Ithaca College

Submitted for Mark Coldren, AVP for Human Resources

The Office of Human Resources is pleased to bring online time reporting with Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) to the Ithaca College campus beginning in August 2009.  It has been a challenging road to create a process that would allow us to move away from paper Time Report Forms (TRF) and using paper accrual sheets to recording both our time on the job and our paid time away online. This is the first of many communications we will be sending out as we move closer to implementation.

One element that will impact all eligible staff members* will be how we are able to record our Paid Time Away (PTA) -- vacation, personal, and sick time.  We will all have the ability to view our time available through Employee Self-Service -- just like how we sign on to check our payroll each pay period.  Managers will have access to all of their direct report’s time available through Manager Self-Service. This ability to view and approve will all be done online and not require any paper forms.

We believe it will be easy and allow employees and supervisors to manage Paid Time Away (PTA) more effectively and efficiently.  We all work very hard in our roles here at the College -- but it is equally important that we take the time that is available to us to get away from work and "recharge" our batteries to come back ready for more!

The PTA online process will continue to follow the current policies regarding vacation, sick, and personal time. The time that employees currently are entitled to by College policy will not change, nor will the rules change for how time or how much time can be used. We are fortunate that Ithaca College identifies the importance of Paid Time Away (PTA) -- our current policies are very generous when we include all of the holidays including the winter holiday break, and the allotment of vacation, sick, and personal time.

The new features of the Paid Time Away (PTA) online system move away from "accruing" or "earning time as you go" to "being granted in advance." All of our Paid Time Away (PTA) will be loaded up front on an annual basis. The best analogy is that Ithaca College is going to "deposit" time for employees on an annual basis in a "bank account." The employees (with supervisory approval) will then use time and the system will subtract the time used, managing their "balance" automatically.

At the beginning of each fiscal year, the amount of Paid Time Away (PTA) that we are entitled to for the upcoming year will be "deposited into our account" and added to the amount of unused time already in the "account" up to the annual maximum allowed. The most that anyone will see in their balance is the maximum allowed as per our current policy.

It has been shared that there has been a practice in some units around the college to allow individuals to accrue time "above the maximum" as identified in the current policy. That is a practice -- and not the policy. If an individual left Ithaca College tomorrow, we would pay out what we "owe" them in Paid Time Away (PTA) -- only up to the maximum as identified in the policy. The same maximum identified in the policy would be what an individual would be able to use if they needed to extend a leave utilizing their Paid Time Away (PTA).  So this practice will not be visible through the new Paid Time Away (PTA) online process.

Later in May, there will be a communication to ask staff members and supervisors to submit their time to enable us to "load" the PTA system. There will be specific instructions to allow us to start fresh and ready to go in August.

We will be sending our more information as we get closer to the implementation of Oracle Time and Labor (OTL). If you have any questions, please contact me at 274-3853 or mcoldren@ithaca.edu. Thanks.

Mark Coldren
Office of Human Resources

*Eligible employees would be all non-faculty, non-union employees, excluding coaches.