For Supervisors

Overview
This section is intended to provide employers with procedures for the Federal Work-Study Program. Employers are responsible for all information presented in the supervisor and student sections of this online handbook.

Setting Up An Account
Before hiring a work-study student, off-campus employers must first contact the Financial Aid Office to request a work-study contract. On-campus employers use their department account number. Off-campus employers are billed on a monthly basis. To ensure credit to the proper account, all checks should clearly state the organization's name and invoice number. Please contact Mary Parducci in the Payroll Office with any questions.

Job Posting                                                                                                     The Job Posting document outlines the information we need in order to post your available positions on the Joblist website. We must have an up-to-date job description for every student working, so please be thorough in your descriptions and postings.

Interviewing Process
Individual employers determine the manner in which they make their employment decisions; most employers conduct several interviews and select from a pool of applicants. Students should know how much, if any, Federal Work-Study they have been awarded and bring this information to the interview.

Hiring Forms
Since financial aid packages are revised annually, employers should remember that a student may not have the same award from year to year. Also, some students may be confused regarding work-study and may claim to be eligible when, in fact, they are not. To confirm a student's eligibility and earning limit, please contact the Financial Aid Office at 860-297-2046.

First-time hires (students who have never been paid by Trinity College) are required to fill out standard hiring forms: a Federal W-4 form, a CT W-4 form, and an I-9 (This Employment Eligibility Form must be completed within the first 3 days of employment). Supervisors should advise students that these forms may be obtained either at the Payroll Office or in the Work Study Document List and must be submitted to Payroll as soon as possible and before they can be hired.

A Payroll Authorization Form must be completed by each student's supervisor and submitted to the Payroll Office for each student working in an ongoing capacity.

In addition, every employer and student employee must also fill out the Work Authorization Form and return it to the Financial Aid Office. These forms are needed for each position worked.

Scheduling Work
Once a student is hired, the employer and employee should determine a mutually convenient work schedule. Work-study students may generally work from the first day of school through the last day of final examinations in May, including breaks.

In setting a schedule, employers and students should take careful consideration of not only the student's academic schedule, but also his or her earnings limit. Ideally, the student should work the number of hours necessary to reach, but not exceed, the earnings limit by the end of the year. As an example, if a student is awarded $1,800 for the academic year and is paid $7.65 an hour, the student may work approximately 9 hours a week and not exceed his/her earnings limit for the academic year. See the Schedule of Estimated Earnings in the Work Study Documents list for more information.

Once a student reaches his/her earnings limit, the student may no longer be employed through the Federal Work Study Program for the remainder of the academic year. Any continued employment would be contingent upon the availability of department funding. Employers are asked to set a weekly limit of 8-10 hours of work per week for each student to ensure that students reach, but don't exceed their earnings limit by May. If students wish to work more hours, they must acquire special permission  Students scheduled during class breaks may work full time. Please remember that money earned during vacation periods counts towards a student's earnings limit. The Federal Work Study Program is intended to help students offset the cost of their educational program, not to replace employees in a work place.

Payroll: How Should Students Record Their Time Worked?
Students record their hours on a Student Time Sheet. These forms are supplied to employers by the Payroll Office as needed. The first time a student completes a timesheet in any pay year, in any office, it will be on a generic time sheet. After that, students will receive a pre-printed time sheet.

Employees should write in the actual number of hours they work each day; they should not wait until the end of the pay period to complete the form. The total number of hours worked each pay period should be converted to quarter of an hour for payroll purposes.

Supervisors should determine how precise they wish the recording of hours to be (e.g., exact time, rounded to nearest five minutes, or rounded to nearest fifteen minute period). Pay periods are two weeks long (12:01 AM Monday through 12:00 AM Sunday), with one time sheet filled out per pay period, regardless of the number of days worked. If a student did not work for an entire week of a pay period, that week should be left blank on the time sheet. A schedule of pay periods is available in the Work Study Documents list.

Time sheets must be completed in ink and include both the employee's and the supervisor's signatures. The original copy should be forwarded to the Payroll Office for processing.

Benefits
Work-study students do not receive benefits such as sick or vacation leave. Employers must give student employees a minimum thirty-minute lunch/dinner break if scheduled for six or more hours.

Job Changes

Promotions and Reclassifications
A student's job title within a department may be changed at any point during the year if the student's duties or responsibilities change. Employers should make changes such as account and/or wage rate information on the Payroll Authorization Form. The Payroll Office will then take that information and update the student's wage rate on their database. Off-campus employers must notify the Financial Aid Office directly of any wage rate changes. All students should have a current job description on file in the Financial Aid Office at all times.

Termination
Although terminations are infrequent, it is vitally important that all parties follow the College’s policies when a termination occurs.

Student-initiated:
A student must give the employer two weeks notice when terminating; however, it is acceptable for an employer and employee to agree upon a shorter period of notice.

Employer-initiated:
If an employer is not satisfied with a student's performance, the following steps should be taken:

1) Discuss the problem with the student;

2) If the problem continues, write the student a letter describing the problem, the previously held verbal discussion, and a statement of consequences if the behavior is not corrected. (You may wish to give the student a particular time frame in which to correct the problem.)

3) If there is no correction of the behavior, the student's employment should be terminated. The employer should notify the student. Be sure to state the reasons that the employee was terminated.

If an employer initiates a termination for a non-negative reason, such as budgetary constraints or the completion of a project, the termination should be handled similar to a student-initiated termination with the employer giving the student at least two weeks notice. The Financial Aid Office will make every effort to assist in placing a student terminated for such reasons.

Use a Payroll Authorization Form to terminate a student's position, and hence the Payroll Office will no longer mail the student's timesheets to the department.