Author: Tana Staub

Now Accepting RCUH Tuition Reimbursement Applications for Summer and Fall 2025!

RCUH is now accepting applications for the Tuition Expense Reimbursement Program for Summer 2025 and Fall 2025 coursework. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible as requests will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis. Please note that applications are due no later than 2 business days BEFORE the first day of instruction.

Benefits Spotlight: Tuition Expense Reimbursement Program

For more information including Frequently Asked Questions, Checklist Roadmap, and Application form, please visit our Benefits Spotlight page!

Policy 3.460 RCUH Tuition Reimbursement

If you have any questions about the program, you may contact the RCUH Employee Benefits Section at:

Email: rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com
Phone: (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326

2025 Annual Performance Evaluation Period: Performance Evaluation Form and Submission via HR Portal eUpload Available

TO:                 Principal Investigators, Supervisors, and Project Administrators

The 2025 RCUH Performance Evaluation Form is now available online.

RCUH Performance Evaluation Form

Pursuant to 3.410 RCUH 12-Month/Needs Based Performance Evaluations, all Regular-Status employees must receive an Annual Performance Evaluation.

Submission of Performance Evaluations: Please submit Performance Evaluations via the Project electronic upload (eUpload) feature in the HR Portal. Instructions for submitting the evaluations via eUpload are below.

Deadline to submit Performance Evaluations: June 18, 2025 (Wednesday)

Note for projects that follow the Federal fiscal year: Performance evaluations will be due at a later deadline for the October evaluation period. A second round of the online PA/PAF application will be available in September for pay increases or one-time payments with an effective date of October 1, 2025. Additional information will be provided at a later date.

Performance management (e.g., planning, coaching, evaluating, addressing performance issues) is an essential part of a supervisor’s responsibilities.  Performance evaluations are used as a tool to measure an employee’s performance, provide valuable feedback and suggestions for improvement, and motivate employees for growth and/or career advancement. There is no “one size fits all” solution for effective performance management. If you’d like to discuss performance management strategies, please contact Kira Higa, Director of Human Resources at rcuhhrdirector@rcuh.com.

Please contact RCUH Human Resources if you have any questions regarding the Performance Evaluation process at (808) 956-7106 or rcuh_employment@rcuh.com.

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ACTION REQUIRED: Equip Yourself! RCUH Annual Benefit Open Enrollment (April 23 – May 16): Electronic Form – Available now in ESS!

To: All RCUH Benefits-eligible Employees

IMPORTANT: This communication was distributed to all Regular-status RCUH employees eligible for health insurance benefits as of April 23, 2025. Communications from Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund EUTF and Island Flex are not applicable to RCUH employees.

ALL RCUH benefits-eligible employees are required to submit an electronic Open Enrollment form this year.

Why do all employees need to complete the electronic form?

  • Confirm your current enrollments. This is a good time to review your Employee Benefits Summary and ensure you understand what you are enrolled in and what you are paying for (Employee cost).
  • Compliance: RCUH is required to report all medical insurance offers to the IRS on an annual basis. A medical insurance waiver is an acknowledgement of the offer of medical insurance.
  • Full transparency on changes to monthly premium rates effective July 1st.

The annual benefit open enrollment period is a crucial time to review and adjust your voluntary benefit coverage for the plan year starting July 1, 2025. The mandatory Electronic Open Enrollment Form is now available via RCUH Employee Self-Service.

Link to RCUH Employee Self-Service

Link to Open Enrollment Webpage

What you can do during Benefit Open Enrollment:

  • Enroll/change your medical and/or dental insurance and add eligible dependents
  • Enroll in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA Healthcare or FSA Dependent Care) for the new plan year

Employees 75-100% FTE may also:

  • Request to increase or decrease Group Life Insurance maximum coverage amount
  • Request to buy-up Supplemental Long-Term Care Insurance for you and/or eligible family members (must be enrolled in the base plan)

How to Submit the Medical eWaiver:

Please complete this in your Open Enrollment form.

  1. Log in to your Employee Self-Service
  2. Click on the Employee Benefits tile to open the electronic form
  1. Click on the Medical/Vision/Drug button under Benefit Plan to open the Medical page
  2. Click on Medical Waiver (B5W) Form
  3. Return and Save
  4. Don’t forget to Submit

Reminders:

  • FSA Healthcare and Dependent Care enrollments do not carry over to the next plan year automatically! Unlike health plans, if you are currently enrolled in the Flexible Spending Healthcare or Dependent Care Account and you wish to continue your benefit, you must re-enroll for the new plan year (July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026) as plan elections do not rollover.
  • Current FSA Enrollees: Use or Lose reminder – If you are currently enrolled in an FSA Healthcare or FSA Dependent Care benefit, any remaining funds must be spent by June 30, 2025 or they will be forfeited. You will have until September 28, 2025 to submit any remaining receipts (of any funds spent before or on June 30, 2025) to National Benefit Services (NBS).  
  • Contact Information: Please ensure your mailing address and phone numbers are correct on the Employee Self-Service. This is where your health/FSA cards (if applicable) will be mailed and how we will confirm your benefit enrollments for the new plan year. Outside of the annual open enrollment communications, these are the contacts RCUH HR will use to contact you regarding eTimesheets, tax forms, and other important communications.

