Employment Categories

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Policy Number:
UW-5000
Old Policy Number:
1.01
Responsible Office:
Office of Human Resources

University Policy

Rationale/​Purpose:

According to Wis. Stat. § 36.115(6), all UW–Madison employees holding positions in the unclassified or classified civil service on June 30, 2015, were included in the new UW–Madison personnel system that took effect on July 1, 2015. This policy provides the job titling framework for UW–Madison employee categories.

Definitions:
Academic Staff
A professional and administrative employee whose duties are exempt from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Faculty
A person who holds the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor, or instructor in an academic department or its functional equivalent in UW–Madison, as described in UW–Madison Faculty Policies and Procedures (FPP).
Job Group and Job Sub-group
An overall grouping of jobs where work performed is of similar nature.
Job Title
A title assigned to a job that describes the job’s roles and responsibilities at the university. Job titles should be descriptive of the work and consistent with general market practices.
Limited Appointee
An appointee to a designated administrative position, the holder of which serves at the discretion of the authorized official who made the appointment. Certain positions must be designated as limited appointments under Wis. Stat. § 36.17(2), while the Office of Human Resources may designate other positions as limited appointments at the time of appointment.
Post-Degree Training
A person who is not a matriculated student and is appointed primarily to pursue advanced study or research, usually at the postdoctoral level.
Semester Eligibility
A student may not be employed prior to the first payroll calendar day of the student's first semester of enrollment. Summer eligibility is the only exception (see below). Students who graduate, or who complete an academic semester and will not be enrolling in the following semester, may continue to be employed as a Student Hourly only through the last day of the student hourly pay period of the completed semester. Students who withdraw from school during a semester are no longer eligible for student employment as of the date of withdrawal.
Standard Job Description
A general set of responsibilities, without regard to any specific employee, that describes work performed, and role and impact to the organization. Standard job descriptions are primarily used for market pricing and salary structure design and maintenance.
Student Assistant
Graduate students who hold a fellowship, scholarship, or traineeship; who hold an appointment that is intended primarily to further the education and training of the student; who are employed to assist with research training or other academic programs or projects and/or have been assigned teaching responsibilities in an instructional department under the supervision of a faculty member. In addition, Student Assistant titles are available to undergraduate students when no qualified graduate student is available to perform a function that would normally be assigned to graduate students (i.e., Undergraduate Assistant — requires advance approval of the dean), or when the terms of a supporting grant or contract preclude the use of other normally appropriate titles (Undergraduate Intern).
Student Hourly
Students who provide part-time and/or temporary administrative, clerical, laborer, technical, or other general support to UW–Madison Faculty and staff, and who meet the eligibility requirements below (also see UW-5003 Student Hourly Employees):
  1. The individual’s position must be incidental to the individual’s purpose or presence at the institution as a student. In other words, the individual’s presence on campus is primarily to be a student, not an employee. It is not permissible to hire a person as a Student Hourly if the student is taking credits merely to be eligible for student hourly employment. This is a judgment that needs to be made by the employing unit. Factors to consider when making this decision include whether the individual is taking courses for credit, whether the individual is working towards a degree, and whether the individual has a pattern of taking less than a half-time load.
  2. The individual must be enrolled for academic credit at an educational institution. An educational institution is defined as:
    1. an accredited institution of higher learning granting associate degrees or higher;
    2. a technical college;
    3. a vocational or trade school; or
    4. a high school.

The employing unit is responsible for verifying an individual's eligibility and maintaining documentation of verification. Suitable methods of verification include: ISIS (for UW–Madison students), letter from home institution, phone call to home institution's Registrar, copy of current registration and course schedule, current tuition payment receipt, and on-line verification.

Important note regarding F-1 and J-1 international students: Special consideration needs to be paid to F-1 and J-1 international students when verifying eligibility. Federal visa regulations specify that F-1 international students are eligible for on-campus employment automatically, but only at the school listed in item #2 on the I-20 where the student is currently enrolled. In this case, the F-1 student does not need any special authorization to be employed 20 hours a week when school is in session and/or full-time during breaks. When processing I-9s, departments will need to verify that the student's I-20 is indeed issued by UW–Madison. If it is not, an I-20 alone does not provide sufficient proof of eligibility. J-1 international students may be eligible for on-campus employment, but only with a letter of permission from the J-1 program sponsor listed in item #2 on the DS-2019. Questions should be directed to International Student Services. c. The individual must be at least 16 years of age.

