General FAQ
Please email lifeworks@berry.edu and let us know which supervisor needs to be replaced for which hires and any other relevant details we need to make the switch.
Due to FERPA guidelines, we recommend that you never discuss student employment details with parents.
Please contact Lacey Herring (lherring@berry.edu).
The General Ledger should reflect the student work budget for your department. For further questions please reach out to your VP or supervisor.
Graduated, withdrawn, or students on a leave of absence are NOT allowed to work as part of the LifeWorks program. This goes into effect the date they graduate or fill out their leave of absence form with the registrar’s office. You may request students to be hired as a regular Berry employee, but this process is completely separate from the LifeWorks program.
The Residence Life office handles all early and summer accommodation requests and answers questions about housing requirements. Please see the request form on Presence: usually our office shares this link in the spring and in the summer.
Please note that summer hiring should be based on true need. If your office needs student employees to function, then hire only what you need. If a student wants to work in the summer, but you don’t have meaningful work for them, please let them know they are not eligible.
Our student team (lifeworks@berry.edu/2244) can handle most inquiries, so please start there. If you have a matter that needs further staff support, you can contact Phillip Edge or Joy Wooddell.
Hours and Pay
All I-9 paperwork is now being handled in the HR office!
Federal law requires that all employees, including student employees, have a certified I-9 within three days of starting work, and Georgia law requires all employees have an E-Verified I-9 on file. Instances of students working prior to having an I-9 could result in significant fines.
The easiest way to know is to try to hire the student in JobX/TimesheetX. If the student has an E-Verified I-9, you will see a green check by the I-9 status, and you will be able to complete the hire. If you see a red X, the student does not have an E-Verified I-9 and should not be allowed to work. If the student insists they completed the I-9, call the HR office.
No. In fact, we usually do not allow you to submit hires prior to the beginning of the semester. This gives us time to complete the summer hiring process and get the system set up for the academic year. Student timesheets for the first pay period of the semester aren’t due until 16 days after the semester starts; however, we ask that you submit your hires no later than eight days after the semester start so that we have time to process them.
Hire your incoming first-year students the first week of fall classes, as they are most likely not to have an I-9 and will need extra time to figure out how to complete a timesheet. Next, hire any returning students who are new to your department. They most likely have an I-9, but not all will. Finally, hire the students that have worked for you before since they have I-9s and know how to quickly complete a timesheet.
Yes, they can. However, while some students will try to work three or more LifeWorks jobs at the same time, it is strongly preferred that all students have a primary job where they are gaining a depth of professional experience and skills. Therefore, we advise supervisors to encourage their student workers to have no more than two jobs, if at all possible. Regardless, a student with more than one job must still abide by their weekly maximum hours. In other words, a returning student with a 12-hour maximum working one job for eight hours can work only four hours in the second job.
First-year students are limited to 10 hours per week while all other students are allowed to work up to 12 hours per week (with the exception of Gate Scholars, who are expected to work 16 hours per week).
Sometimes due to extenuating circumstances, we allow students to work over the max hours. However, please note this must be a exceptional occurrence like an emergency or a special event. Think of the max hours as a “running average” guideline over the entire semester. If your student is being prevented from entering these hours due to hours limits in TimesheetX, they will need to email lifeworks@berry.edu with an explanation and request for a one-time hours limit override. Please note that during the summers and breaks, students may not enter overtime (defined as more than 40 hours a week at ALL jobs combined) unless they also have special permission.
A few jobs on campus, such as RAs, are designated as stipend positions. Unless you have been cleared by the LifeWorks office to offer a stipend, please know that your students must enter the actual hourly time worked on their timecard. We do not give meal breaks or “comp time” so legally the hours entered must accurately reflect the hours spend on the job.
In the rare occasion a student works before hire, please submit their hire with the date they actually began work, so they can fill out a timesheet for all hours worked.
Hiring
Your hiring dates are used to generate a student’s timecards. It is convenient to align their first and last day with a payroll period. For students starting the first day of fall and working through the academic year, please enter: August 25, 2024 to May 10, 2025. If the student starts mid-year, just enter the first day of the nearest payroll period to when they will begin work.
Please email lifeworks@berry.edu and we can extend a student’s hire through the summer.
Every spring we send the incoming student request form to all supervisors, so be on the lookout for that in April.
