Modified Service

Purpose

To outline the process for hiring a retired faculty member. The process below applies whether the faculty member will be teaching or performing other services.

Relevant Definitions

Modified Service: Per HOP 2-2420, “A partial (part-time) appointment held without tenure by a retiree for a specified period of time after full retirement."

Additional important points from the HOP:
- Appointment cannot be greater than half-time (50% or 20 scheduled weekly hours (SWH))
- Requirements may vary depending on the individual faculty member’s retirement situation, i.e., TRS vs ORP
- May not exceed more than one year.
- May be renewed “for successive terms of up to one academic year if the University determines that such an appointment would be of significant benefit to the University.”

BP: Business Process; the term for an action

COLA HR: The Dean’s Office HR team for the College of Liberal Arts.

Contract Reason: When hiring a faculty member into Modified Service, the "Maintain Employee Contract" sub-process must always be completed, and the Reason always = Modified Service.

Fixed Term: The employee type of a faculty member hired into Modified Service. Benefits eligibility is dependent on the specifics of the appointment, but faculty hired into Modified Service are typically non-benefits eligible.

Hire Employee: The Workday BP used to hire a retired faculty member into Modified Service; unlike almost every other kind of faculty hire, you will never use a PAR to hire a retired faculty member for Modified Service.

JM Sup Org: The supervisory organization type in WD into which non-tenure-track faculty are hired.

Regardless of rank at the time of retirement, faculty are considered non-tenure track when on Modified Service.

Job Profile: For the purposes of Modified Service, this is the faculty member’s rank at the time of retirement, e.g., "Professor", and will always be the rank used when the faculty member is hired into Modified Service.

Salary: For the purposes of Modified Service, this is the faculty member’s academic rate at the time of their retirement and will always be the rate used when hired into Modified Service.

SWH: Scheduled Weekly Hours; the amount of hours for which the employee will be appointed to work, from 0-40 hours per week. For modified service, the maximum allowable SWH is 20.

WD: Workday; the University's Human Resources (HR) information system; used to carry out tasks such as hiring, pay, timekeeping, and related HR functions. (see also Workday at UT)

Process

Initial Steps:

If you would like to hire a retired faculty member to perform any amount of work at the university, for any reason, you must first contact COLA HR. When doing so, you will need to describe
1. the purpose and business need for the hire, and
2. explain why hiring the retiree is the best solution.
COLA HR will review and consult with you as needed, and discuss with the Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs, who will need to pre-approve the hire.
At the same time, unit managers should consult the EVPP Faculty Retirement Guidance (specifically the Modified Service section), and refer the retiree to this resource as well.
1. Benefits questions should be addressed to Central HR (link to the Human Resources Portal is located on the right side navigation bar of EVPP’s webpage).
Completing an offer letter for the Modified Service hire will be required, and the offer template can be found on the EVPP site. Send a draft offer letter to COLA HR for review, once you are ready to initiate the hire in WD.
The modified service BP should be completed prior to the contract begin date: ideally, at least a month in advance of the start date.

Completing the Modified Service appointment:

Note: The following Workday process instructions have been taken from the prior Provost’s Office “Faculty Retirement Guide” pdf, as it is no longer being maintained by EVPP, and adapted specifically for COLA.

Locate the top-level JM Sup Org of the hiring department in Workday. The org name should include the Department Chair and the formal name of the department. Ex., LING (JM) Department of Linguistics (John Beavers (hiseid)).
1. Tip: You know you are at the top-most org if the "Superior Organization" listed is "COLA (PM) College of Liberal Arts (David Sosa (jadems))".
2. Don’t forget: some Chairs have more than one top-level sup org because they have people reporting to their faculty job as well as to their Chair job, so you want to double-check the Details tab on the sup org profile page to ensure the org has a “Sub-type” of "5-Academic Department". (see screenshot)
Once you locate the correct org, you will want to select “Hire Employee” as a related action off of the sup org--click on the 3 dots to the right of the org name to bring up the actions menu, then look under “Hire”.
1. Once you select “Hire Employee”, you will need to enter the person’s EID in the “Existing Pre-Hire” field; it should bring up the correct employee name and EID. If so, click OK.
2. On the next step:
  1. Hire Date: first date of employee’s modified service contract; typically the beginning of an academic term, e.g., 8/16/YY or 1/1/YY.
  2. Reason: "New Hire – Retiree No Break in Service (Phased Retirement or Modified Service)."
  3. Job Requisition: Leave this field blank.
  4. Employee Type: Whether or not they will be benefits-eligible, you must select “(Fixed Term)”.
    1. Unless you have a clear reason to suggest otherwise, they will be non-benefits eligible. You can always check with COLA HR if you are unsure on this point. But benefits implications should be addressed by the faculty member and/or you prior to initiating the hire. (see Initial Steps, 3)
  5. Job Profile: Should be the same rank as when they retired
  6. Time Type: Part Time
  7. Location: Make sure this is accurate
  8. Under the Additional Information menu:
    1. SWH: Enter the SWH (listed on the offer letter).
    2. Ensure the Annual Work Period and Disbursement Plan Period both show as “9 Month”.
    3. End Employment Date: list the last date of the employee’s modified service contract; typically the last day of an academic term, e.g., 12/31/YY or 5/15/YY.
  9. Attach the signed offer letter (pre-reviewed by COLA HR).
  10. Enter Comments: “Hiring [Faculty name] into modified service at [X] SWH for period [date - date]. [Faculty name] will be [teaching a class, or whatever they will be doing]. Offer letter attached. To be paid from account [account number].” Fill in the highlighted spots with the relevant details of your situation.
The rest of the BP steps will proceed as typical for Workday. A few reminders:
1. Change Organization Assignments step: be sure to include the Funded By (FB) account and an appropriate department INCD account to cover the cost of the background check.
2. HCM - Background Check Required: most likely, you will need to request a background check for the retiree’s rehire. Please refer to central HR’s webpage on background checks, for more information on requirements and how-to’s.
  1. Important: The actual background check request is processed outside of WD, but the check results must be received prior to the start date of the contract.
3. Propose Compensation step: Make sure the “No-Pay Salary Plan” displays as deleted/
  1. The Academic Salary amount should match the rate the faculty member had when they retired.
  2. Ensure there is an Actual End Date for the compensation.
4. Assign Costing Allocation: Add the Worker and Position Level costing (AC account).
Once you submit the Costing Allocation step, you should see the Maintain Employee Contract Step - Do Not Skip.
1. Contract Start Date: should match the hire date.
2. Reason: Modified Service
3. Contract ID: blank
4. Contract Type: Faculty Short Term
5. Status: Open
6. Contract End Date: final date of modified service contract.
7. Contract Description: name of unit + “contract”; e.g., English contract
8. Upload the offer letter to Contract Attachments.
9. Review & Submit.
Note: The retiree will need to complete their onboarding tasks because they were terminated from UT, so you will need to factor in time to process the I-9, etc., in advance of their start date.
Don’t forget! You will need to process a Terminate BP once the modified service contract period has expired except in the rare event that the retiree will be performing additional modified service.
1. Any additional/other modified service will require the same initial steps/approvals process (see above.)

Related Policies:

HOP 2-2420: Modified Service and Phased Retirement