The paystub -- the addendum to that all-important paycheck that you receive bi-weekly, semi-monthly or monthly, depending on your Yale classification -- will undergo a metamorphosis when the Department of Human Resource Services' Payroll Department moves from a paper-based system to fully automated systems on July 1 of 1998 as part of Project X, the University-wide overhaul of Yale's financial and administrative systems.
Just what the "ideal" paystub should look like, and what information it should contain, are among the issues currently being considered by Jim Kelley, director of payroll, who assumed his position in May.
Mr. Kelley would like the revised paystub to be loaded with information -- with everything necessary to understand thoroughly an individual's pay
status. He envisions the new paycheck and paystub as an 8 x 11 piece of paper. The top two-thirds of this sheet would contain information about such things as wage and salary earnings, accrual balances, year-to-date figures and taxables; the bottom third could contain the actual paycheck (or receipt notification for those employees using direct deposit).
This expanded format, notes Mr. Kelley, would allow for the addition of other material, such as outstanding loan balances, the status of savings and retirement plans, and information about health plans and other benefits. The revised paystub might even include a "message center" for notifying designated employee groups about news pertinent to their department or specialty. Ideally, the information on the paystub would match that on a W-2 statement, says Mr. Kelley.
"We may not be able to achieve everything that's envisioned, but we can get pretty close to it," adds Mr. Kelley, who is currently investigating the options available, along with the members of
the Human Resources/Payroll team of Project X, which is headed by Chuck Paul, director of total compensation and human resources information systems.
"We're trying to think of all the ways possible to add value -- to determine everything an employee would like to see in a paystub," says Mr. Kelley. "We want to be sensitive to the needs of the entire community." Toward that end, he invited input from Yale faculty and staff about their visions of the "ideal" paystub. You can email comments or suggestions to him at james.kelley@yale.edu.
Among the other payroll-related changes that Project X will bring are new time clocks for service and maintenance employees, and the addition of a Quick Pay feature that will allow the Payroll Department to generate a corrected check immediately, rather than waiting for the next pay cycle.
For information about these and other transformations that will occur under Project X, visit the project's World Wide Web site at.www.yale.edu/pjx.