HR News Updates | July 2020

The CSU is happy to announce the posting of a new Coronavirus CSU Employees Resources Website. 

The site was designed not to duplicate campus COVID-19 related websites but rather to supplement. In this site, you'll find information on COVID-19 related resources offered through new CSU leave programs, payroll services, health and welfare benefit vendors, EAP, retirement, and voluntary benefits.

For CSUN - Campus specific information related to COVID-19 - remember to visit: https://www.csun.edu/covid-19.

Due to COVID-19, CSU has adopted temporary plan changes to the CSU Health Care Reimbursement and Dependent Care Reimbursement Plans, which allow employees to make a one-time, mid-year enrollment change prospectively without a qualifying event during the remainder of the 2020 plan year. This one-time, mid-year plan change will allow employees to stop, enroll or change their current monthly contribution for HCRA, DCRA or both plans.

In addition, the plan(s) claims submission deadline for plan year 2019 has been extended (previously June 30th). You will now have 60 days from the date the COVID-19 related National State of Emergency declaration ends to submit claims for expenditures occurring in the 2019 plan year (which includes the two and one-half month grace period from January 1 through March 15, 2020). These changes are part of the federal government’s response to COVID-19 and National State of Emergency declaration. 

Upon receipt and successful processing of a completed and signed form, your account(s) will be updated to reflect your requested contribution change. After this one-time exception has been exercised, additional changes will not be permitted during the 2020 plan year unless an approved qualifying event occurs.

Important – HCRA Account Participants Only: You cannot cancel or decrease your HCRA account contributions if you have been reimbursed more than your existing account balance for 2020. Reminder, effective January 1, 2020, over-the-counter drugs and medicines no longer require a prescription; and menstrual care products are an eligible expense.   

If you would like to make a change please contact your Benefits representative by email.  If your last name begins with letters A-K, contact Monica Baskerville at monica.baskerville@csun.edu.  If your last name begins with letters L-Z, contact Cathy Salazar at cathy.salazar@csun.edu.

As a CSU Employee, take advantage of confidential consultations with the CSU Fidelity Retirement Planner, George Nofel.  Consultations continue to be available over the phone and now based on mutual availability.

Schedule your appointment with George to discuss your current concerns and how that plays in to your retirement goals.

Remember, we’re here to help through coronavirus (COVID-19), market volatility, and new legislation.

Bookmark the Resource Center for up-to-date information, webcasts, and other help.

To register for a live Market Volatility web workshop, log on to NetBenefits. 

If you are a CalPERS member and have not yet created or recently accessed your myCalPERS account, we encourage you to watch a video called, Your myCalPERS Account for Active & Inactive Members. This video will walk you through the registration process. You will also learn how to run retirement estimates and how to generate a verification of income or member account balance letter.

Place: CalPERS YouTube channel
Registration: Free

We look forward to sharing CHRS Recruiting with the campus later this summer!

User testing has just begun with colleagues throughout campus entering recently approved staff recruitments in a new Careers module, while testing how we'll welcome new employees with a comprehensive OnBoarding module.

A General CHRS Overview and End-User Training will be available beginning mid-July.

For a look at what CHRS Recruiting is, and how it can change how we recruit and onboard new colleagues, visit: https://www.csun.edu/hr/chrs-recruiting.

Human Resources is offering services remotely. Check out how we can help you and explore the latest updates related to COVID-19:

Virtual HR Services 

Resources abound to help you successfully work remotely, build a work-life balance, and maintain yours and your family's emotional, and physical well-being: 

Working Remotely

You can find additional information on the COVID-19 Information for Faculty & Staff website:

COVID-19 FAQs

Dependent Re-Verification (DRV) is the process of re-verifying the eligibility of your spouse, domestic partner, children, stepchildren, and domestic partner children (family members) enrolled for state health and dental benefits. Government Code section 22843.1 mandates re-verifying the eligibility of your family members. Government Code section 22959 authorizes extending this review to your family members enrolled for dental benefits.

• The eligibility of your family members will be re-verified once every three years. The re-verification period is based on your birth month. Employees born during the following months are required to re-verify family members during 2020: March, June, September, and December.
• For those employees with birthdays in September, you do not need to send in the Dependent Eligibility Verification Affidavit mailed to you by CalPERS. As a sustainable and convenient alternative, you will receive an email from Adobe Sign. From that email, you can complete your required Dependent Eligibility Verification Affidavit and attached the required documents.  Please complete and submit your required documents prior to September 30, 2020, in order for your dependent(s) to continue receiving health coverage and avoid cancellation on 10/1/2020.
• For more information visit the following page: Health Care Dependent Re-Verification

As a California State University (CSU) employee, your pay check/direct deposit advice and annual W-2 are issued (hard copy) by the State Controller’s Office (SCO).  Until now, these hard copy documents have been the only means made available to you by the SCO as a record of your earnings.  

CSUN employees now have the opportunity to access this information and forms through Cal Employee Connect (CEC) which allows employees to view up to three (3) years of their earnings statements and W-2’s, along with personal information.  Cal Employee Connect will ultimately reduce state costs and workload by providing a tool for all state employees to access their information electronically. 

To learn more about CEC and how to view pay warrant and W-2 information, visit Cal Employee Connect.

Did you know that you have access to self-service options such as time and absence reporting, updating your personal information, viewing the campus professional development calendar and more! These enhanced employee profile features were designed to make accessing resources and updating information easier.

The CSUN Mobile App is available for iOS and Android. Download for free via the App Store and Google Play (search CSUN).

Navigate to the Faculty/Staff persona by clicking on the person icon in the far right corner of the app screen. Click the "My Persona" link and select "Faculty/Staff".

The Employee Resources Mobile App Page:

A NEW job opening number has been created effective July 1, 2020 for the continuous Emergency Hire Pool open position posted on Careers@CSUN, the CSUN Recruitment Services webpage. The job posting can be found here: HTTP://BIT.LY/HRCSUN

If the prospective emergency hire has previously held a staff/faculty appointment and an application is in their personnel file, they will not need to apply through Recruiting Solutions.  However, if s/he has not previously been employed, the applicant must apply through Careers@CSUN to Job ID 6840/Emergency Hire Pool (Administrative/Technical) (Continuous).

The Emergency Hire Pool is also utilized for applicants who seek employment for administrative and/or technical work on a short term temporary basis (Emergency Hire).   When you need candidates referred from this pool, please create an Emergency Hire job opening in Recruiting Solutions and indicate that you would like applications forwarded to you from the Emergency Hire Pool or contact your campus HR Recruiter directly.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Mika Williamson, Director, Recruitment Services and Compensation at mika.williamson@csun.edu or x3817.

As a reminder, CSUN State Employees follow the California State minimum wage guidelines.

• Current minimum wage rate =  $13.00 per hour
• Current Student Assistant salary range = $13.00 to $19.50 per hour
• The next anticipated increase to the CA state minimum wage will be to $14.00 per hour on January 1, 2021.

Campus Auxiliaries (AS, TUC, USU) follow the Los Angeles City employers minimum wage guidelines.

• Effective July 1, 2020, the minimum wage rate will increase to $15.00 per hour.