Dear U of G faculty and staff,

We’re now several months into the launch of the Gryphons at Work Human Resources Management System (HRMS) and I want to update our campus community on our progress.

First, I know this transition has not always been easy – both for our end users, and for the teams who have supported the implementation. I want to thank everyone for your patience and hard work.

In particular, I would like acknowledge all those who have been working in the system every day to support our employees, whether entering appointments, creating new positions, or ensuring payroll is completed in a timely manner. I recognize this has been a challenging time leading to longer days — know that your resilience and perseverance is extremely appreciated and valued. Your efforts have enabled us to work through many of the issues we’ve encountered while supporting our broader U of G community during this transition and identifying opportunities for improvements in advance of the next semester.

This work has been fundamental to getting us where we are today and I am extremely grateful.

Issues and action taken

Although our team is working through a number of challenges, there are four main issues we’ve heard from our staff and faculty. I want to update you on the action we’re taking to address the following:

Pay issues for new employees who joined the University this fall

The high volume of new employees at the beginning of the semester meant a large amount of data needed to be entered into the new system. In turn, some new employees have experienced issues with their pay. Part of this challenge has been access to pay statements so that employees are able to view their pay directly. We understand the stress that pay issues cause.

I am pleased to share that as of Oct. 21, the pay statement issue has been resolved and all employees can access their pay statements across all active appointment records. This change is retroactive so that you can view all your pay statements that have been generated by the system since the July go-live of Gryphons At Work.

If you still cannot see your pay statements, please contact HR support for assistance.

Our HR team and many of you on the frontlines worked together to accelerate entry of new appointments, and we believe all new employees have been paid; however, if you have a question or believe there might be an issue, please submit a ticket by submitting an HRMS support form or emailing gryphonsatworkhrmshelp@uoguelph.ca with the subject line / ticket title “Outstanding Pay.” The HR team is prioritizing all tickets about pay for quick resolution.

Preparing for the Winter 2025 semester, we are also working to ensure that we have working processes in place to support adding a large volume of new contracts.

Response time for tickets logged

A high volume of tickets requesting support is currently in the system, resulting in delayed response times. To ensure we offer timely support we are taking the following steps:

• Working with IT and our system provider to prioritize and resolve technical issues.
• Triaging incoming tickets and assigning more staff to respond to Gryphons at Work tickets, to ensure urgent concerns are addressed quickly. These actions will help reduce the current volume of tickets and ensure high-priority issues are quickly identified and resolved.

Making the Gryphons at Work SharePoint Site more intuitive and informative

We’re adding more resources and FAQs to make it easier to find information and aid in navigating self-service within the site and troubleshooting common issues.

Enhanced Training & Education to support new processes as a result of Gryphons At Work

As we prepare for the Winter 2025 semester, the HR team will be rolling out training workshops weekly with a focus on position creation in Gryphons at Work (GAW) and the Recruiting and Onboarding modules to get us ready for the Winter appointments.

We will also be hosting regular ‘GAW Support Drop-In Calls’ to assist you with in-the-moment issues you are experiencing with appointment entry for incoming employees. These efforts will kick off in mid-November.

Your impact

While we continue to work toward optimizing the system, you can help by continuing to quickly raise issues and staying informed. Here’s how:

• To be alerted to news and updates related to HRMS, visit the news section of the Gryphons at Work Knowledge Site and subscribe to updates (click the follow button at the top of the page).

• If you work heavily within Gryphons at Work (e.g. department administrators), we have built a distribution list for similar roles and you will begin to receive updates from gryphonsatworkhrms@uoguelph.ca – watch for these in your mailbox.

• If you have suggestions to improve workflows and processes related to Gryphons at Work, we want to hear from you. Please submit your feedback to gryphonsatworkhrms@uoguelph.ca. We appreciate your insights and will consider all feedback that we receive.

Though challenging, the implementation of Gryphon’s at Work is an important part of our journey to transform. I am confident that by working together, we will optimize Gryphon’s at Work and realize features to simplify tasks and empower our community to access and update personal information.

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

Sincerely,

Elaine Do Rosario, Associate Vice-President and Chief Human Resources Officer