Service Center FAQs

A service center is a unit within a department that focuses on completing specific tasks and processes. The Rutgers service center will provide employees with a tailored experience through online self-service and professional, personalized support for their Human Resources (HR) and Payroll needs.

The purpose of this project is to create a unit within UHR and Payroll that focuses on completing HR and Payroll tasks and processes, and aligns with the Rutgers strategic plan to deliver dynamic customer service to our employees. The center will perform specific HR and Payroll activities to create a consistent and simplified experience for employees. The service center will enable HR and Payroll employees to perform their jobs more efficiently, allow HR employees to focus on work more impactful to their organizations, and work towards unifying Rutgers to create one experience for all employees.

The project is a collaboration among HR, Payroll, the University Finance and Administration Project Management Office and the Change Management Office, Office of Information Technology, Institutional Planning and Operations, and customers who represent key areas of the university. The Senior Leadership Team has been actively involved in making this project a reality for Rutgers, and continues to support this initiative and its ultimate benefits for our faculty and staff. Additionally, a steering committee, comprised of Rutgers leaders, has been formed to provide strategic guidance throughout the project.

Establishing the service center is not a cost cutting exercise. The project is intended to deliver better customer service for employees across the university, while improving the experience of HR and Payroll employees. The expectation is that most HR and Payroll employees will approach their work differently as processes are redefined. This will result in consistency and greater efficiencies. As we build the service center, there will be new opportunities to focus on value added work.

The service center is not the same as centralization. Some functions in the service center will be centralized to give HR representatives across the university and Payroll staff more support, consistent processes, and standardized knowledge and resources to help faculty and staff in a consistent manner.

The project began in May 2018 and is expected to launch with a functional service center in summer 2019. For more specific information on project phases, please visit the Project Timeline section of the Service Center Project website.

In summer 2019, customers will be able to call the service center or use the self-service functionality via the online service center portal to ask all HR and Payroll questions. The service center will be able to handle all inquiries related to HR and Payroll at this time. Specialized support for the initial services being brought into the service center will be available on day one. Specialized support beyond these launch services will be expanded into the service center moving forward.

Service center employees will undergo a significant amount of training related to customer service, e.g. how to operate within the service center, specific HR and Payroll functional training, and Rutgers specific training to drive robust understanding of the complexities across the organization. This will enable the service center team to be prepared to provide best-in-class service to the Rutgers community.

• Consistent customer experiences through efficient processes and self-service capabilities
• One number to contact for any HR or Payroll question
• Transparency of status of inquiries through enhanced technology
• Robust self-service functionality enabling employees to complete some actions on their own through the website
• Updated and consistent information across all sites
• Streamlined HR and Payroll work flows to address customer inquiries
• A unified Rutgers experience for all customers
• Efficient issue resolution and simplified processes for customers

No, there will not be designated service center employees assigned to a specific type of customer. Every employee will receive a consistent, effective and pleasant experience, regardless of who takes their call.

The service center technology, ServiceNow, will give employees and service center managers insight into the status of an inquiry, therefore improving overall transparency and response time. Additionally, the service center will establish standards (service level agreements) with customers regarding the expectations and results that customers can expect from the service center.

Yes, managers and supervisors will have the same pathway as employees to get help from the service center. If managers have questions about personnel concerns, they may call the service center first. The service center will track the inquiry, ensuring all confidentially requirements are met, and connect the manager with the appropriate area in UHR or Payroll as required.

All campuses will interact with the service center through the same methods to receive the same services. This will enable a more consistent customer experience across Rutgers.

The case management system will enable the service center to identify employees and provide proper guidance based on the employee’s role, union, benefits, or other determining factors. This will allow for a personalized experience every time a customer speaks to a representative.

Yes, student employees can call the service center or use the self-service functionality via the online service center portal if they have questions related to their university employment.

HR and Payroll expertise will need to exist in the center for the services we are offering. Inquires still will be routed out of the service center to the corresponding HR / Payroll experts, if necessary. The case management system will enable tracking of all inquiries and, ultimately, create visibility into HR and Payroll transactions for the customer.

As the service center is designed, and new roles are created to support its operations, reporting lines may change in UHR and Payroll. Changes within any department will be decided within the department. While our goal is to minimize disruption to reporting structures to maximize our effectiveness, some organizational changes may be needed.

