1. Welcome to HR Presents February 22, 2017 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Milton Hall | Room 185

2. Welcome & Introductions

3. Benefit news
Presented by: René S. Yoder Dir, Benefit Services

4. I-9 Training
Presented by: Jessica L. Ulmer HR Specialist, Inter

5. NMSU Exempt Employment Work Schedules and Hours Rules and Procedures
Presented by:
Kathy Agnew Dir, Employment & Comp Services

6. Management Responsibilities and Authority
Managers:
Establish work schedules and hours of operations to meet business needs
Establish workload distribution to meet the operational needs
Assign duties (within the scope of the classification) to meet the operational needs
Evaluate performance of assigned duties and workload distribution
Managers approve:
Leave Requests (time off under FMLA is approved by Human Resource Services)
Alternative Work Schedules
Flexible Schedules (minimal use within rules and procedures)
Discuss management rights – these are some (not all ) of the responsibilities and authority for management. Employees are required to obtain supervisor/manager approval in advance.

7. Office Hours - Administrative
Rule Office Hours - Administrative (See also Policies 5.84 Office Hours; 7.10 Holidays (NMSU Official) ; 8.75 Workweek)
As a general rule, individual work schedules will conform to the public hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. (Some offices close from 12 noon to 1 p.m. for lunch.)
Most offices are closed on Saturday and Sunday except on special occasions and as required by the vice provost for distance education and extended learning.
However, with approval of the appropriate dean or vice president and the executive vice president and provost, departments may establish alternate work schedules if it is determined they better meet the needs of the clientele and/or better serve the needs of an individual employee without adversely affecting the clientele.
Alternate work schedules are to be of a semi-permanent nature (e.g., 1 semester at a time, 1 academic year at a time, etc.).
All requests and subsequent approval or denial of alternate work schedules are to be in written form. It is understood that not all jobs are open/available for alternate work schedule consideration.
Discuss the universities core administrative hours, which are 8-5 Monday – Friday. The Department of Labor, Fair Labor Standards Act does not address flexible work schedules. Alternative work arrangements such as flexible work schedules are a matter of agreement between the employer and the employee.
Employers have the right to prescribe and require exempt employees to be present during the daily core hours, which are M-F 8-5. Full time exempt staff are expected and required to work at a minimum 40 hours per week.

8. Flexible Schedules Excerpt from Rule 7.20 – Leaves – Generally
All leave may only be used or paid in accordance with an employee’s official FTE
Exempt employees are required to submit approved leave taken to their supervisor each month via Employee Self Service.
Exempt employees who ordinarily work more than 40 hours a week may be given flexibility in reporting leave of one-half day or less.
This flexibility for the supervisor to recognize an employees efforts regularly above 40 hours per week. Supervisors at their discretion may allow time off of a maximum of 4 hours.
Example: Joe Smith has been working on a project for the past month. He has worked 50 hours per week on this project. Once the project is complete, the supervisor may authorize Joe to take 4 hours off on a Friday afternoon without reporting leave.
This should not be a regular occurrence (i.e. weekly or monthly).
Exempt employees may only accrue leave based upon their designated FTE regardless of the number of hours worked, and may not be placed on leave without pay for less than 8 hours in a work day (except when the Family Medical Leave Act applies).
Supervisors are responsible for monitoring leave balances
Section B. 4. is best explained with an example. An exempt employee who ordinarily works more than 40 hours per week, may be given time off, by the supervisor, of up to a maximum of 4 hours without reporting leave.
Joe Smith has been working on a project for the past month. He has been working approximately 50 hours per week. Once the project has been completed, the supervisor may authorize Joe to take 4 hours off on Friday afternoon without reporting leave.
if an exempt employee chooses to work after hours to “catch up” or work on other projects, he/she cannot decide to come in late the next day as part of a flexible schedule without authorization from the supervisor if the employee is normally expected to be at work at a certain time.”
“Can employees skip lunch and leave early instead or come in late” or “Can I require my exempt employee to use leave if they come in 15 minutes late every day”? We usually respond that any changes to the normal work day schedule for the business operations must be discussed in advance, agreed to (preferably in writing) and allowed equally amongst employees in similar situations. For example, if the exempt positions within a department don’t normally have contact with the general public, the department may not have an issue with employees coming in between 8 and 8:30 but the supervisor must communicate this is allowed for all employees in that situation, not just certain employees, and the expectations must be very clear if the employees are required to adjust lunch or departure times if they do arrive late to ensure the minimum hours are worked by the employee. Basically it boils down to setting expectations, monitoring employees, and holding them accountable for doing their jobs. If the supervisor doesn’t care when they come and go as long as they attend required meetings and meet deadlines, then that can be the expectation, provided it is allowed equitably. We had a situation once where a supervisor was allowing an employee to leave for 45 minutes every day to transport a child from school and not make up the time, but another employee wanted to take 45 minutes every morning to go on a walk but was told she had to use leave. The employee felt that because she didn’t have kids in school she was being discriminated against. The easy fix was to require both to use leave or allow both to make up the time instead if they preferred.
This procedures can be difficult to manage consistently and fairly. An regular change to the work schedule is considered an Alternative work schedule and must be approved through the appropriate management levels.

9. Eligibility for Compensatory Time
Excerpt from Rule Compensatory Time, Overtime, and Holiday Pay
Any individual employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or exempt capacity, as defined by the Fair Labor Standards Act, may be exempted from compensatory time or payment of overtime. Employees so exempted shall be termed exempt.
Exempt employees are not eligible for compensatory time, which is generally defined as time off in lieu of overtime pay.
Exempt employees are not eligible for compensatory time and should not be informally (or otherwise) accruing/tracking hours above 40 per week and then taking time off without reporting leave is a violation of NMSU policy and procedure.

10. Resources
Administrative Rules and Procedures of New Mexico State University

11. Questions?

12. CLOSING REMARKS & ADJOURNMENT