Two changes will be made to the Time Away from Work policy (Policy 6.9) for nonacademic staff, to be implemented March 21 when Workday goes live.

"These changes do not affect employee benefits; rather, they provide employees with greater flexibility and administrators with greater efficiency," says Alan Mittman, director of workforce policy and labor relations.

The policy changes apply to regular full-time, part-time and benefits-eligible temporary staff members. Those who are not affected include professors, academic staff and staff whose positions fall under a collective bargaining agreement.

Health and personal leave

Effective March 21, sick, personal and family health care leave balances will be merged into one category of accruals, health and personal leave (HPL). Staff can use HPL when they need time away from work for medical reasons -- such as injury, illness and medical appointments -- and to supplement their pay if they are out on short-term disability. Staff can also use HPL to care for family members for health-related reasons or for other personal matters.

While employees will continue to accrue HPL at the same rate as they currently accrue sick leave, the use of accruals for care of family members or personal needs will not be capped (at three or five days, depending on length of service) as in the past, providing staff members more flexibility in how they use this leave.

"Merging the leaves does not change the primary benefits provided by the former sick leave accruals -- to give staff time away from work for their own medical needs -- and will not change the requirement for supervisory approval in accordance with unit practices," says Mittman. "Good stewardship will be an important aspect of a staff member's use of leave time, to ensure that the staff member has robust leave balances to use for unexpected or unavoidable health concerns."

Vacation

Beginning this year, the date by which staff must use vacation days in excess of their maximum accrual limit -- or forfeit them -- will change from June 30 to Oct. 15.

"This positive change recognizes the importance of vacation time-off in achieving a healthy work-life balance by giving staff greater opportunity to use vacation leave during the summer and early fall, reducing the likelihood that they will reach their maximum accrual," says Mittman.

A tutorial on the new Time Away from Work policy is available. A variety of demos and general information on Workday can be found online.

Glen Silver, a writer with the Workday project team, contributed to this story.