For I-9 questions, please contact human resources (EMPLOYMENT@BERRY.EDU). For resume questions, please contact career development (careerdevelopment@berry.edu)
This error probably means that a student does not have I-9 on file, so please email HR (employment@berry.edu).
If you have been able to hire the student in JobX (i.e. got a green check on the I-9 verification screen) then the student may begin, even if their hire hasn’t been completed yet. If you haven’t tried to hire a student or you are unsure if they are eligible to work, please do not allow them to begin in order to remain in compliance with federal employment law.
The LifeWorks resume approval process is now available through this link: Potential.ly Log In
Sign into the platform using your Berry SSO username and password. Then follow the steps listed on the Resume Review page to learn about best practices for creating a resume, view sample resumes for a variety of industries and majors, and jumpstart your resume writing with one of our pre-formatted starter documents. Once you’ve completed your resume, upload it as a Word document of PDF on the Resume Review portal. A CPPD team member will provide feedback and either approve your resume or ask you to resubmit it with changes. Once you receive a notification that your resume is approved, you will have completed the LifeWorks resume approval requirement.
If you have questions about the best practices identified in the Resume Review or would like additional assistance creating or revising your resume, please log onto Handshake to make an appointment with a Career Peer Advisor. Our CPPD team members are happy to help!
Timesheets
We try to emphasize the importance of submitting time before graduation. After graduation all students’ single sign in access to TimesheetX is suspended and they must email payroll@berry.edu to arrange being paid for past hours worked. Also, after graduation students are no longer eligible to participate in the LifeWorks program.
For federal work student overrides, please email lifeworks@berry.edu with 1) the student ID 2) the course title including section 3) the day and time you need an override for (example: student 555555 Chemistry 101 section B 8/27/24 from 9-10am).
Please see the payroll schedule for deadlines. Generally the deadline for student submissions is Monday at 1 pm, and the supervisors must approve by Tuesday at 10 am. We encourage all students to enter their hours as they go, and not try to remember and enter them at the very end of the 2-week period.
In your TimesheetX to-do item menu, you will see delinquent timesheets. Usually these are timesheets that a student never started. Click the box next to the timesheet and choose “dismiss” from the drop-down menu at the top right of the screen, then “apply action.”
If they submitted their time but you missed the approval deadline, they may go to payroll to request an advance OR wait until the next pay period to be paid.
Job Creation and Management
Make sure your job is “active, listed” on JobX. Consider rewriting your job description to generate more interest and to communicate what skills and experiences you believe a student would gain. We will have a job fair in the fall, which is a great way to make personal contact with students who are looking for work. Also, reach out to lifeworks@berry.edu if you would like your job to be featured in our newsletter and/or social media.
Right now we do not issue performance raises. Promotions are allowed, but only when a student takes on more responsibility in line with a higher-level job classification.
We strongly encourage you to post jobs when possible (ie choose “active, listed”), to ensure equity and opportunity for all students looking for a new position. However, if you are rehiring a student or are certain who you will hire, you may submit your job as “not listed.”
Please refer to the supervisor handbook about dealing with performance issues. In brief, verbal and formal warning must be given: Supervisor's Guide.
Please contact Human Resources immediately for information about our worker’s compensation process.
You need to end the student’s current hire (email lifeworks@berry.edu) and then hire them into the higher level job.
Please speak with them directly if you have concerns. Many supervisors choose to use a hard copy method like a clipboard with a sign in/sign out sheet to provide another layer of accountability.
Please create a job entitled “event musician” and then when you hire the student, put a note with the hire about how many hours long your event is and what the rate per hour should be. We limit payment to a maximum of $75 an hour (this is the actual time of the event). This rate includes rehearsal, set up, and tear down. So if your event is 2 hours, the student would enter on their timesheet “7-9 pm” and they would be paid $150 maximum (you may choose to pay less per hour, this is just the ceiling).
LifeWorks student work week
Student Work Week is an annual celebration of the LifeWorks Program on campus. Hosted by the Center for Personal and Professional Development each year, students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in events that bring awareness and celebration to the great work that happens across campus in the student work program.
The Chief Moore award is open to all outstanding juniors and seniors nominated by their supervisor. The Rollins and Simpson awards are given to exceptional seniors, nominated by their supervisors and selected by the LifeWorks office. The Bertrand award is for our supervisor of the year, nominated by staff or students and then selected by past recipients. These awards are given out our annual LifeWorks awards ceremony during student work week in the spring.