Helpful Resources:

Questions about Open Enrollment? Contact the RCUH Employee Benefits Section at rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com or (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326.

For assistance with Employee Self-Service (ESS) access, contact RCUH HR Help Desk at hrhelpdesk@rcuh.com or (808) 956-8900.

Coming Soon: RCUH Benefit Open Enrollment Period: April 23 – May 16, 2025

TO: Benefits-Eligible RCUH Employees (Regular, Non-Regular, Relief employees 50% – 100% FTE)

IMPORTANT: If you are receiving this communication, you are a Regular-status RCUH employee eligible for health insurance benefits with RCUH as of April 15, 2025. RCUH employees do not participate in Open Enrollment periods for the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund: EUTF (May 1-30, 2025) nor Island Flex Flexible Spending Account Program (March 1 – April 30, 2025). Do not submit forms to EUTF and Island Flex.

Equip Yourself: RCUH Annual Open Enrollment: Coming Soon – April 23–May 16, 2025. The annual benefit open enrollment period is a crucial time to review and adjust your voluntary benefit coverage for the plan year starting July 1, 2025. The electronic Open Enrollment Form will be available in your Employee Self-Service on Wednesday, April 23rd.

What you can do during Benefit Open Enrollment:

  • Enroll/change your medical and/or dental insurance and add eligible dependents
  • Enroll in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA Healthcare or FSA Dependent Care) for the new plan year

Employees 75-100% FTE may also:

  • Request to increase or decrease Group Life Insurance maximum coverage amount
  • Request to buy-up Supplemental Long-Term Care Insurance for you and/or eligible family members (must be enrolled in the base plan)

Helpful Resources:

Questions? Contact the RCUH Employee Benefits Section at rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com or (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326.

RCUH Employee Benefit Building Block Series (April 8 – May 6, 2025): Register for one or all sessions today!

This four-part series breaks down topics into bite-sized learning opportunities to help you understand your benefits as an RCUH employee. These building blocks will help employees create a solid structure and foundation for understanding their current benefits enrollment and options available to prepare for the expected, unexpected, and everything in between.

Each session will be a 20-minute presentation on hot topics relevant to the upcoming Annual Benefits Open Enrollment. After the presentation, there will be an open Q&A /Office Hours discussion. The sessions will begin at 10:00 HST. Click on the session below to register.

EQUIP YOURSELF! RCUH Benefit Open Enrollment Period starts April 23rd through May 16th for new enrollments and changes for the upcoming plan year: July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026. Our webpage is being updated with new resources and toolkits for you to better equip yourself to make the most of your employee benefits opportunities.

Questions? Contact RCUH Employee Benefits Section:
Email: rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com
Phone: (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326

2025 RCUH Financial Portal V2.1.0 Release

We are pleased to announce the release of an enhanced version of the RCUH Financial Portal on Monday, March 3, 2025.

Release Schedule

  • Deployment Date: Sunday, March 2, from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. HST
  • Please be aware that users may experience issues with the Search All Documents functionality during the deployment period. However, there will be no system downtime. Fiscal Administrators may approve online purchasing, payment, and travel transactions in the Financial Portal during the deployment period.

Key Enhancements

  • Default message during End of Day processing or system maintenance
  • Default query timeframe for listing screens
  • Ability to search by Payment Request Number in PO listing screen
  • Ability to search by Travel PO Number in Travel listing screen
  • PI Name added to project dropdown list
  • Automatic update of project period for pending PO documents
  • Enhanced Calendar behavior in the Service Date or Trip Itinerary date fields
  • Ability to mouse right click to paste project number in Reporting functions

Please refer to the release note for details.

Support & Help

If you have any questions or comments, please use the Help Widget at the bottom right portion of the Financial Portal screen or contact RCUH Accounting at rcuh_accounting@rcuh.com.

Important Notice: Kaiser Medical Insurance: Issues with RCUH Enrollment file (January 30, 2025) – RESOLVED Jan 30 – 2:00 pm

UPDATE (January 30 – 2:00 pm) All employee accounts have been corrected by Kaiser so employees should not have issues obtaining services. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Original Post:

Please be aware that we have just received notice (January 30, 2025) that there was an issue with Kaiser’s processing of RCUH’s electronic enrollment file.

If you received a notice from Kaiser that your medical coverage has ended, please note this was sent in error and you are currently showing active coverage in the RCUH system. Kaiser is currently working on correcting this error on their end and has committed to resolving these enrollments no later than tomorrow, Friday, January 31st.

