Frequently Asked Questions

This initiative will achieve excellence by delivering strategic, people-centric services and transforming the university’s human resources and payroll services, business processes, and systems.

Please email any questions about the project to transformhrp@rutgers.edu.

The project will be implemented in phases with functionality prioritized.

The Rutgers community will have access to a single, reliable source of information for human resources and payroll, enabling self-service functionality and support.

The CAN is a group of Change Agents who will advocate for the HR/Payroll Transformation Initiative, and the adoption of new processes and the HCM system within their own teams. The goal of the Change Agent Network is to advocate for the HRP Transformation, encourage users to embrace the change, reduce risk to the project, and to ultimately promote project success.

The following functions are included in Phase 1

• Core HCM
• Payroll​
• Strategic Workforce Planning​
• Benefits ​
• Compensation ​
• Absence management​
• Time & Labor

Below is a depiction of how Phase 1 of the HR/Payroll Transformation Initiative has been structured to maximize the time and efforts of the team.

There are dedicated workstreams (e.g., data warehouse and reporting, conversion) that are identifying and documenting data requirements to ensure there are no gaps in historical data that needs to be available to support critical business processes.

Please check out the Current Phase page to find what is included in each phase.

The HR/Payroll Transformation Initiative follows the UFA PMO Project Governance model. This model contains a well-defined structure to address and escalate decision-making, while project management processes and resources enable strong project governance and support an inclusive model for program execution.

A current state business process review assesses the current state of an organization’s processes, while a future state business process review outlines how the organization wants the processes to look in the future.

• Current-state review (“as-is” analysis) – examines the existing state of a process to identify issues, inefficiencies, and bottlenecks. The goal is to understand how the process works and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Future-state review (“to-be” analysis) – outlines the desired state of a process. The future state process should be more efficient, effective, and aligned with business objectives. It takes into consideration what’s possible with new technology, processes, or capabilities.

Position Management is the process, structure, and technology used to oversee and control an organization’s workforce in terms of the positions and roles employees hold in the organization. HCM full position management for all employees will be implemented in Phase 1.

As policies are introduced/updated, the new university review and approval process will be adhered to.

When the new HR/Payroll system launches, the university will use two timekeeping systems—Oracle Human Capital Management Time and Labor web clock and KRONOS, currently used by some Rutgers units. This will reduce the number of approved timekeeping systems from seven to two.   

The time-tracking systems Rutgers will no longer support include:  

• PeopleSoft web clock 

• Zed 

• Orange 

• Dovico 

• Paper timesheets  

• New Brunswick Information Technology Services (NB-ITS) 

Using two timekeeping systems will save time and resources, particularly by reducing the daily effort required to manage multiple systems. This streamlined approach will help units keep more accurate overtime records and improve their auditing capabilities. 

Employees who currently use one of the five platforms to be eliminated will submit and/or approve time via Oracle HCM Web Clock with the same frequency as their current timekeeping platform. Employees currently using Kronos to submit time will continue to do so. 

There will be changes to how time is entered, edited, and viewed in PeopleSoft vs. Oracle, and those changes will be covered during user training. While the core functionality will be similar, the interface may look different.  

Each person will have their own experiences when they submit their time. There is always a learning curve when using a new system. 

No. All individual employees within units using the “retiring” platforms must switch over to Oracle HCM Web Clock.

Yes. You will submit and manage your time in either KRONOS or Oracle HCM Web Clock.   

Other noteworthy elements of the new time reporting environment will include:   

• Salaried non-exempt (eligible for overtime) employees will use Oracle HCM Web Clock to get paid overtime.  

• All hourly employees will need to submit hours worked and absences to get paid. 

• All compensatory time and overtime hours earned/taken will require approval by their managers or administrators. Only one level of approval will be required.  

Yes, there will be training available prior to go-live. The exact dates are not yet identified, but there will be multiple communications with various training opportunities prior to go-live.  

Training will be provided through a combination of live webinars, self-service online training, and reference materials. There will not be in-person training. 

Examples of common absences or time off include vacation, personal holiday (PH), administrative leave (AL), sick, and jury duty. Common leaves of absence include medical, family, military, and personal leave. 

Staff members will use the absence management system to enter the absence type (vacation, Al, PH, sick, etc.) with days/hours and submit for their manager’s approval. Please note that the process for requesting a leave of absence is not changing. Staff should continue to contact OneSource for help in completing the request. 

When a staff member requests an intermittent absence that was approved under FMLA and/or NJFLA, a leave reason will be required to be chosen from the following options:  

• Bonding 

• Bonding (intermittent)  

• Family Member  

• Family Member (intermittent)  

• Medical  

• Medical (intermittent)  

• Military Family Member  

All staff members will be required to submit their own absences in the new system, except for staff who currently enter absences via KRONOS. Those employees will continue to submit absences through KRONOS.  Faculty members will not be required to submit time in any system. In some cases, the “absence keeper” will have the ability to submit time entries on behalf of a worker. For example, if a worker is sick and unable to report their absence in the system, they can contact the absence keeper, who will then record the absence on their behalf.

No, the new system will not require more work for each individual, but the process will be different. Many staff members submit time-off requests through their department’s administrator. With the new system, submitting time off will change to a more individualized process where staff will input their own time off for the manager to approve.   

Time off will be recorded using the number of hours.  

Yes. You will be able to review your absence balances and forecast your future balances based on your accrual rates for earning vacation and sick time.    

In the new system, you will have the ability—using the self-service functionality—to donate accrued sick time or vacation days with certain restrictions applying. The number of eligible days will be auto calculated. 

No, the rollout of the new system does not affect individual vacation and sick time accruals.   

Training will be available closer to the launch of the new system for all users, as well as for those who will need to approve submitted absence requests. 

There will be no in-person trainings sessions. However, live webinar training sessions and a range of recordings and guides will be available for reference. Individual schools and/or units may also add training—in-person and otherwise—for their staff members.  

No, all leaves will follow the current process using OneSource.

Position management is the way Rutgers defines, tracks, and manages job roles, responsibilities, hierarchies, reporting relationships, salaries and wages, and headcounts.  

One of the most fundamental changes will be from job class codes transitioning to assignment categories. The current Class 1, for example, will become “Regular Faculty” or “Regular Staff.”    

Current job codes will be transferred to the new system, but a “job” will have a broader classification describing general responsibilities and skills, such as “Account Manager.”  Multiple positions can be tied to a single job.   

The new system will support a more structured, efficient, and integrated HR process. It will offer operational benefits and strategic workforce planning capabilities. Some high-level examples of benefits will include position-based planning, position transfers, clear role definitions, assigning budget lines to positions in a hierarchy to reflect reporting relationships and organizational structure, and streamlined recruitment and onboarding.  

There are more details coming about the training, some advantages of the new system, and what is different in the new position management environment.   

If you have any questions, please contact the project team at transformhrp@finance.rutgers.edu.