Summer Eligibility
Any student who has been accepted for fall enrollment, or is continuing in the fall semester after completion of the spring semester, or is enrolled during the summer, is eligible for summer employment.

Divisions May Have Stricter Eligibility Requirements—More specific provisions (e.g., requiring a greater credit enrollment, or enrollment in the UW–Madison) may be established by a specific college, school, department, or other UW–Madison unit.

Temporary Employee
“Temporary Employee” is an employee category separate and distinct from University Staff, Academic Staff, Limited Staff, and Faculty. Temporary Employees (TEs) are employed “at-will,” have no expectation of continued employment, and do not count toward UW–Madison’s full-time equivalent (FTE) count. TEs do not have grievance or layoff rights and are “non-exempt” (hourly) employees under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
University Staff
An employee who is non-exempt from the overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and therefore is eligible to receive overtime for all hours worked over forty in a pay period. University Staff appointments may be ongoing or Fixed-term Finite.

Note: During the transition to a new human resource structure in 2015 (HR Design) and in 2021 with the Title and Total Compensation Project, current FLSA-exempt University Staff employees are able to choose to move to an Academic Staff appointment or to stay in the employee's University Staff appointment. Employees in an exempt position are not subject to the FLSA provisions applicable to non-exempt University Staff. If an employee chooses to remain in a University Staff appointment, the exempt position will become Academic Staff when the employee leaves the position.

Scope:

This policy applies to all full- or part-time Academic, Faculty, Limited appointees, and University Staff employees.

Policy:

Policy Summary

This policy provides the job titling framework for UW–Madison employee categories.

Policy Detail

  1. Employee Categories

    UW–Madison has eight employee categories: Faculty, Academic Staff, University Staff, Temporary Employees, Limited Appointees, Student Assistants, Student Hourly, and Post Degree Training.

  2. Title Categories

    The job titling framework has the following job title categories:

    1. Faculty titles
    2. Academic Staff titles
    3. University Staff titles
    4. Limited appointee titles
    5. Student Assistant titles
    6. Student Hourly titles
    7. Post Degree Training titles
    8. Temporary Employees titles

  3. Job Titling Framework

    The job titling framework provides a structure for organizing jobs into groups and sub-groups based on responsibilities within the University, within each title category. The job titling framework is made up of Job Groups and Job Sub-groups.

  4. Standard Job Descriptions, Job Titles & Employment Categories

    Each job title includes positions that have comparable work, responsibilities, and job duties. Positions are assigned to titles based on a “best fit” concept, i.e., each position is assigned to a title that is the closest match between the title description and position responsibilities.

Responsibilities

Table 1. Responsibilities
Office of Human Resources (OHR)
  • Works with divisions to identify the proper title and employee category for vacant positions
  • Creates new titles and assign ranges
College/School/Division HR
  • Works with departments to identify the proper title and employee category for vacant positions
  • Works with OHR to obtain title approval for vacant positions
Supervisor
  • Identifies the duties of a position in order to identify the proper title

Policy History

The University of Wisconsin–Madison employment categories were historically defined by two personnel structures: classified and unclassified. These structures were authorized by laws in Wis. Stat. Chapter 36 (University of Wisconsin System), Wis. Stat. Chapter 111 (Employment Relations), and Wis. Stat. Chapter 230 (State Employment Relations). Wis. Stat. Chapter 36 defined the unclassified personnel structure, while Wis. Stat. Chapter 230 defined the classified personnel structure. Each structure had its own set of titles to describe positions.

Related UW–Madison Documents, Web Pages, or Other Resources:

Employment Categories Diagram

External References:

Policy Administration

Approval Authority:
Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
Policy Manager:
Associate Vice Chancellor/Chief Human Resources Officer
Contact:
Compensation Admin Director -- Meghan Owens, meghan.owens@wisc.edu, (608) 262-2346
Effective Date:
06-30-2015
Revised Dates:

2-25-2020, 11-01-2021, 07-18-2022

Retrieved:
04-27-2024 04:58:04