular (ESG-AI) employees you are asked if the CT employee wishes to exhaust vacation quotas.
      1. If Yes, a field appears for you to enter the Last Day Employed. In this instance, the Last Day Employed represents the last day of the vacation.
      2. If No, a check box appears, confirming that the employee has been informed that remaining vacation will be paid in a lump sum.
  5. Employees eligible for retirement: You are asked if this employee is moving into another position at MSU.
      1. If Yes, no additional action is required. The Termination Reason defaults to Another Job/Profession Change.
      2. If No, and the employee is eligible for retirement, an additional question appears, asking if termination is due to disciplinary action.
      3. If termination is due to disciplinary action, the Termination Reason defaults to Disciplinary Action and an Explanation of Termination box is available on the termination form.
      4. If termination is not due to disciplinary action, an error message indicates that the employee must process the Retirement form.
  6. Last Day Worked is same date as the effective date: You are asked if you are cancelling an assignment. If Yes, the Termination Reason defaults to Cancellation and cannot be changed.

Saving the Form

You can click the Save Draft button at any time to save a draft of the form to your HR Inbox. 

Filling Out the Form

The termination form itself is a single page. A termination reason is required for all terminations. Additional information may apply based on employee type and reason selected. If time is entered for the assignment being terminated, all time must be submitted and approved before the employee can be terminated. 

To fill out the termination form

  1. Select a Termination Reason. If you select Other or another termination reason that requires an explanation, an Explanation of Termination box appears. Enter an explanation in this box.
  2. You will need to indicate whether all time has been submitted and approved. If you answer No, you will receive an error and will not be able to submit the form for approval.
  3. Enter any comments in the notes section and attach documents as needed. Any required attachments are listed on the form.

To attach files

  1. Select an Attachment Type from the dropdown list provided.
  2. Click the Plus Sign button.
  3. Locate and select the file, then click the Open button.
  4. Repeat this process for each additional attachment.

Workflow and Notifications

As the form routes for approvals, approvers are able to view the form via the Review Screen or as a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button.

The form routes to unit approvers only.

  • No pays, student employees, on-calls, and faculty/academic staff on-calls: Once all unit approvals are complete, the form updates the HR/Payroll system.
  • Other employee types: Once all unit approvals are complete, the form routes 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. 

Once the form is fully approved and the HR/Payroll system has been updated, the hiring and funding organizations receive an email in their MSU email account, upon final approval, notifying them that the termination is complete.

If a pay change or cost distribution is submitted while the termination form is in workflow, that pay change or cost distribution must be completed before the termination can be finalized.

  • Termination forms for employee types whose terminations would normally not route to central HR (no pays, student employees, on-calls, and faculty/academic staff on- calls), will route to central HR in this situation, and an email will be sent to the initiator once unit approvals are complete notifying them that they need to complete the pay change or cost distribution before the termination can be finalized. The initiator should notify central HR once the pay change or cost distribution is complete.
  • For other employee types, central HR will contact the initiator, and allow them a week to complete the pay change or cost distribution before rejecting the form.

To delete an attachment

  1. Click the circled X to delete the attachment.
  2. You will be prompted asking if you are sure you want to delete the attachment and answer OK to delete and Cancel to leave the attachment.  

Submitting the Form

The final steps are to check for and correct any errors, then submit the form into workflow for approval.

To submit the form

  1. Click the Send button to check for errors. Correct any errors.
  2. If desired, generate a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button. The PDF version of the form opens in a new window, and can be saved or printed.
  3. Click the Send button to submit the form. A confirmation message displays a process reference number that can be used to track the form.