We know there is a lot of lingo around your employment classification. No more alphabet soup! This HR Quick Guide is designed to help you understand where you fit in to the UAB employment classification system. Knowing your weather, work, exemption status and assignment category can help you more easily work with administration and know how to filter employee communication.
If you have further questions, visit our HR Service Center.
This quick guide includes information on:
Assignment Category
All UAB employees are classified at the time of employment in order to determine benefit eligibility. See this attachment for a full explanation of employment categories. Employees in these assignments may be exempt (paid monthly, not eligible for overtime) or nonexempt (hourly and must be paid overtime).
One facet of your UAB assignment is whether it is regular or temporary. Regular assignments do not have a set end date. Temporary assignments have an expected end date of less than one year from date of hire. For more on this, see Employees & Assignment Categories. For more on regular and temporary employment opportunities at UAB, visit our careers webpage. Why a regular or temporary assignment matters: temporary assignments are, by nature, shorter in duration. Temporary employees are not eligible for benefits. For more on temporary assignments at UAB, visit Temporary Services. Temporary assignments are a great way to get exposure to many different departments at UAB. Working temporary is a great way to explore UAB.
Examples of how Assignment Category apply: regular employees (01 and 03) generally have an indefinite appointment and are eligible for benefits. Irregular employees, including UAB Temporary Service employees, are designated as (04) and are not eligible for UAB health and other benefits. See the attachment for more on student, Post-doctoral, Affiliate and Trainee descriptions.
Exempt and Nonexempt Status
Another facet of your assignment is whether it is exempt or nonexempt. If you are exempt from overtime pay, you are not eligible for overtime pay. Non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay and keep up with time in the Kronos system. It is important that you communicate with and get approval for overtime work before you work it. Click here for more on UAB and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Why exempt/nonexempt matters: Whether you are exempt or nonexempt impacts what time off system you use (eLas for exempt time off requests and Kronos for time keeping and time off requests for campus nonexempt employees). And, as above, nonexempt employees must keep up with overtime. See Campus HR 213 Overtime Policy.
Weather Group
Weather Group: We run a 24/7 operation at UAB. The weather group assignment tells you what you should do in a weather emergency. The department classifications are green (closes), yellow (it depends) and red (stays open). To learn more about weather groups, visit the weather group web page and to be added to B-alert, the system that we use to notify UAB employees and students emergencies, click here. Why weather group matters: this simplifies messaging about what you should do in a weather emergency - stay home (Green), follow your schedule (Red) or for (Yellow) check with your manager.
Workgroup Assignments
Workgroup (Workforce Assignments): as far as workgroups go, you are either A (Academic Staff), C (Clinical Staff) or F (Faculty). For more on this, see Employee Workforce Groups. The Workgroup App will tell you how you are designated. Why workgroup matters: some communications about policies and programs are specific to workgroups. As an example, some groups, center their work around the academic calendar, for others, the academic calendar does not impact their work.