Temporary Hire Employment Process
Temporary employees hold limited appointments with a predetermined end date. These appointments do not provide Harvard benefits and are used only when there is a temporary need for support. Temporary employees may be hired into a temporary appointment through Harvard University or as a contingent worker through a temp agency (utilized to hire employees who live in a state that Harvard is not registered to do business or when an hiring manager needs to recruit for a temporary position).
Please note that all temporary employees must be hired through the Human Resources Office (or DZConneX for contingent workers) before they are eligible to begin working.
- Less-than-Halftime (LHT): May work up to 14 total hours/week for as long as needed. Please note that a LHT may not hold more than one paid appointment at a time University-wide unless they are two LHT appointments for which the total combined hours do not exceed 14 hours per week.
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Harvard Student: May work up to 40 total hours/week (in summer) and 20 total hours/week (during academic year) for as long as they are enrolled as a student at least half-time.
- Regular Temp: May work up to 40 total hours/week for up to 90 days.
Process for Hiring a Temporary Employee
- Complete Temporary Appointment Form: Hiring supervisor and candidate will complete and sign a Temporary Appointment Form. Supervisor will then send the form to the appropriate budget approver in Finance Operations or Research Administration die budget approval (please reference "Budget Approver by Fund" below). Once form is complete, please send to Human Resources: Rowen Gray, HR Coordinator at rgray@seas.harvard.edu.
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Employee Work Authorization Verification: After Human Resources receives the Temporary Appointment Form, the candidate will be contacted to complete an I-9 Appointment, unless they have an active I-9 on file from a previous paid position at Harvard University within the past 12 months. I-9 Appointments must be completed in-person (exemptions may apply) and bring original, unexpired documentation that demonstrates both identity and eligibility to work in the United States (see list of acceptable documentation).
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Hire Temporary Employee: After work authorization has been verified, Human Resources will hire employee in PeopleSoft and send official onboarding email to employee and supervisor. The onboarding email indicates that the employee has been successfully hired.
Budget Approver By Fund
- Fund 000001 or 483467: HR will send the form to SEAS Financial Planning & Analysis for budget approval.
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Funds 100000-299999: Send form to the the faculty's Research Portfolio Manager for budget approval (please reference SEAS Faculty Support List).
- Funds 300000-399999, 483xxx, or Other: HR will send the form to Accounting for budget approval.
Next Steps After Hire
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Onboarding Email: Once a temporary employee has been hired, Human Resources will send the employee and their supervisor their onboarding email which includes information on how to register for their HarvardKey and SEAS email address (if applicable); submitting their weekly timesheet; and how to access PeopleSoft to set up direct deposit, view paycheck, and tax withholding.
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Time Entry: Temporary employees submit their time each week through a manual timesheet, which is signed by the employee and supervisor, and then submitted to SEAS Payroll (payrollhelp@seas.harvard.edu) on Thursdays by 12:00 pm. Timesheet is for the current week worked, including Friday. If an employee submits their timesheet and the reported hours on Friday change, please email SEAS Payroll by Monday to update timesheet.
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Payroll: Temporary employees are paid for their work on Fridays (the week after timesheets are submitted). It is strongly recommended that they sign up for Direct Deposit via PeopleSoft Self Service.
Harvard uses DZConneX, a managed service provider, to manage all hiring and payrolling of contingent labor, including recruited contingent workers from staffing agencies and Harvard-identified candidates who are externally payrolled because they do not currently live in a Harvard Registered Payroll State. Please note there is a 19.1% fring fee associated with using their payroll services and 40% fringe fee to utilize their recruitment services.
Process for Hiring a Contingent Worker
To hire a contingent worker, please contact Rowen Gray, Human Resources Coordinator (rgray@seas.harvard.edu) for more information.
Additional Resources
Active Suppliers in the Harvard/DZConneX Managed Services Program