UF departments adapt to non-student hourly OPS policy

In August, the University of Florida introduced a new policy to more clearly define non-student hourly OPS employment. Since the policy’s introduction, the majority of departments throughout the university have successfully transitioned or ended positions to ensure the appropriate use of non-student hourly OPS employees on a temporary, term or as‐needed basis.

In addition to providing parameters for the appropriate use of OPS employment, the policy also includes more descriptive OPS job codes and introduces a threshold for total hours worked for four of the job codes (OPS Time-Limited, OPS Special Risk, OPS Sponsored Projects Non-Clerical and OPS Sponsored Projects Clerical). In August, areas with employees at the threshold (4,176 hours) were asked to make specific plans to address long-standing OPS employment as soon as possible.

Between Aug. 1, 2018, and March 1, 2019, 334 OPS employees were hired into recurring non-exempt or exempt TEAMS positions or 12-month faculty positions. Employment ended for 1,534 non-student hourly OPS employees during this period. By comparison, 1,742 non-student hourly OPS positions ended during the same period in 2017–18. OPS employees who exceeded the hours threshold numbered 211 as of March 2019, 150 of whom fell under the “OPS Sponsored Projects” category. Those departments with employees who fell in this category were given until July 1, 2019, to consider what action they would like to take to bring their employees into alignment with the policy. All departments with OPS employees over the hours threshold will be contacted by UFHR in the coming weeks.

“We appreciate the time and energy our departments and units have devoted to evaluating their use of OPS employment,” said Jodi Gentry, UF vice president for Human Resources. “Working together, we’ve made significant progress toward ensuring our employment practices are more clearly defined for both the university and our employees.”