Personnel Management

Academic Year

To compensate a faculty member from a sponsored project either as a course release (for 9-month appointments) or as a percentage of their time (for 12-month appointments):

1. Work with your budget manager to complete a Payroll Action Form
2. Submit the completed form to OSP
3. OSP will sign and submit the form to Faculty Services

Summer Stipend (9-month appointments only)

Typically, your budget includes a portion of months' time to be compensated, based on your institutional base salary, during the summer. When working on a sponsored project, total summer effort cannot exceed 2.7 months.

1. Work with your budget manager to complete a Faculty Stipend Request
2. Submit form to the OSP
3. OSP will sign and submit to Faculty Services

For more information about faculty compensation, please review the Grant Compensation Policy.

For existing SU staff supporting a sponsored project, they must be approved by the sponsor and budgeted into the award as a percentage of the staff member's time (ex. 1 day per week = 20% of their time/institutional base salary is allocated to the project). 

Contact your division budget manager to correctly allocate a staff member’s % of project time to your sponsored project for a specific period of time using the Salary Distribution Change Form. 

Hiring staff

If your project requires the hiring of a new full-time, part-time or temporary staff position, please work with your budget manager to create a new Requisition Request in EngageSU to begin that process with HR. 

To hire students, complete and submit a Student Employment Action Form (SEAF) 

Questions? Email: studentemployment@seattleu.edu or call x8020

Students conducting research funded by the NSF or NIH are required to complete Responsible Conduct of Research Training prior to beginning their work. It is strongly encouraged for all other researchers to uphold SU's commitment to responsible and ethical research. The PI is responsible for ensuring this requirement is met; the OSP will verify completion of the training with the PI.

1. Determine if you need to hire a consultant or an employee - there is an important distinction between a consultant and employee and we must ensure we correctly categorize the individual(s) to ensure we meet the IRS regulations. Please review the IRS 20-factor test to help make the correct determination.
2. Hire a consultant/independent contractor - Once you have determined that the relationship qualifies as a independent contractor:
   
   1. The Principal Investigator/Project Director (or support staff) completes the OSP Contract Coversheet and sends to your assigned Sponsored Research Officer (SRO) with the standard independent contractor template including scope of work and budget for each contractor. If you are unsure of the appropriate contract template to use, please complete this coversheet and send to your SRO, with the contractor scope of work and budget, for assistance.
   2. OSP will review the form and contract, coordinate with the Office of University Counsel as appropriate, complete the bottom portion of the form, sign, and return to you.
   3. PI/PD makes any necessary adjustments to contract and then issues to contractor for signature.
   4. Return the contractor-signed agreement to your SRO for institutional approval through our standard process.
   5. OSP will return the fully executed agreement to you. Please share a copy with the contractor.
3. Pay a consultant for prolonged services with multiple invoices from your project 
   1. Set up the contractor as a vendor in ProcureSU.
   2. Set up a "Declining Balance PO" form in ProcureSU for the total amount of the contracted work; attach the executed contract and OSP-signed contract coversheet with this form
   3. Submit contractor invoice to be paid from the Declining Balance PO as they are received, no more than monthly

In winter 2021, SU transitioned from effort reporting to a review of compensation charges for all sponsored projects. The key changes include:

1. Payroll certification vs. effort certification - rather than certifying a % of effort/time, all PIs are asked to certify that each individual’s compensation charged to the sponsored project is proportional to the work they contributed
2. PI review vs. individual reports – only the lead PI will be required to certify an aggregated payroll report for your project
3. This review is incorporated into our existing Quarterly Financial Certification Report

Read more details and see an example here: Compensation Charges Overview & Example