GatorJobs upgrade coming in February
The Office of Human Resources Services is pleased to announce an upcoming upgrade to the GatorJobs applicant tracking system.  Beginning February 27, GatorJobs will have a new look and feel and will provide new features to both applicants and hiring managers that will enhance the recruitment process at the University of Florida.

Applicants will need to recreate new accounts since, due to the upgrade, no applicant or application information from the previous system will be carried over to the new system.  Hiring departments will still have access to the previous system in order to complete the recruitment process for jobs that will be posted and removed from the web prior to February 27.  Postings advertised beyond February 24 will need to be reposted in the new system, and applicants will need to reapply. 

Online training will be available to hiring departments beginning on January 25, and applicants will have access to tutorials on February 27 to assist in using the new system. 

If you have any questions, please contact Recruitment and Staffing at (352) 392-2477 or e-mail jobinquiries@ufl.edu.

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Verify your benefits deductions for 2012
Whether or not you made changes during the fall benefits Open Enrollment period, the new year is a good time to review your paycheck to ensure your coverage selections are accurate. If you made any changes to the following plans during Open Enrollment, they were reflected beginning with the January 13 earnings statement:

• Medical/Dependent Care Reimbursement and Health Savings Accounts
• Long-Term Disability
• Long-Term Care
• UF Term Life (Lincoln Financial)

Premiums and coverage for new supplemental plans requiring medical application will not begin until approved by the insurer. Employees should receive notification of approval or denial from the insurer in the upcoming months. If you have applied and do not receive a response, it is a good idea to follow up periodically on the status of your medical application.

Additionally, if you notice your paycheck does not reflect proper deductions for plans you currently have or may have elected during the last Open Enrollment period, please contact University Benefits and Retirement at (352) 392-2477 or benefits@ufl.edu as soon as possible.

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Training services available for UF faculty and staff to assist students in distress
The University of Florida community is becoming increasingly aware of the stress its students are experiencing and its impact on school and job performance. To address this issue, the Counseling and Wellness Center has adopted an online, interactive course that will assist faculty, staff, and students in better identifying individuals in distress, learning to avoid common pitfalls that can occur when trying to help, and how to refer distressed individuals to support services.  A 45-minute interactive training is available on the at-risk section of the Counseling and Wellness Center's web site.

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If you have not used all the money in your 2011 Flexible Spending Account (FSA), you still have time. The state’s FSAs feature a grace period that enables participants to continue to use medical and dependent care accounts for eligible expenses from January 1 through March 15. This annual grace period provides more time to use your 2011 FSA pre-tax funds for qualified expenses.

Be aware that your 2011 expenses must be incurred by the end of the grace period—March 15—or the IRS "use-it-or-lose-it" rule will apply. Additionally, all 2011 FSA claims must be submitted for reimbursement to the People First Service Center by no later than April 15 of each calendar year—no exceptions. If you have questions, please contact University Benefits and Retirement at (352) 392-2477 or benefits@ufl.edu.

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• Payments to UF employees
  Payments to UF employees participating in UF research studies are no longer processed through payroll. Instead, UF employees are paid in a manner consistent with other participants in research studies.
• Collection of social security numbers
  Researchers are no longer required to collect social security numbers for studies in which participants are paid $25 or less per study. Please note that the $25 cutoff is per study, not per payment. For example, participants scheduled to receive three $10 payments over the course of the study would be required to provide their social security numbers as the total amount of the payment to each participant in that study is in excess of $25. Regardless of the amount of payments, participants will still be required to provide their name and address.

• Payments Greater Than $600
  Any studies that anticipate paying a research participant $600 or more per calendar year must be paid via checks through the Accounts Payable system. This is required to ensure appropriate 1099 reporting for the participants.
• Payments to Non-Resident Aliens
  All research participant payments to non-resident aliens, regardless of whether they are UF employees, will continue to be paid through the payroll system. The payroll system provides the only method of complying with the withholding and reporting requirements for payments to non-resident aliens.

The Office of Finance and Accounting is hopeful the introduction of these changes will help streamline the process for researchers and UF departmental fiscal staff alike. If you have any questions about these changes, please do not hesitate to contact Laura Ling Donovan at lbling@ufl.edu or (352) 273-0493.

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Patients and their visitors now get free parking at UF&Shands
When you’re already concerned about your health, the last thing you want to worry about is parking your car. That’s why UF&Shands, the University of Florida Academic Health Center, now offers free parking to patients and their families and guests.

As of January 9, patients and their visitors have free parking at visitor garages and lots on the UF&Shands Gainesville campus. UF and Shands employees and their relatives already receive free parking when they are patients at a clinical practice on campus. This initiative extends that courtesy to all patients who come to our campus and to relatives and other guests who come to visit them while they are in our care.

