Human Resources Pandemic Plan
Last update: September 16, 2009
Purpose:
The purpose of this plan is to mitigate the impact on the human resources services to all employees during and following a pandemic.
Assumptions:
The university-wide general pandemic planning assumptions have been used to formulate this plan.
Critical Services:
In the event of a pandemic, Human Resources will provide the following critical services to the University:
1. Payroll
2. Advice and guidance to management and employees
3. Staff absence monitoring
4. Employee Assistance Plan access
None of these critical services require human resources staff to be physically present at the University. Employees are instructed not to turn off computers prior to leaving work each day in the event that they need to “remote in” the next day.
General Contact Information:
- Lisa Hollett Work: 737-4615 Cell: 727-7602
- Claude Horlick Work: 737-4766
- Lisa Curran Work: 737-2077
Payroll
Base payroll is automatic for employees who receive biweekly salaried pay.
Faculties and Departments should notify HR as soon as possible if contractual employees are to be extended in order to avoid a pay disruption.
Faculties and Departments should notify HR as soon as possible if contractual employees are to be extended in order to avoid a pay disruption.
In the event that payroll staff members are impacted by H1N1, payroll keying will be prioritized to ensure that new hires, terminations, and payments to critical services staff that are called in are made. Less routine payroll functions such as changes to rates of pay, payment for temporary assignments and step adjustments may be temporarily delayed for processing.
Human Resources will accept payroll requests made via email to allow administrative staff in units who are working from home to continue to process requests.
Human resources’ ability to run payroll from remote desktop has been successfully tested.
Payroll Contact Information:
- Connie Hatcher Work: 737-4583
Advice and guidance to management and employees:
Generally, normal reporting to work and absence policies will apply. In some situations these policies have been modified for H1N1. For example, the requirement for medical documentation in the event of sick leave has been waived if an employee has H1N1. These exceptions are documented in the frequently asked questions for employees, which are posted to the website as they are available.
Human Resources will endeavour to communicate new questions and answers to management staff through email. In the event that new issues arise that are not addressed in the FAQ’s, please contact one of the following individuals:
Contact information:
- Lisa Hollett Work: 737-4615 Cell: 727-7602
- Claude Horlick Work: 737-4766
- Lisa Curran Work: 737-2077
- Janet Norman Work: 737-3744
Staff Absence Monitoring:
Each Friday, unit administrative staff responsible for reporting leaves are required to complete their portion of the leave management system for that week. Each Monday, Human Resources will provide statistical information on the previous week to Senior Executive.
This requirement will commence September 18, 2009 and will continue throughout the pandemic.
For information pertaining to leave management or other HR issues for: Marine Institute employees, please contact Mike Fowler at 778-0490;- Faculty of Medicine employees, please contact Emily Wooley at 777-2177 Grenfell Campus employees, please contact Dennis Waterman at 637-6251.
Employee Assistance Plan:
The University has contracted Medavie Blue Cross, in association with Shepell-fgi, to provide EAP support to employees on an ongoing basis. Their usual counseling services include assistance with issues around grief and anxiety. In the event of a pandemic, the EAP can provide trauma intervention for groups of employees who have experienced a traumatic event such as the loss of a co-worker.
The EAP website provides links to a variety of H1N1 information resources.
EAP Phone number: 1-866-347-2067
