HR Update - FY 22 Issue 03

Issue Date: December 20, 2021

In This Issue

• Important Information Regarding Separating State Service
• Reminder: Performance Evaluation Update 1/1/2022
• Notification Emails Coming From AspireAlaska@csod.com
• Comment Box Added to Flex Time Tracking Sheet
• SU and CEA Employees Flexing Pay Period with a Flex Time Agreement

Important Information Regarding Separating State Service

When an employee separates state service, their health insurance remains active through the end of the month in which they last worked. An employee cannot separate while on personal leave, but an employee can be absent on their final day for a sick or medical related reason, or if their absence is covered by qualifying Family Medical Leave situation. An employee must be in pay status on the first working day of the month to maintain their health insurance coverage for the remainder of that month. Being in pay status could mean working as little as 15 minutes, but an employee needs to coordinate their final day with their supervisor to determine what the expectations are for their final work day.

On an employee’s final day they should compete the separation paperwork, which can be found on the Employee Form Packets website here: https://doa.alaska.gov/dop/resources/employeePackets/. On this page, there is a drop down menu where the Separation/Layoff packet can be selected. To separate state service in good standing, an employee should provide two weeks written notice to their supervisor, usually in the form of an email. As part of the separation packet, there is the Employment Clearance Form which will allow an employee to choose how they want their final pay check sent to them. If the employee chooses to have their final pay check direct deposited, they will need to contact the Employee Call Center once they see those funds hit their account if they’d like to request that a copy of their paystub be sent to them. Employees lose access to IRIS Employee Self Service once they are separated from the system, so for anything related to their active employment, a former employee should contact the Employee Call Center at 907-465-3009 or by email at EmployeeCallCenter@alaska.gov

As part of the normal separation process an employee’s personal leave balance, and the leave that they accrued with their final pay period, will all be included on their final paycheck. There is nothing extra that an employee needs to do to ensure their personal leave is paid out to them as that is part of the standard separation process.

Employees planning to retire are encouraged to make an appointment with a Retirement and Benefits counselor, and here is a link to their website with additional information: https://drb.alaska.gov/reps/makeAppointment.html#.YSgM2drTmUk

Reminder: Performance Evaluation Update 1/1/2022

On 1/1/2022 the new Performance Management and Learning & Development Plan (PMLD) form will be the new official Performance Evaluation for all State of Alaska employees that use the standard State Evaluation form. Any performance evaluations that are due after 12/31/2021 must be entered on the new PMLD form.

Some Departments have chosen for their employees to enter their Performance Evaluations using the AspireAlaska system, those departments are listed below. For departments not using AspireAlaska for performance, final evaluations will still need to be routed through existing processes, and will need to be submitted to evaluations@alaska.gov to have Employee Relations enter the information into IRIS.

Departments Using AspireAlaska starting 1/1/2022

• Administration
• Education and Early Development
• Environmental Conservation
• Labor & Workforce Development
• Law
• Military and Veterans Affairs
• Public Safety
• Transportation and Public Facilities

Additional resources to help employees and supervisors as they walk through the new process are available at https://stateofalaska.sharepoint.com/sites/DOA/DOP/Performance and employees can always reach out to their HRBPs or to ask.soahr@alaska.gov with questions.

Notification Emails Coming From AspireAlaska@csod.com

As more employees start using AspireAlaska for both learning and performance you will notice an increase in email notifications coming from AspireAlaska. These notifications come from outside of the state and will come from AspireAlaska@csod.com.

Due to the fact that these notifications are coming from outside the state network and the recent upgrade to the mailbox security the AspireAlaska notifications come in with the following banner.

Banner states: CAUTION: This email originated from outside the State of Alaska mail system. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Many of the notifications from AspireAlaska will include links to help employees go directly to the information that they are asked to take action on, but an employee can always log in to https://soa.csod.com/samldefault.aspx to find an tasks or action items that an employee has been assigned.

Any employee who has a question of the legitimacy on an email coming from AspireAlaska@csod.com please email the AspireAlaska help desk at AspireAlaska@alaska.gov.

Comment Box Added to Flex Time Tracking Sheet

A comment box has been added to the Flex Time Tracking Sheets for GGU, SU, and CEA. This comment box is meant to be used if there is any additional information that needs to be provided when submitting the tracking sheets every pay period. This allows to note any situation that crosses the pay period or that does not fit into the weekly nature of the flex time tracking form.

SU and CEA Employees Floating Hours with a Flex Time Agreement

It is important for every employee who enters into a Flex Time Agreement to know the rules for earning flex and using flex. Employees under the SU and CEA bargaining agreements have the option to not only enter a flex time agreement, but to flex their hours worked within the pay period. The important thing to know is that an employee cannot earn flex time on hours that are used for a flexible pay period.

The issue comes up where employees have to mark hours every week for flex time and if they are choosing to use the extra hours worked one week for hours not worked the other week; the additional hours on the flex time tracking sheet will show that flex was earned the week with the extra hours. In order to note that the hours additional hours worked were already used for the pay period, we are asking employees who are wanting to have a flexible pay period to continue to record their actual hours worked but also note that the hours were flexed in the comments box.

For example below, if an employee works 46 hours in week 49 and in week 50 only works 34 hours then they use the hours from week 49 to week 50, as long as the two weeks are in the same pay period. Week 49 will show “Flex Earned” on the tracking sheet even though the hours are being used in week 50. That is where an employee will need to enter the amount earned in the “Flex Used” column and add a note in the comments box when turning in the form.

Example comment box states: Flexible pay period - hours from week 49 used for week 50 so no flex earned.