Patients and their visitors must pick up parking vouchers at their point of service and hand the voucher to the attendant upon exiting the parking area.

Faculty, staff, and students are prohibited from parking in visitor garages and lots unless they themselves are patients at the time.

UF&Shands patient and visitor parking areas are:

• Garage on the northeast corner of Archer Road and Newell Drive, (east of Shands at UF north campus)
• Levels 3 and 4 of the garage on the northwest corner of Archer Road and Center Drive (west of Shands at UF north campus)
• Garage adjacent to Wilmot Gardens, on the northwest corner of Archer Road and Center Drive
• Shands Cancer Hospital at UF surface lot off SW 13th Street
• UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute surface lot on Hull Road at NW 34th Street

Free emergency room valet parking continues to be offered at the Shands Critical Care Center at UF, Shands at UF Chest Pain E.R., and Shands Hospital for Children Pediatric E.R.

Faculty and staff from other campuses, or others who come to UF&Shands, have a number of parking options:

• Park with the valet service.
• Secure a voucher from the department they are visiting.
• Buy daily, weekly, or monthly scratch-off parking decals from UF Transportation and Parking Services, (352) 392-7275. Prices range from $3 to $5 per day, $15 to $25 per week, and $35 to $60 per month, depending on the parking area. You can buy decals in advance and just scratch off the appropriate date when you need to park.

UF and Shands faculty and staff working the night shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. or 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. may park in the visitor garages during the hours noted, space permitting.

More details--including a fact sheet, answers to frequently asked questions, and other resources--are available on the UF&Shands complimentary parking web site.

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National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation signifies Baby Gator offers a high-quality program that provides a safe and nurturing environment while promoting the development of young children. The year-long accreditation process required teachers and administrative staff to provide evidence of meeting more than 400 criteria in NAEYC’s ten Early Childhood Program Standards. Baby Gator met 100 percent of the criteria in six of the ten program standards and 86 to 96 percent in the other four.  

Among the NAEYC accreditation evaluation committee’s commendations for Baby Gator were the following:

• “promoting positive relationships among all children and adults and encouraging each child’s sense of individual worth
• using on-going, systematic, formal and informal, assessment approaches to provide information on children’s learning and development
• promoting nutrition and health
• recognizing the importance of reciprocal relationships between families and programs
• establishing and maintaining reciprocal relationships with agencies and institutions that support our goals for curriculum, health, transitions, inclusion, and diversity
• administering the program efficiently and effectively”  

The evaluators also noted that Baby Gator teachers use multiple instructional approaches to optimize children’s learning; classrooms are well-organized; environments are well-equipped and foster comfort, health and safety; and teachers and student assistants meet NAEYC criteria for educational qualifications and pursue additional training to ensure continued professional development.

Accreditation is awarded for five years. During that period annual reports are submitted to document compliance with the program standards. The center is also subject to unannounced visits by assessors.

Baby Gator at Lake Alice has been accredited continuously since 1992.  The teachers and staff at both centers are to be commended for their hard work and dedication to making Baby Gator centers exemplary early childhood environments.

If you would like to learn more about NAEYC, please visit www.naeyc.org.  

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• One change users of the system will experience is that rather than “hovering” over menu items, users will need to “click” in order to navigate.  For many, this change will not be particularly noticeable.
• Some browser requirements also will be impacted.  All end users are encouraged to work with their IT support to ensure their browsers are updated as of February 19, if needed, to ensure they will be able to perform their daily job functions and support the university’s business practices after the upgrade. Specifically:
  Not supported:  Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 3.5 and Firefox versions between 3.6 and 7*
  Supported:  Firefox 3.6 and 7 as well as Internet Explorer 8 and 9 
  
  NOTE: Internet Explorer 9 will only be a supported browser after the software upgrade on February 19.  Upgrading to Internet Explorer 9 before then will impact your ability to use the current version of my.ufl.edu.

Additionally, employees will need to clear their cache and cookies the morning of February 19 before using the system.

For additional information about supported browsers and settings that will work with the upgraded myUFL portal, please see:
https://wiki.helpdesk.ufl.edu/FAQs /MyUFLBrowserRequirements. 

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©2012 University of Florida Office of Human Resource Services. The InfoGator is a monthly e-publication produced by the University of Florida’s Office of Human Resource Services. It is distributed electronically to UF faculty and staff and is available online. Please direct questions or comments to its editor, Angela Gould; Human Resource Services; P.O. Box 115006; (352) 392-4626; TDD 800-955-8771. The InfoGator is available in an alternative format upon request.
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