No. Please submit one PAF and in student name note “see attached.” Attach a spreadsheet containing all student names, A-IDs and position numbers.
Removal of Hours Limitation for the Summer Work Period
From May 16 to August 15, student employees and graduate assistants can be hired to work up to 37.5 hours per week. The usual hour limits for these positions will be removed during this period. Learn more >
Follow the steps below to hire a student employee. More information on student hiring categories and salaries is available on Hiring for Different Classifications. If you have any questions, please review the frequently asked questions below or email studentemployment@niu.edu.
Post the position on Huskies Get Hired or your department’s website.
Interview student candidates.
Select top candidate.
Make an offer to your top candidate.
Check the Position Funding Reports in HR Weekly Reports (or request this information from your Business Manager) to see if your position requires a background check.
Once you receive the “approved to hire” email, create the Personnel Action Form (PAF) and the Position Request Form (PRF) (if needed) and route through the appropriate college and funding sources.
If a background check is necessary, please do not send the PAF/PRF to HR without the background check email confirmation. The PAF/PRF will be returned, and you’ll be asked to resend when the background check is included in the email.
Once all signatures have been obtained, send the “approved to hire” background check email confirmation (if needed), PAF, and PRF (if needed) in one email to studentemployment@niu.edu.
Student Employment processes the paperwork. If the paperwork is a new hire or a rehire, the student will be sent the appropriate “Onboarding at NIU” email to their student email account. This email tells the student how to complete the required online onboarding and I-9 verification processes. Hiring managers are encouraged to follow up with the student about completing these processes; the student will not receive reminders from HRS.
Sample Onboarding Email
Welcome, [Student’s Name]!
We’re excited to have you join our team as a student employee. I wanted to tell you about a few things you need to do before you can start your job:
- Visit the HR website to review the steps you need to take before you start work at NIU.
- Gather the documents needed to verify your identity and work eligibility.
- Notify me when you’ve completed the steps, so I can get you scheduled to start work
I also wanted to share some information on how you’ll record your work hours and get paid.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
[Your Name]
When the student completes onboarding, the hiring manager will receive an email notification from a designated NIU hiring representative with this confirmation. Please note: The student is not cleared to work at this point.
When the student has verified their I-9 Form, they will appear in the Employee LookUp Tool and are cleared to work. Hiring managers should check the Employee LookUp Tool regularly.
If the student does not appear in the Employee LookUp Tool but you have received the email confirming that the student completed their online onboarding, the student has not verified their I-9. They may have completed Section 1 online, but they have not verified Section 2 of the I-9 form in person.
Your student employee can start working. They should not begin work before this point. The student employee’s supervisor should reach out to them about their start date, scheduled hours and departmental onboarding.
No. Please submit one PAF and in student name note “see attached.” Attach a spreadsheet containing all student names, A-IDs and position numbers.
You can use one PAF to do as many as three actions.
Yes. Each effective date corresponds to the single action on that row. You could do the following:
Action/Reason
| Effective Date: 6/1/23 | Action/Reason: REH - Rehire |
| Effective Date: 7/1/23 | Action/Reason: TMP - End Temporary Appointment |
No. Any funding changes require a PRF with appropriate signatures. Noting the funding change in the PAF is helpful, but without an accompanying PRF the change will not be made.
Select the appropriate action (job change) and make sure you note in the comments the old position number you are moving them from. For example, moving from position 12345 to position 54321. This action can only be one at the beginning of a pay period (1st or 16th of the month).
Once you’ve submitted a PAF with all other required documents and received an email from studentemployment@niu.edu that the student has been sent the rehire/new hire paperwork you’ll want to look for the “congratulations” email noting they have completed the onboarding. If you have received that email and the employee is not showing up on your funding reports or the Employee LookUp Tool, then they have NOT verified their I9. Please follow up with your student as necessary to have them complete these items before starting work.
You have several options, which are:
In order to ensure accurate processing, quickly, please collect ALL required forms and submit one email per student to studentemployment@niu.edu. Long PDF files that have multiple PAFs or PRFs are hard to process and sometimes mistakes happen. If you have to include multiple people in one email, each student needs their own PDF with all hiring paperwork.
While there are many ways to reach the Student Employment team, the best and speediest way to get a response is to email studentemployment@niu.edu.
Do not start a student employee until they appear in the Employee LookUp Tool in the position you hired them into.
No. No student should be allowed to start working until they appear in the Employee LookUp Tool in the position you hired them into.
It will take Human Resources a few days once all information is submitted to have all students entered into the HR system during peak processing. If your students tells you they have completed onboarding, orientation, and BOTH step 1 and step 2 of I9 processing, please check the Employee Lookup Tool for a day or two.
If they still do not appear, ask the student to email studentemployment@niu.edu to find out what is missing.
Please do not email studentemployment@niu.edu asking if students are cleared to work. The more emails we get about where students are in the process, the longer delays all will face in student employment processing.
The position funding report is usually only given to the business manager. If you don’t have access, you can have your business manager request it through DoIT or you will have to request the information from your business manager.