Dear Campus Community,
On December 6th, UC Merced began converting and porting its payroll data from UCLA to the UCPath Center in Riverside as part of the UC System UCPath Mandate. For most of us, the culmination of these behind-the-scenes efforts is felt most directly in the paycheck we receive from UC Merced on a monthly or biweekly basis. We are pleased that the very first UCPath payroll on January 2nd (for monthly-paid employees) was delivered successfully[1], and we are confident that the upcoming biweekly payroll will also prove both reliable and successful.
Today, then, marks an important advancement for both UC Merced and the UC System: the launch of UCPath at two campuses (UC Merced and UC Riverside) and the partial launch of UCPath at UCLA (for its Associated Students UCLAoperations). An HRIS deployment of this magnitude represents much more than a change in payroll services providers; it represents one of the largest business transformations occurring in higher education today, and UC Merced is leading the way!
A Note of Gratitude
It is important to pause and thank the UCPath Launch Team for their countless efforts that represents years in the making and includes our most recent Winter Break. While many of us were enjoying the respite of the extended holiday, colleagues from Central Payroll, HR & HRPC, BFS, BAS, BFSI, Communications, OIT, APO, and Student Affairs suspended their holiday plans and worked through the Winter Break to ensure that our monthly-paid employees received their paychecks on January 2nd. I haven’t the space to list all names individually, but on behalf of the Chancellor, Senior Leadership, and the Campus Community, I want to personally thank you for your service and commitment. Your herculean efforts are much appreciated!
I also want to thank all biweekly-paid employees and their immediate supervisors for your patience and understanding during the UCPath conversion process that required biweekly employees to enter their timesheets between December 30th and 9am this morning. Please understand: the UCPath Center now establishes our campus pay compute calendar, and unfortunately this was the timeline established to align our biweekly payroll with the 2018 W-2 schedule. The tight timeline was admittedly undesirable, and we sincerely appreciate your efforts to ensure that our biweekly employees are paid correctly on the upcoming biweekly payroll cycle.
Looking Ahead
Looking ahead, I would like to take a moment to both caution and encourage: the launch of UCPath at UC Merced begins – not concludes – ongoing efforts to standardize, streamline, and modernize our personnel processes and systems for faculty, staff, and student employees. UCPath must now be operationalized locally, resulting in automated workflows and records digitization for campus payroll, benefits, human resources, and timekeeping. UCPath “Super Users” (for examples: MSO’s, Chiefs of Staff, and partners in APO, HR, & Payroll) can expect extensive engagement from the UCPath Implementation Team (helmed by BFSI and myself) during the Spring 2018 term as we work together tostreamline and automate personnel processes across campus. Our target date for completion remains July 1, 2018.
In the coming days and weeks, you will continue to receive additional messages regarding UCPath features, portal orientation and available online training, and local operationalizing efforts and advancements. I encourage you to review these messages carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, I also encourage you to reach out to our experts at either hrpc@ucmerced.edu or ucpath@ucmerced.edu.
In addition, should any systems glitches or issues arise that impact even one individual, we commit to ongoing dialogue and engagement with you (through both direct contact and/or campus outreach) to mitigate and resolve all such issues as quickly, permanently, and transparently as possible. Please be assured that we have a capable and committed team dedicated to your ongoing support for all things UCPath-related.
Thank you for your time, and Happy New Year!
Brian
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[1] As of this writing, all monthly-paid employees appear to have received their gross pay correctly (or within 4 cents); however, we have discovered that parking fee deductions as a line item did not translate during data conversion. We will be working with affected monthly-paid staff to correct this, most likely via a one-time dual deduction on the February 1st paycheck for January and February payments. This systems error has been corrected and should not impact biweekly-paid employees. Should we discover other line item discrepancies (in benefits, garnishments, or other), we will notify affected individuals as soon as possible.
