To: All Principal Investigators

Effective November 1, 2015, the RCUH will initiate pay rate increases to all active Student Assistants in order to align RCUH’s Student Assistant Pay Rate Schedule with the University of Hawaii’s Student Assistant Pay Rate Schedule.

You do not need to submit any online or manual personnel action forms to make this change. The RCUH Human Resources Office will initiate these pay rate changes for all Student Assistants automatically. However, after November 1, 2015, your office must initiate any subsequent pay rate changes associated with Step Pay Rate changes (i.e. Reclassification of Duties from Step A3-1 to Step A3-2) via a manual Personnel Action Form (PAF).

Please refer to the following information for further details:

• 3.211 RCUH Student Employment
• RCUH Student Assistant Pay Rate Schedule

We will also initiate a similar notice and process for Student Assistant Pay Rate increases effective July 1, 2016 & July 1, 2017.

If you have any questions, please contact Renee Doi, Assistant Director of Human Resources via email at [email protected].

TO: All Principal Investigators and RCUH Employees

Effective immediately, the RCUH has amended Policy 3.530 RCUH Flexible Spending Plan.

Beginning July 1, 2015 the grace period for requesting reimbursement for unused parking funds under the pre-tax transportation benefit plan (PTBP) will be ninety (90) days from the end of the plan year. All flexible spending plans have the same reimbursement grace period.

In addition to this policy change, the RCUH Form B-5F RCUH Flexible Spending Plan Election & Compensation / Change Form has been revised. Please remove any local copies your office may have saved and replace with the revision dated 10/27/15.

If you have any questions, please contact us via email at [email protected].

The October 2015 edition of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission’s newsletter, “The High Road”, is attached here.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Hawaii State Ethics Commission at (808) 587-0460 or [email protected].

RCUH will be providing training on the finalized changes to the RCUH Vacation Leave Policy and the new Vacation Reserve.  We encourage all employees, PIs, Supervisors, and Fiscal Officers to attend.  Your questions will be answered during this training session.

Training will be in two parts.  Part 1 (first hour) will be for employees, PIs, Supervisors, and Fiscal Officers.  Part 2 (second hour) is ONLY for PIs, Supervisors and FOs.
TRAINING SESSION SCHEDULE:

Employees will be dismissed after Part 1 and the session for PIs, Supervisors and Fiscal Officers will begin after a short break.

To sign up for training, click on RCUH Training Enrollment located on the RCUH web page.  If you are a current employee, log on to the Employee Self Service to select training.
Meetings are accessible for individuals with disabilities.  For more information or to request an accommodation due to your disability, contact Evelyn Moss at (808) 956-6965 or email [email protected] at least one week prior to the session.

On Saturday, October 24, 2015 RCUH Human Resources will be moving our servers from Keller Hall to the UH ITS Building. As a result of this, the following HR online systems will be down from 7:00 AM – 4:00 PM:

• HR Portal
• Employee Self Service (ESS)

Additionally, there will be a delayed response for all emails that are sent to RCUH Corporate Staff during this time. The respective RCUH Corporate Staff member will receive the email in his or her inbox after the downtime.

We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. If you have any questions, please contact Kellye Yamamoto at [email protected].

To: All RCUH Employees (who have NOT consented to an Electronic W-2 Form)

If you have not done so in previous years, we encourage you to consider consenting for an electronic W-2 form this year instead of a paper form. Why?

1. You can view and print your W-2 form directly from the RCUH Employee Self-Service (ESS) system. All you need is internet access and a printer.
2. Your W-2 form will never be lost or misplaced. It will be accessible on the day that it is issued and available anytime you need it – 24/7.
3. Your confidential information is safe and secure as only you have access to your ESS system.

The IRS requires that each employee submit a consent to receive his or her Form W-2 electronically. The RCUH consent process is done via ESS and is quick and easy. Please be on the lookout for notices and emails on when the consent process will be available.

In the meantime, please make sure that your contact information in ESS (mailing address, email address) is up-to-date. 

Should you have any questions about electronic W-2 forms, please contact the RCUH Payroll staff at [email protected].

Holiday Season is approaching! If you are on a non-immigrant visa and will be traveling during the holiday season, we would like to remind you to email RCUH Human Resources – Immigration ([email protected]) at least two (2) weeks prior to your travel so that we can ensure that you have the proper documentation to travel and to return back into the United States.

Please provide us with the following information:

1. Dates of Travel (Departure and Return Dates)
2. Who will be traveling with you
3. Reason for Travel

RCUH will prepare the proper travel verification of employment prior to your travel and will provide to you as soon as your request has been received.

IMPORTANT REMINDER(S) WHILE TRAVELING OUTSIDE THE U.S.:


• The I-94 admission record. Please go to www.cbp.gov/I94 after your return to check your online admission record then submit a copy of your admission record to the RCUH Human Resources office upon return to the U.S.
• Check the entry stamp to ensure that the period of admission matches the expiration date of the approved visa status. For example, be sure to check the validity dates of your passport before travel. If the passport expires prior to your approved visa status you should renew the passport before you return to the U.S. If you do not renew the passport, upon re-entry to the U.S., the immigration officer will issue an admission record valid only until the passport’s expiration.
• If you are a nonimmigrant employee who has a pending “change of status” petition (i.e., change from F-1 to H-1B, etc.) with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), you must remain in the U.S. until a determination on the petition is rendered. Whenever an individual with a pending “change of status” petition departs the U.S., USCIS will cancel the petition since they consider the beneficiary to have “abandoned” the request.

Please email [email protected] or (808) 956-0871 if you have any questions.

ATTENTION:  Regular status employees 50-100% FTE

If you are currently participating in RCUH’s Group Retirement Annuity (GRA) and/or Supplemental Retirement Annuity (SRA) plans administered through TIAA-CREF OR if you are interested in enrolling into a TIAA-CREF SRA plan, the RCUH Human Resources Department is now coordinating one-hour Individual/Employee Retirement Counseling Sessions with TIAA-CREF.  During these meetings, you will be able to discuss your personal financial/retirement goals with a TIAA-CREF Financial Consultant, on a free and confidential basis.

A TIAA-CREF representative will be able to assist you with planning for your retirement goals, including:

• Setting realistic goals for key life events and retirement
• Reviewing your investment mix and strategy
• Selecting your TIAA-CREF options
• Learning about TIAA-CREF retirement income flexibility

For employees unfamiliar with the SRA plan, it is considered a 403(b) tax-deferred annuity plan which allows an employee to make contributions via payroll deduction from his/her pre-tax earnings towards an individual retirement plan (i.e., SRA) through our third party administrator, TIAA-CREF.  Enrolling or making changes to your SRA election may be done at any time during the year. For more information about the GRA and SRA plans, please go to our website, www.rcuh.com and review the RCUH Retirement Plans Policy (3.560).

We have reserved the following dates and times for Individual Sessions:

To schedule an appointment, please use our secure Web site at:
https://publictools.tiaa-cref.org/public/publictools/events/eventswelcome

If you have questions or are unable to schedule an appointment online, please call our Service and Scheduling Group at 800-732-8353 Mon-Fri 6am – 3pm Hawaii time.

Meetings are accessible for individuals with disabilities.  For more information or to request an accommodation due to your disability, contact YeeYeng Lim at (808) 956-6979 or email [email protected] at least one week prior to the session.