UM now offers benefits for part-timers

n a move that demonstrates its commitment to retaining and recruiting the best talent in the market, the University has made employee benefits available to all part-time regular staff and educator faculty, including clinical, research, and librarian faculty.

With the new change, part-time regular employees who work at least 50 percent time or more are now eligible for benefits such as health and dental care, tuition remission, life insurance, long-term disability, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance.

They also can participate in voluntary insurance programs, including short-term disability, excess life insurance, voluntary accidental death and dismemberment, long-term care, and flexible spending accounts. Eligible part-time regular employees received packets in January for enrollment information for this calendar year.

For health and dental coverage, part-time regular employees pay a premium determined by their workload. For example, a part-time regular employee who works 90 percent time and enrolls in the HMO 1 health plan would pay the regular $37-a-month premium for that plan plus 10 percent of the University’s contribution. The tuition remission benefit also is determined by the part-time regular employee’s workload. Vacation and sick time is earned and accrued according to the hours paid (excluding overtime hours). All other benefits are proportional to the salary that part-time regular employees actually earn.

The new policy, which affects about 110 employees on the Coral Gables, medical, and Rosenstiel School campuses, shows that UM is “serious about finding ways to help employees balance work and personal needs,” says William Walsh, executive director of Benefits Administration, whose office had been working on a plan to institute benefits for part-timers for a year.

“Our office always receives calls from employees inquiring about going from full-time to part-time status and whether they could keep their benefits,” Walsh says. “Even though the number of people this affects is small, it shows that we’re being responsive to the University community and that even the smallest niche of employees with common characteristics is important to us.”

Medical Human Resources at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, where about 80 part-time regular employees are now eligible for benefits, also received its share of inquiries on the matter.

Instituting benefits for part-time regular faculty and staff was a priority for Paul Hudgins, associate vice president of Medical Human Resources, when he arrived at the medical campus almost two years ago. John G. Clarkson, senior vice president for medical affairs and dean, “was interested in creating opportunities for faculty and staff who couldn’t or didn’t want to work full-time because of life issues but wanted to retain their benefits while on part-time regular status,” says Hudgins.

“The message we’re sending is that we’re constantly looking at ways to become the employer of choice,” Hudgins adds. “We want to provide a work environment that helps employees balance all of the things they face in work and life.”