Human Resources and Benefits

A. What categories of faculty and teaching support staff are covered by which HR policies, and do they differ in schools?

B. What kinds of HR policies cover lecturers, senior lecturers, and other academic support faculty?

C. What benefits are under consideration for being reduced or eliminated (e.g., tuition benefits for faculty, staff, and dependents)?

D. What examination has been done of the effectiveness of outsourced employee benefits and human resources services (e.g., WageWorks and Health Advocate)?

E. Do you foresee any impacts to health plan costs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

F. Other universities suspended paying into the faculty retirement accounts.  How will the University decide whether and when such payments are no longer feasible?

G. What, if any, changes to retirement benefits and associated policies are anticipated as a result of the pandemic and its economic effects?

H. Why is everyone being asked to report on their personal health status, including those who will not be working on campus?

I. The hiring freeze is halting faculty hiring.  Can we loosen the system so that faculty with funds to pay for their needs can hire within two weeks?

J. If the University must reduce headcount, can we do so with dignity?

K. Will the University be offering early retirement packages as some places do try to cut ongoing expenses?

L. Are there any efforts to use University resources to help faculty manage childcare disruption associated with daycare and school closures?  How will the crises influence ongoing, long-term efforts to increase childcare capacity and help for faculty and staff?

M. Does the benefits pool have reserves?

N. Where does the money for benefits come from? Does all the money in the benefits pool come from the benefits rate that the schools pay as part of faculty and staff salaries?

O. Do the schools get the same amount back in benefits for their faculty and staff that they pay in?

P. What does it mean to say that Penn is self-insured?

Q. Did Penn save money on medical costs as a result of the decision to move to remote operations?  If so, what use was made of those savings?

If both parents are Penn faculty, does their child receive the college tuition benefit from each parent? Is there an implied “marriage penalty” otherwise?  

The dependent tuition benefit policy is aligned to recipient dependents rather than to employee-parents. In other words, if both parents are employed at the University of Pennsylvania, tuition assistance is limited to the benefit that would be provided to one faculty/staff member. This means that only one parent can use the benefit for the dependent at a time. The dependent’s tuition benefit record could be transferred to the other parent at any point in time but the usage details will also be transferred so as to ensure that the dependent does exceed the limits of coverage of the benefit.

A. What employee medical information, including that from PennOpen Pass and Wellness programs, is shared with third parties? 

No data from PennOpen Pass is shared with third parties. When users sign up to use PennOpen Pass they will be given a Privacy Statement. The privacy statement may be read to provide for sharing with third parties in very limited circumstances (e.g., to administer the program – which could include a contractor such as Allied Barton; or to comply with legal requirements which may include public health agencies).  As an example, an Allied Barton employee may have access to the information if a student does not have their phone and therefore must respond “offline” to questions verbally.  Technically, that is a third party, but the purpose is very much in line with the specified purpose list in the Privacy Statement. 

B. What advantages exist for all faculty and staff to report their health status information using PennOpen Pass, even those who are working 100% from home? 

Any employee who uses PennOpen Pass will have access to the PennOpen Pass Call Center 7 days per week for guidance on next steps (this is in process), including COVID-19 test scheduling at Penn Medicine test sites.  PennOpen Pass gives all users “one stop shop” access to testing, contact tracing, and clearance for return, all coordinated by the program.  This means our faculty and staff don’t have to piece together their own care or worry about where to go with questions.  We are not requiring employees who work 100% from home to enroll in the program, but we do encourage it, since we believe it provides a service to the individuals and the community and avoids traditional hassles of navigation and having to piece together your own care if you do have symptoms.

A.  Backup care is currently only based on 10 days of use, regardless of number of hours used per day. This was already not enough before for dual working parents or single parents. Is there any way to (1) make it by the hour rather than by the day and (2) substantially extend the amount of time, especially during the pandemic?

Caregiving needs for less than four hours are best filled by using Care.com Personal Assistance to hire a caregiver to work with the family for their needs that are less than four hours.  If the minimum number of hours for backup care was reduced, there would not be a financial incentive for a backup caregiver to fill the request. Once a caregiver takes a position (even for 4 hours) it is unlikely that the caregiver will be able to fill another job for that day.

B. How is HR planning to work with Penn faculty who are parents of young children and will be working without childcare in the fall–an impossible situation for many?

We continue to partner with Care.com, PennnCare.com and Health Advocate EAP to navigate through the needs of our working caregivers. To help answer these questions in a more detailed way, we have presented the answers in the below graph. 

For more strategies and tips, review Health Advocate’s webinar, Working from home with children webinar, view a Linkedin Learning course, Balancing Work and Life as a Work-from-Home parent, or for more information about Penn’s dependent care benefits, visit Penn’s Caring for Your Family webpage.