March 20, 2020
Dear SHARE,
Wow, it feels like a lifetime has passed since our last email. The world was different then. We hope everyone is doing alright as we have transitioned to being at home for what will likely be more than a couple of weeks. The SHARE team is now 100% working remotely. We are doing our best to sustain the same level of quality you’ve come to expect, though response times may be delayed since many of us have little ones at home “working” with us. Here are all the bits of important information we have pulled together to share with you as the week unfolded:
COVID-19 News
We have added a banner to the SHARE website that will take you to all the latest information from the campus reated to COVID-19.
Here is the UCOP website with COVID-19 information for UC Employees. This also includes Guidance for Supervisors of Academic and Staff employees.
The Information Security team put together this website with content on telecommuting securely, COVID-19 related phishing, and other resources to help guide us during this time.Please share with your teams.
See the Central Services Support which includes Central Onboarding, First Contact, Visa and Records for COVID-19 updates to services.
Purchasing & Reimbursements
Due to the shelter in place order, many of you are not available to receive goods on campus. Purchasing is holding all orders for goods unless you confirm that someone will be present to receive them. There is no easy way to add a new shipping address in BearBuy, unfortunately. Look for communication from Purchasing if you have submitted a goods purchase in BearBuy. If you want goods shipped to your house, purchase them with your Blucard, which can be used for goods up to <$4999.
Due to the shelter in place order, many of you are not available to receive goods on campus. Purchasing is holding all orders for goods unless you confirm that someone will be present to receive them. There is no easy way to add a new shipping address in BearBuy, unfortunately. Look for communication from Purchasing if you have submitted a goods purchase in BearBuy. If you want goods shipped to your house, purchase them with your Blucard, which can be used for goods up to <$4999.
Email approval is now live in BearBuy for users with approved roles (Approvers, Requisition Org Node Approval, Authorizers, CF1 and CF2 Approvers, Buyers). You are now able to approve or assign requisitions directly from email. Here is an Email Approval Quick Reference Guide with instructions on how to use the new feature.
Important Notes about that:
- Users must log into BearBuy and set up a Personal Identification Number (PIN) before using email approvals.
- If you have a Google or other Mail client filter set up to block emails from BearBuy, you will need to turn it off or modify it to receive the emails.
- You must log in to BearBuy to edit content or use the comment feature.
- You must be in a VPN session to access BearBuy.
Onboarding
We have a new remote onboarding process in effect during the shelter in place order and we are not conducting in-person onboarding sessions. A huge shout out goes to Ana Sanchez and her team! We will continue to do template first for our pilot titles and we recommend that you please set the hire date 5 business days out from the date the letter is presented to the employee to give us time to submit a template and have it approved by the time the employee onboards.
The Cal 1 Card office will be providing in-person support services by appointment only via the online flex-appointment scheduler until further notice. If there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from making an online appointment ahead of time, please provide those details by emailing cal1card@berkeley.edu or calling our office main number 510-643-6839.
Human Resources
Signed temporary telecommuting agreements do need to be returned to our Records department. Please submit a scanned copy of your agreements via a ServiceNow case
Payroll
We are getting many questions about the CalTime code to use for reporting Paid Administrative Leave due to COVID-19. Here is the information from Central PayrollPlease take a moment to read through the recent communication:
UCPath Center (UCPC)
The UCPath Center has transitioned to remote work. Operations are modified, and some non-essential services are suspended in order to ensure uninterrupted payroll, benefits and other critical services for the UC community.
If you need to contact the UCPath Center, submit an inquiry using the "Ask UCPath Center" button on the home page in UCPath Online. Inquiries regarding urgent issues will be prioritized. Non-urgent topics and questions may have a slower response time than usual. UCPath Center staff are not available by phone at this time.
These are tough times and we appreciate the collaborative spirit and good will displayed by all of you.
Thanks to the wonderful Joan Kask, here is another resource you may find useful. As this evening is the beginning of the weekend, here is an entertainment source that is free to campus employees - as long as you have the wifi bandwidth to handle streaming: Through the campus library you can access the Kanopy Streaming Collection including 26,000 films from the Criterion Collection, PBS, California Newsreel, Media Education Foundation, New Day Films, Kino Lorber, etc. You need to have the VPN service active before connecting. https://berkeley.kanopy.com/ Thanks Joan!
Warm Regards,
Teal Sexton and Max Auffhammer
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