Middlebury HCM logo

Frequently Asked Questions

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Oracle HCM, short for Human Capital Management, is Middlebury’s new human resources software. It will replace the HR functions we currently do in Banner. HCM is how we’ll handle time sheets, time away, benefits information, tax information, and many more aspects of our employment at Middlebury.

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HCM will “go live” on June 16, 2020, which is the first day of the bi-weekly pay period in Middlebury.

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Our current system, known as Banner, no longer serves our needs as a complex and growing institution. HCM is one of three major enterprise-wide cloud-software upgrades we’re making at Middlebury to improve our business processes. In 2019, we introduced Oracle Finance to manage all of our financial work and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge for our Advancement office.

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Oracle Finance was a challenging rollout for some of our staff members and caused some frustration. The good news is that the number of help tickets for Oracle Finance has dramatically decreased since that project went live. We expect that when HCM first goes live, there will be glitches that need to be ironed out. This is normal when any organization rolls out a major new piece of software. We are committed to setting up all the appropriate support channels and communicating about problems and solutions as we learn about them.

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We are working with the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium (GMHEC), whose members include Middlebury, Champlain College, and St. Michael’s College. Each of the member schools needs to replace older software systems and, working together, we are saving and avoiding significant costs over going it alone.

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Any big change comes with a learning curve, so the short answer is that it might not be easier right away. But once you learn the system and get to practice it for a few pay periods, it will start to feel familiar and, yes, it will likely feel easier and more streamlined than what we were doing before. HCM is designed to be user-friendly, with an interface that feels more like the way we conduct our personal business online.

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No! However, the new system differs from our current Banner time sheet in that it asks non-exempt (hourly) staff in VT and all hourly employees in California (due to state labor laws) to log which hours they’ve worked when they fill out their time card (as opposed to duration of time worked). They can do this daily or weekly, or any time they wish prior to the deadline for approving time.

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Every employee at Middlebury will use HCM. It’s how we’ll manage every aspect of our employment, including time sheets, absences, benefits, tax information, and more. After our HCM functionality is complete, we will stop using Banner for human resources functions.

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Yes! By working together with the two other colleges of the Green Mountain Higher Education Consortium, Champlain College and St. Michael’s College, Middlebury is saving and avoiding significantly over the costs of going it alone. In 2019, for example, Middlebury saved more than $4 million. These savings help secure Middlebury’s financial health and allow us to redirect spending into programs that support Middlebury’s world-class education.

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The selection of this new technology followed an extensive evaluation process, which started in 2016, in which more than 250 employees across all three colleges participated through surveys, listening and requirements gathering sessions as well as product demonstrations.

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You should start by attending one of the upcoming training sessions, which will begin in early March. Afterward, if you have a question, check with your manager to see if they can help you. You can also check the HCM Knowledge Base, which is being developed by GMHEC. If you don’t find the answers you need, you can submit a help desk ticket by emailing: support@gmhec.org.

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As David Provost and Karen Miller outlined in their communication to the Middlebury community, HCM, Human Capital Management, “is our new human resources software and it’s the next big step as we modernize our business processes. HCM is how we’ll all get paid. HCM offers many other features that will unify our processes, such as managing benefits, requesting time off, and tax information.

Moving forward, Middlebury will continue to find ways to provide essential services in a cost-effective manner. Shared services is one of the ways we’ll achieve that goal. With our GMHEC partners, we will transition our payroll and benefits administration functions to a shared services model.

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We are planning to open the payroll shared services in June 2020, and the benefits administration shared services office on July 1, 2020.

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We continue to test the system through several payroll validation processes. In addition, as we go live, we will have employees enter their time in both Oracle and Banner so that we can compare the accuracy of the new system. If there are significant errors in Oracle, we will revert and run payroll in Banner to meet our current pay dates.