As Moravian has continued to adjust to the new payroll and student employment system, Oracle, there have been questions and concerns about the onboarding process and how to familiarize oneself with this new system.
Staff from Human Resources and the Business and Finance Office have addressed these concerns promptly, offering insight for students when it comes to navigating Oracle. They also addressed what Oracle looks like from a Human Resources/Business and Finance Office perspective, such as improvements and challenges with the system.
“We started familiarizing ourselves with Oracle in June,” said Dior Mariano, director of Human Resources. “Then in August, there were hours and hours of meetings. We never worked with Oracle directly, but we worked with an implementation partner, Drive Stream, so it was a lot of meetings and training.”
“But, from a staff perspective, performance evaluations, goal management, check-ins, and anything that was outside of our HR system before is now in Oracle. That’s going to be a game-changer overall for managers and employees. One of the difficulties is that the system is powerful, so there’s still a lot for us to learn,” she continued.
When asked about noticeable improvements with Oracle, she also mentioned how students can make changes and update their time cards, and the ease of checking returning students into the system: “If you forget to punch out, if you don’t punch in on time, or you want to make a change, you can do that directly. Going forward in Oracle, supervisors will have the ability to check which students are going to be returning.”
According to Erica Doyle, Business and Finance Office payroll administrator, there are two required phases of approval for hiring student workers: financial aid approval and payroll legal approval.
“Handshake essentially covers the financial aid piece. Oracle is the payroll piece. After the supervisor hires you in Handshake, they will send you an Oracle link that is specific to the job that they’re hiring for. The student then uses that link to be in Oracle’s system, which attaches the student and all of their information to that job. Kerri [Finkle], in Payroll, and I then receive that application, and if you’re not in the system, we ask you for an I-9, W-4, direct deposit, and to have a meeting with Kerri to show your IDs,” she stated.
The onboarding process depends on how quickly the student can finish submitting legal paperwork. If the student is new to the system, they would need to fill out their I-9, W-4, and direct deposit before making an appointment with Kerri Finkle, payroll coordinator.
The Business and Finance Office has made efforts to address the lack of communication with student workers and supervisors and to offer potential sessions in the future.
“We hope to provide some drop-in sessions and some extra training if you have questions or need help,” said Doyle. “You can also stop by the business office if you’d like a one-on-one session as well. We’re pretty friendly! I think the struggle is like we’re not necessarily directly forward-facing with the students, we’re just on the back end, so any concerns or help needed is something we’d like to be aware of.”
Throughout October, the office of Human Resources also began offering webinars. On Tuesday, Oct. 14, they held a student employment overview webinar, led by Finkle. She gave an overview of the different applications in Oracle, such as assigned tasks, direct deposit, and editing time cards. She emphasized the importance of pay periods (usually displayed when you view your current time card) and reminded students to submit their time cards by the end of the period so their supervisors can approve their full hours.
Finkle also directed students to use links on Moravian’s student enrollment page or to contact [email protected]. On Thursday, Oct. 23, there will be a drop-in session for any questions, and in the future, Human Resources may hold more webinars for student workers and for supervisors wishing to familiarize themselves with setting up work positions on Handshake.
