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Human Resources Services

News to Use – December 2023

News to use logo.

News to Use – December 2023

A monthly summary of HR information for all employees of McMaster University.

Wellness and Winter Safety

We understand the holidays can be a challenging time of year for some. Over the holiday break, be sure to dedicate time to relax and recharge, and prioritize activities that bring joy and energy to your life. Support services are available to you, as needed.

As we start to see wet and icy conditions appear, stay safe this winter by taking extra time and exercising caution when travelling, walk on designated pathways that have been cleared for use, and report icy pavement and other winter hazards on campus here.

Employee Award Nominations

Nominations for President’s Awards for Outstanding Service: The President’s Awards for Outstanding Service recognize the exceptional contributions of full-time and part-time employees from operations, research and ancillary departments or units of McMaster University (non-teaching employees). Nominations are now invited from the McMaster community. For further information about this program and to start your nomination, please visit our website. Specific inquiries can be directed to presidentsawards@mcmaster.ca

Nominations for TMG Peer-to-Peer Recognition Awards are now open: The program provides TMG members an opportunity to recognize their fellow TMG colleagues. Through a short nomination process, the nominator will be asked to share examples of how the nominee has demonstrated one or more of the six core leadership capabilities. For more information and how to nominate, please visit the TMG Peer-to-Peer Recognition webpage.

Learning and Development Programs

Continuing Education
Build new skills and learn something new in the new year, by exploring the following workshops and programs with Continuing Education.

Anti-Black Racism and Critical Race Education Course
Start: February 19, 2024
Learn at your own pace with nine flexible online modules and participate in three collaborative virtual tutorials to enhance your learning experience and earn a certificate.

Time Maximization: Unleashing Peak Productivity and Prof Efficiency through Effective Time Mgmt (ESS 916)
Start: January 16, 2024
Designed to provide participants with the necessary tools and strategies to optimize time management abilities, leading to improved productivity and job efficiency.

Coaching and Mentoring (ESS 902) 
Start: January 29, 2024
Understand the value of mentoring and develop skills to create and manage mentoring relationships, both as mentors and mentees.

Flexible Work as a Catalyst for Organizational Agility & Well-being (ESS 913) 
Start: February 1, 2024
Explore successful practices that support a productive, flexible workplace strategy that benefits both the individual’s growth potential and the organization’s success.

Personal Leadership: Building From Our Strength (ESS 813) 
Start: February 8, 2024
Focus on leadership by first looking inward through self-awareness in terms of their own strengths and preferences.

Employee Learning and Funding options: If this is your first-time enrolling, please submit an Employee Tuition Assistance application to HR to confirm your eligibility BEFORE registering for the course. Limited university-funded spots are available. If you have any questions about eligibility please email HR at: hr.mcmaster@mcmaster.ca

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Ongoing Career Development 

Review your strengths, areas of interest and identify development opportunities to help you learn and grow. For further reflection, read our latest career development blogs or check out the following programs:

For new employees: New Employee Orientation sessions are available January 23 and February 15. For those who lead people, New Manager Orientation is available with Winter 2024 registration now open.

Working at Mac

Special Premium Payment (SPP) eForms launch January 2024 
As you may be aware, in late January we’re introducing the new SPP eForm (electronic form), designed to enhance and automate SPP processes within our community. SPP requests are transitioning to Mosiac eForms and the paper based SPP Form and SPP JIRA Service Desk will retire upon the launch.

This new SPP eform will help to simplify processes and speed up processing time for employees, better inform employees during the process, as well as provide robust reporting and better transparency of form status. If you are someone who initiates, submits or approves SPPs currently, register today for one of the two below training sessions:

January 17th – SPP eForm Training Registration Link 

January 24th – SPP eForm Training Registration Link 

Additional resources and information will be shared in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please direct any questions to hr.mcmaster@mcmaster.ca.

Reminder: Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Contribution Limits Rise in January 2024  
Starting in January, a new earnings ceiling called the Year’s Additional Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YAMPE) is being introduced, with additional CPP contributions for both employers and employees. More information about the CPP changes can be found on the CRA’s website.

2023 Vacation Carry Forward Process
It is that time of year again to update the vacation carry forward balances for staff as recorded in Mosaic. In January 2024, Human Resources will be updating the “Previous Year Vacation” bank within Mosaic with the information the departments provide to Payroll Services on staff carry forward vacation balances.

Please refer to the email sent out by Human Resources will full instructions. If you have any questions, please contact your HR Representative in HR Operations or your HR Strategic Partner/HR Partner in Faculty of Health Sciences HR office.

Top 3 Questions
When will the 2024 TD1 and TD1ON tax forms be available?
The 2024 TD1 and TD1ON tax forms are posted by the Government of Canada in the latter part of December. Once available, the new tax forms will be uploaded to the HR Payroll & Tax webpages

When can I view my last pay statement in December? 
Pay statements will be available Friday, December 15, for the faculty & affiliate pay date on Friday, December 22, 2023.  And Monday, December 18, for the staff pay date on Friday, December 29, 2023.  We encourage all employees to review their pay statements.

How will an employee be paid for time worked during the holiday closure?
For any time worked during the holiday closure, the hours worked must be reported as ‘Regular.’

  • Interim Employees (ESA): The system will automatically generate Public Holiday entitlements for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day in accordance with the Employment Standards Act (ESA). The system will convert any hours reported on these Public Holidays to the appropriate premium rate. All other days worked during the Holiday Closure will be paid at the regular rate.
  • Hourly and Exception Hourly (non-ESA): The system will automatically generate the designated Holiday and Public Holiday entitlement for each group. The system will convert any hours reported to the appropriate premium rate in accordance with the ESA and applicable Collective Bargaining Agreements.

The time worked during the holiday closure period falls in the first pay period of 2024 (202401-SAM) and the Time Reporting Deadline for this period is Monday January 8, 2024 at 3:00pm.

Mosaic Rapid Release  
The latest Mosaic Rapid Release launched on December 7, 2023.

Mosaic Rapid Release is a cross-functional team dedicated to making small, but meaningful changes to Mosaic with the aim of improving how work is done each day. In December, the team implemented multiple system updates and improvements, which impacted the HR Module.

  • We have enabled employees to access T4A slips without having to log consent. This is based on recent updates from the Canada Revenue Agency.
  • We implemented the latest Tax update bundle available from our vendor. This update will clear the way for the upcoming tax changes for year end and the new year.
  • Resolved an occasional issue during Payroll processing. We are very happy to see the technical solution included in our latest tax update.

To learn more about the changes and how they can benefit you and your teams, visit the December 2023: Mosaic Rapid Release page.

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