The expectation is that most HR and Payroll employees will approach their work differently as processes are redefined. This will result in consistency and greater efficiencies. As we build the service center, there will be new opportunities to focus on value added work.

The establishment of the new service center will affect all Rutgers University faculty, staff and student workers. How UHR and Payroll partner and resolve inquires will change. Our goal is to minimize disruption to HR and Payroll staff and customers, and to ensure our staff is trained well, and customers are served well.

Leaders across the university are best suited to determine what their organizations need. To this end, employees are expected to work with their leaders and supervisors to determine how their roles may shift. The intention is that the service center will reduce the amount of effort currently spent on time-consuming processes, enabling units across the university to focus on critical work that improves Rutgers.

We engaged HR and Payroll representatives from different areas of the university to identify and evaluate recommendations for services to be delivered through the service center. We followed an objective, criteria-based process to assess which HR and Payroll activities would be a fit for the service center. At a high level, the service center will perform activities in the following functions:

• Benefits Administration
• Payroll Services
• Leave Administration
• HCM-Personal Data Changes
• Operations
• Learning & Development
• Recruitment (Staff)
• Absence Reporting
• HRIS Data Requests
• HCM-Job Data Changes

At launch, customers will be able to call the service center for any HR or Payroll question and access the self-service portal. Additionally, the service center will provide specialized support (beyond inquiry resolution) for these services: Leave Administration, Personal Data Changes, Benefits Administration, Kite and Key Technology Store Deductions, Former Employee Services, and Pending Job Change Submissions.

Not all HR and Payroll activities will move to one central unit. Only the select HR and Payroll processes will operate from a centralized unit. This is to simplify the work of all those who perform HR and Payroll work by providing more support, streamlined processes, and consistent information. Counseling services and current walk-in desks will remain as part of UHR and will operate outside the service center.

The service center will serve as the conduit to connect you to UHR for services that are not offered by the service center. By starting with the service center, customer inquiries will be tracked even if it is a question that UHR will ultimately resolve.

The service center will serve as the conduit to connect you to Payroll for services that are not offered by the service center. By starting with the service center, customer inquiries will be tracked even if it is a question that Payroll Services will ultimately resolve.

Yes, you should encourage faculty and staff to leverage the capabilities of the service center. The service center will offer improved self-service, a tracking capability to increase transparency on the status of a customer inquiry, and a professional who will provide consistent and updated information.

The service center will offer new opportunities through specialist and supervisory roles in areas such as customer service and data analytics for HR and Payroll professionals. For some, a move into the service center may require a higher level of expertise and can be seen as a career development opportunity to build more breadth and depth in specific capabilities.

The organizational structure of the service center is still under development. While most of the positions will require HR and Payroll expertise, some may be more focused on customer account management. A staffing strategy is being developed to fill positions in the service center. The intention is to staff the center with a combination of current Rutgers employees and new hires.

The service center will be located in ASB II in New Brunswick, NJ. This location will serve all Rutgers faculty and staff across all campuses.

The service center hours will be between 8am – 5pm. Needs for outside normal business hours are being considered.

The service center will not have walk-in capability. Current walk-in areas in UHR, Payroll and other locations across the university will remain open to serve faculty and staff with anything that requires in-person support.

Faculty and staff will be able to contact the service center primarily via phone, email and through the service center portal. More options will be considered in the future after the summer 2019 launch.

The service center will have defined standards on how to handle calls and will be staffed to account for the ebbs and flow in volume experienced across the university at different times of year. Additionally, the service center technology will help provide a baseline on volume so that service center leadership can make adjustments as necessary to best serve customers.

The service center has partnered with ServiceNow for the case management system and Verizon to provide the telephone capabilities. Both vendors are industry leaders, and this will enable us to provide best-in-class service to all faculty and staff.

The ServiceNow technology will be the backbone of the service center through the case management system. The case management system will create a ticketing mechanism enabling the tracking of inquiries from initiation to completion. ServiceNow will also include a knowledge base for service center professionals as well as Rutgers faculty and staff, ensuring all information is consistent. Verizon telephony will provide the connection point between phone calls and the service center and provide real time measures of call volume and other metrics needed to monitor operations.

An announcement was made via email to the Rutgers community on February 18, 2019. More updates and news will follow as we visit your organizations, host events, and prepare to open the service center.

For more information, please visit the Service Center website. If you have a specific question, please send us an email at escp@rutgers.edu. A project team member will respond to your question in 2-3 business days.