Reports To
User guide for department approvers
User guide for viewers
“Reports To” is a function in LOUIE – HR that allows us to keep a record of the reporting structure of the university. Every position listed in LOUIE – HR shows a reporting relationship to another position or is marked as a position to be inactivated.
Work flow Accordion Closed
- A department initiator will submit a General HR Inquiry requesting the change(s) to the reporting relationships in the area.
- Your HR Team will initiate the Reports To Form through PeopleSoft.
- The form is then electronically forwarded to the department approver for review. Some areas will also have a second-level approver.
- All forms are then forwarded and approved by designated staff at Human Resources.
- The last step after final approval is when the information is loaded into PeopleSoft.
At any level of approval, a form may be sent back for corrections before being sent to the next level of approval. Your HR Team may also change or withdraw the form if corrections need to be made.
“Reports To” form
The “reports to” form:
- establishes the reporting structure for benefits-eligible positions
- establishes the reporting structure for non-benefits-eligible positions
- inactivates either types of positions
The structure is based on positions reporting to positions (whether there are people in those positions right now or not), so you will be working with position numbers – not employee ID numbers.
Benefits-eligible positions Accordion Closed
- A benefits-eligible employee should be listed as reporting to the supervisory authority who completes the performance appraisal or reviews and signs records of absence or approves time off.
- In most instances, this “chain of command” is already defined in a department organization chart – even up to the person to whom the department head reports.
- For most staff, this will be the supervisor who completes and signs their final appraisal.
- For most faculty, this will be the department chair.
- For most chairs, it will be the dean.
- A position may only report to one position. Employees with multiple supervisors must be assigned to just one.
- A staff member may have several supervisors who direct their work, but typically one is designated the primary supervisor who gathers feedback and delivers the final appraisal. This is the ‘reports to’ position to record.
- A faculty member in Political Science may also teach classes in Applied Indigenous Studies. The ‘reports to’ relationship would be to the chair in their primary department.
- For special assignments that have changed the reporting relationships, please contact HR to temporarily change the position number of the employee. If no change occurs in who reports to a specially assigned employee, they can remain in their current position number.
- A groundskeeper specially assigned to grounds supervisor now has other positions reporting to them. You would contact HR to change the position number of the employee to the grounds supervisor position number so that the other reports to relationships could be recorded appropriately. When the special assignment ends and the supervisor role is filled, the reporting structure is still correct.
- A program coordinator is specially assigned to a special project – but it doesn’t change the reporting relationships up or down. The employee would not change position numbers.
- If an employee has both a benefits-eligible position and a non-benefits-eligible position, report the primary role’s reporting relationship in the benefits-eligible section. The part-time role will be reported in a different way in the non-benefits-eligible area of the form.
- A regular faculty member with an academic year contract in Mathematics also teaches as part-time faculty in the summer. The primary role in Mathematics will have a position number in the Benefits-Eligible section where you can enter the Reports To relationship. The part-time role will have a position number in the non-benefits-eligible section where you can record this role as reporting to the money manager (following the non-benefits-eligible logic).
Non-benefits-eligible positions Accordion Closed
Non-benefits-eligible positions should report to the person who typically generates the forms for transactions in these positions. This is not necessarily the faculty or staff member who is responsible for the fund or is the employee’s day to day supervisor.
These types of positions include:
- pool positions occupied by more than one employee (student wage, part-time faculty, graduate assistants, etc.)
- student workers, temporary employees and graduate assistants likely have an administrative staff member who generates their employment-related transactions, even though they all may work with different professors or staff members who direct their daily work
- positions that manage funds (mobile phone allowance, salary set-asides, etc.)
Inactivating positions Accordion Closed
If a position is vacant, but will be used in the near future, do not inactivate it. Instead, establish a “reports to” relationship that will be appropriate when the position is filled.
If a department has a vacant, benefits-eligible academic advisor position that is not currently posted, but they hope to have the funds approved to fill it in the spring, it would still be recorded as reporting to the position that would likely supervisor that role if filled
You may inactivate if all the following apply:
- The position is vacant
- There is no identified funding
- The position is not currently posted
For example, if there is a part-time faculty position on the department list, but it has not been used for a while, there is no funding attached and no plans to use it, you could mark this position as inactive.
If a position is vacant, but does not have an “inactivate” checkbox available, you may contact the budget office to inactivate it.
The department may have positions that may or may not have been used in the past, but are still are available to be filled. These positions may have been created in a reorganization or in anticipation of funding. After the budget office makes necessary changes, you can inactivate the position. This could take a day or two, so you may need to place the form on hold and return to inactivate the position later.
View form status Accordion Closed
The progress, location, and status of the form will be tracked in LOUIE – HR throughout the process. That progress can be viewed by:
- the initiator
- the approvers
- those department staff with viewer access
Reorganization assistance
Changing the way an organization thinks and sometimes even reorganizing the organization’s structure, is necessary for that organization to be successful in today’s world. The Human Resources Department can assist departments with their reorganization needs.
For reorganization assistance, contact your HR Business Partner.