If you require immediate services today (e.g., medical appointments, prescriptions), please contact the Employee Benefits section to put you on the RUSH/EXPEDITED list with Kaiser:

RCUH Employee Benefits Section Contact Information:
Email: rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com
Phone: (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326

We sincerely apologize for the confusion and any inconvenience this may have caused.

RCUH Vacation Forfeiture – Coming Soon – December 31, 2024

Applicability: All regular-status RCUH employees with a vacation leave balance and Principal Investigators

During payroll processing for the pay period ending December 31, 2024 (including the hours accrued during the pay period), any hours exceeding the total maximum carry-over hours will be forfeited.  

Maximum Carry-Over Hours Depends on the Employee’s Vacation Plan. *Accrued and carry-over vacation hours are prorated by an employee’s FTE (full time equivalency) status.

Vacation Plan A: Up to a total maximum carry-over of 10 workdays (*80 hours based on 100% FTE)

Vacation Plan B: Each plan year you may carry-over not more 15 workdays (*120 hours based on 100% FTE), but may carry-over a total maximum accumulated total or 45 workdays (*360 hours based on 100% FTE)

Considerations:
2024 Holiday Season: Administrative Leave Announcement

For Employees:

To avoid forfeiture, please work with your Principal Investigator/Supervisor to coordinate your vacation time for the remainder of the calendar year (through December 31, 2024).

To calculate your potential vacation forfeiture amount, please reference your last pay statement (RCUH Employee Self-Service > Payroll and Compensation > View Pay Statement) and use the RCUH Vacation Forfeiture Calculator.

For Principal Investigators/Supervisors and Project Administrative Staff:

It is recommended that Principal Investigators meet with employees who may be forfeiting vacation hours to plan ahead and map out the work load and expectations for the end of the year. 

Forfeiture Reports were provided to all Principal Investigators (and individuals with HR Portal Supervisory Access) for the pay period ending 09/30/2024 and will be provided another report in November. Additional reports may be furnished upon request. Please note regular-status employees who reduced their FTE below 50% will not show up on the Forfeiture Report, so an email will be sent directly to the Principal Investigator/Supervisor with forfeiture information.

Vacation Plan A is the default plan for all new projects and its employees. Vacation Plan B is a legacy project setup. No new projects can be transitioned to Vacation Plan B.

Vacation payouts (while actively employed) in lieu of forfeitures are not allowed.

All employees with a vacation leave balance are subject to the maximum carryover limits at close of business on December 31, 2024. Principal Investigators may contact the RCUH Employee Benefits Section (rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com) if an employee has extenuating circumstances no later than December 2, 2024.

Applicable Links:
RCUH Policy 3.620 Vacation Leave
Benefits Spotlight: Vacation Leave – Use it or Lose it (including Vacation Forfeiture Calculator)

Questions? Contact RCUH Employee Benefits Section at rcuh_benefits@rcuh.com or (808) 956-7055 or (808) 956-2326

RCUH Electronic Personnel Action Form (ePAF) Updates: One-Time Payments and Terminations

To: RCUH Principal Investigators, Fiscal Administrators, and all RCUH HR Portal Users

RCUH Principal Investigators and project staff will have enhanced options for submitting electronic personnel actions involving One-Time Payments and Terminations effective August 14, 2024.

As a reminder, ePAF actions may be submitted via the RCUH HR Portal no later than the ePAF Deadline of the pay period in which the action will commence.

ONE-TIME PAYMENTS: Now available via ePAF (not all options may be available for all employee types)  

Additional Compensation – Miscellaneous
Eligibility: All employee types (Regular and Non-Recruited)
Generally utilized to pay employees for retroactive payments and will be the most commonly used to cover miscellaneous payments.

Additional Compensation – 1.5x (Exempt)
Eligibility: Exempt employees only
Pre-approved by Principal Investigator to pay exempt employees at 1.5 times for hours worked performing tasks that are above and beyond normal job duties.

Hiring Bonus
Eligibility: Regular employees
Generally utilized to pay employees a hiring bonus commonly provided as a supplement for relocating (must be pre-approved by Principal Investigator and Fiscal Administrator as part of hiring process)

Holiday Payoff
Eligibility: Regular, Non-Regular, and Relief employees
Payoff for floating holiday if the employee was not able to take the pre-requested floating holiday within 1-2 pay periods.

TERMINATIONS

  • Termination Reason Simplification:
    • Voluntary terminations – Inactivation of the following reasons: “Other Job (Non-RCUH)”, “Relocation”, and “Return to School”. Appropriate reason: “Personal Reasons”
    • Involuntary terminations – Inactivation of “Discharge: Poor Performance” replaced with “Unsatisfactory Work Performance”
  • Involuntary terminations due to “Budgetary Constraints” or “Project Termination”: Fiscal Administrator approval required (UH projects only)

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact RCUH Human Resources at rcuhhr@rcuh.com or (808) 956-3100.