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(Central Yup'ik)
"Greetings, thank you for coming!"
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Alaska Department of Administration Personnel and Labor Relations

Administration / Personnel and Labor Relations / Resources / Newsletters / HR Update FY 24 Issue 06
HR Update

HR Update - FY 24 Issue 06

Issue Date: June 17, 2024

In This Issue

AspireAlaska Performance Updates Coming in August

We are excited to announce several important updates to AspireAlaska, our statewide Learning and Performance Management system,  that will streamline our processes and more importantly enhance and greatly improve your user experience. These updates are based on your feedback and our commitment to continuous improvement. Here are the key updates you can expect:

Combined Performance Planning and Evaluation Task

We are merging the Performance Planning and Performance Evaluation tasks into a single, streamlined task. This integration will simplify the overall process and reduce the number of tasks you need to manage and complete.

Quick Guides and Videos

Each section of the performance process will now include links to quick guides and instructional videos. These resources are designed to provide you with a concise walkthrough of how to navigate and complete each section effectively.

Rebuttals within Performance Evaluations

You will now have the ability to add rebuttals directly within the Performance Evaluation section. This means you no longer need to attach separate documents for your rebuttals, making the process more efficient and user-friendly.

Updated Pages

We have updated the Welcome Page, Performance Home, Learning Home, and Help Pages to provide a more intuitive and supportive experience. These pages have been redesigned to offer better guidance and easier access to the tools and information you need.

These updates are scheduled to go live on August 1. We believe these improvements will make the performance management process smoother and more effective for everyone.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to the AspireAlaska Help Desk at aspirealaska@alaska.gov.

Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

Classification Position Requests Due by June 21, 2024

The Department of Administration, Division of Finance will be uploading the new fiscal year end authorizations in IRIS-ADV at the end of June 2024. Once the authorizations are loaded, IRIS-ADV will not allow any new, non-permanent or temporary exempt positions created with an effective date prior to July 1, 2024. Therefore, any position needing a creation or extension date prior to July 1, 2024 must be entered in IRIS-ADV before this upload.

To ensure Classification Services has adequate time to process them, please submit all new positions (permanent, non-permanent, Exempt and/or Temporary Exempt) and extension requests to us prior to COB June 21, 2024, through the Online Position Description (OPD) system, or the Request to Establish/Modify Exempt Position Form (DOCX) for exempt positions located on HR Forms under Position / Class Studies.

New Employment Status Code for Rehired Employees

The Department of Administration, Division of Finance IRIS Team announced a new Employment Status Code and process for rehired State of Alaska employees. Effective Saturday, June 1, a new step has been added to the prehire automation used by department users to add employees to IRIS, which will place employees returning to State service in this new Employment Status Code.

The R (Rehire) employment status will function like the P (Prehire) status, but the employee’s home department will be updated to reflect their new appointment. This will provide greater transparency to department users looking up their pre-hired and re-hired employees in IRIS HRM. This will also help alleviate questions from rehired employees who saw previous department information from their prior appointment when they logged into IRIS ESS before this change.

This new process will update the employee’s Employee Profile Management (EPM) information. Previously, if the rehired employee worked for a different department than the department to which he or she is being rehired into, authorized users could not find the employee in EPM until DOF Payroll Services finalized the new appointment action. With this new employment status, the employee will be placed in an R (Rehire) employment status code, and the home department information will be updated to reflect the new department. Please note that the record inserted into EPM will contain minimal information, it will not reflect the actual appointment information, including PCN, Range/Step, Work Location/Contact Code, etc. This information will all be updated when DOF Payroll Services enters the actual appointment information upon receipt of the Appointment Packet and Personnel Action Request Form (PARF).

Here is an example:

EPM Before -

IRIS-ADV screenshot with employment status of T still in department 20

EPM After -

IRIS-ADV screenshot with employment status of R and in department 12

Payroll staff will then Modify this record on EPM when appointing the employee to the new position.

DOF will also be updating the automated process to inactivate these records if the employee does not return to work and an appointment action has not been entered within 60 days of the planned start date for employees in the Rehire (R) employment status. This is the same process as for Prehire (P) status employees.

This change is effective June 1, 2024, so any prehires/rehired entered into IRIS before this date will not reflect the Rehire (R) employment status on EPM.

New Hires - Adjustments to Start Date and Name Changes/Corrections

The IRIS Prehire Automation Support Team receives a lot of requests from users for adjustments to the start date or name changes/corrections for new employees who have not been appointed fully. We wanted to share some information with you to help clarify some of these questions.

Start Date Changes

Because DOF Payroll Services ultimately enters the effective date of an appointment based on the appointment packet and Personnel Action Request Form (PARF), adjustments to the prehire start date may not be necessary. Action may or may not be required depending on how much of an adjustment is needed for a start date.

  • If the prehire request is pending and has not been entered by the bot into IRIS, it can be canceled, and a new request may be submitted with the corrected start date. Please email the Prehire Automation Support Team at doa.dof.rpa.support@alaska.gov for assistance with canceling the pending request.
  • If the prehire request has been fully processed by the bot and entry is completed in IRIS, adjustments may or may not be necessary.
    • For adjustments of less than 10 calendar days, no action is required.
    • For adjustments of more than 10 calendar days, it is likely necessary to request adjustments. Records for employees in Prehire (P) or Rehire (R) employment status are interfaced from IRIS to the State Employee Directory for roughly 60 days after the planned start date. If the provided start date was too early, the employee’s user account could get deleted from the directory before being fully appointed by DOF Payroll Services. Please email the Prehire Automation Support Team at doa.dof.rpa.support@alaska.gov for assistance with these adjustments.

Name Changes / Corrections

If an error was made in the employee’s name fields on the prehire request, the ability to make adjustments will depend on where the request is in the processing workflow.

  • If the prehire request is pending and has not been entered by the bot into IRIS, it can be canceled, and a new request may be submitted with the corrected employee name information. Please email the Prehire Automation Support Team at doa.dof.rpa.support@alaska.gov for assistance with canceling the pending request.
  • If the prehire request has been fully processed by the bot and entry is completed in IRIS, adjustments will need to wait until the employee starts work. Employee legal name changes are requested by the employee in IRIS. Your department’s IT support staff may assist with updates to the employee’s display name and email address even before the legal name has been updated. For further details, please see the HR Update article, How to Change Employee’s Name Legal or Display Name

DOPLR Comings and Goings

Goings (leaving DOPLR)

  • Kate Orozco (Classification)
  • Stephanie Smith (Employee Relations)

Comings (New to DOPLR/Internal Promotions or Transfers*)

  • Kelley Roberson (ER Program Manager)*
  • Brittany Patzke (Classification Program Manager)*

Mission Statement

Personnel

Provide policy, consultative guidance, and direct human resource services to State of Alaska Executive Branch agencies.

Labor Relations

Our mission is to achieve the purposes of the Public Employment Relations Act by acting as the executive branch representative in contract negotiations and contract administration matters.

State of Alaska Department of Administration
Division of Personnel and Labor Relations

Mailing Address:
PO Box 110201
Juneau, AK 99811

Physical Address:
(No US mail delivery)
10th Fl. State Office Building
333 Willoughby Ave., Juneau, AK

Phone: (907) 465-4430
Fax: (907) 465-3415