Contractual Hiring

Hiring new contractual employees takes approximately six (6) weeks at a minimum. This does not include advertising time if needed. Before prospective contractual employees can be hired, initiating departments must have an available contractual PIN, available funding, and an Employee ID (Banner ID). New prospective contractual employees must also pass a background check. These processes can take two (2) weeks or longer to complete before a contract can be initiated.

Issuing additional contract(s) to an existing contractual employee takes between 2 - 4 weeks.

Full-time contractual vacancies should be entered and posted through the Morgan Employment Management System (MEMS) to generate the largest possible applicant pool. Additionally, the Office of Human Resources has partnered with Academic Affairs to facilitate adjunct faculty postings in MEMS. Additional information regarding adjunct faculty hiring can be found here.

Contractual employees have the same two-week pay period as regular employees; however, they are paid two weeks after the pay period ends, while regular employees are paid one week after the pay period ends. This means contractual employees and regular employees receive their pay on alternate weeks.

The contractual payroll schedule and adjunct faculty payroll dates can be found on this page.

EPAFs can be used to initiate contracts for both new and existing employees. If using the EPAF to hire a new contractual employee who is not in Banner, pre-work (i.e., background check, ID setup) is REQUIRED. The EPAF contractual hiring process is a Banner Workflow. The initiator must have the appropriate Banner EPAF access to initiate the workflow. Click here for instructions on requesting EPAF initiation access.

The PF10 form is a DocuSign form used to initiate, revise, or continue an existing contract. If the individual receiving the contract is new to Morgan, the background check and Banner ID setup are still required.

Initiate a Background Check

Initiate an Employee Banner ID Setup

Yes. Newly hired contractual employees must pass a background check before a contract can be initiated for them. Returning contractual employees with a break in service of one (1) year or more will be required to undergo another pre-employment background check before a new contract is issued.

Background checks can take up to ten (10) business days to be completed and reported back to MSU. In some cases, the process takes longer.

Background Check Request Form

No. Under no circumstances should an employee work without a fully executed contract. If you have a question regarding the status of an EPAF, you may ask the initiator OR contact the Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) team at hris@morgan.edu.

The Talent & Total Rewards team in the Office of Human Resources can assist with determining contractual staff pay rates—email ohrclasscomp@morgan.edu for assistance.

Lecturer and adjunct faculty pay is set by the Division of Academic Affairs. Contact your department chairperson for guidance.

Inquiries regarding graduate assistant pay should be directed to the Graduate School. 

Contractual employees may be eligible for benefits, depending on budget constraints, funding, and the duration of the contract. Questions should be directed to benefits@morgan.edu. Contractual employees with an assignment lasting six months or less are generally not eligible for health insurance. Contractual employees whose assignment is longer than six months may be eligible for insurance; however, the health insurance subsidy for contractual employees is less than that for regular employees. For more information on benefits and rates, please visit this link.

Students can be hired in two ways: as a work-study or on contract. Work-study students are processed through the Office of Financial Aid. Departments who wish to employ a contractual student worker must ensure the student is not working more than twenty (20) hours per week, across all active contracts.

Use the PF10 form to revise an existing contract. It is a DocuSign form and can be found here.

The approval queue is determined by the department and the contractual position classification, not by Human Resources. As a general rule, the director, chair, principal investigator, and/or program manager, as well as the dean or appropriate vice president, should be listed. Accounting and the Comptroller should also be listed for funding purposes. Final approval should be listed as human resources.

Contact a member of the HR Information Systems (HRIS) team for further assistance at hris@morgan.edu. 

• To amend a previously submitted incorrect timesheet
• To account for a previously missed timesheet
• To submit a current timesheet ONLY when technical issues prevent access to or submission of the WebSIS timesheet

Faculty do not generally complete timesheets, except those who accept supplemental contracts (e.g., summer research contracts). Payment for most supplemental contracts must be initiated through a biweekly WebSIS timesheet. Faculty members should check with their chair for department-specific timesheet protocols.

Departments should complete the Contractual Employee Termination Request form to terminate and disable staff access to MSU systems. The Contractual Employee Termination Request Form does not need to be completed for adjunct faculty at the end of the semester, if their return the following semester is likely.