Student Employment Guidelines for Supervisors

Please refer to the Boise State Policy #7470 Student Employment for specific information about eligibility and student work hours.

Student Employee – A student enrolled at the university with at least six (6) credits as an undergraduate student, or five (5) credits as a graduate student, or in the final semester of a degree program registered for all classes required for program completion.

The student must regularly attend classes or meet the intent to enroll criteria which means 1) a current student has registered for the next semester, or 2) a new or returning student has current admission status for the next term.

Federal law imposes restrictions on the hiring and job requirements of work-study students as well as work-study student hours. Detailed information about work-study students can be found on the Work-Study Resource Site.

International students admitted to Boise State University on an F-1 or J-1 visa are authorized for on-campus employment as long as they remain fully enrolled. Federal law imposes restrictions on international students and their student hours. Detailed information about international students can be found in the Boise State Policy #7470 Student Employment.

Although a job application is not required when recruiting student employees here is a sample: Student Employment Application (Word document)

On and off-campus jobs for Boise State University students are posted on Handshake, Career Services’ web-based, job-referral system, which is accessible to all Boise State students. For details, see Handshake for Employers.

All on-campus student jobs (work-study and non-work-study) must be posted on Handshake. Departments may continue to use other additional posting or recruiting methods; however, Handshake must be part of the recruiting process.

The intent of this posting requirement is to provide students with visibility to as many on-campus student jobs as possible; however, we understand that exceptions to this rule may be necessary. Exceptions will be made for:

• Rehiring a student into the same position
• Graduate or Research Assistant positions

Please keep in mind that while students will have visibility to on-campus student jobs, they may not be qualified for all jobs. For example, if you are hiring for a Biology Department Administrative Assistant and would prefer that the student is a Biology major, you can include that in the job posting. You can then screen candidates based on your requirements. Additionally, Handshake has the ability to search for students by major, GPA, year of graduation, etc. So in this same scenario, Career Services could send an email to all second and third year Biology students informing them of this job opportunity.

Your job listing(s) will remain active on Handshake until your specified closing date. If your position has not been filled by the closing date, you may extend the closing date in Handshake. If you have questions about Handshake, Career Services will be glad to assist you. You can contact Career Services at (208) 426-1747.

Please see the instructions from Human Resources Services on Hiring a Student Employee.

Federal regulations mandate proof of employment eligibility for all employees. This compliance requirement must be satisfied through the completion of a Form I-9 on or before the student’s first day of employment. Employees should be referred to Human Resource Services.

Student employee classification and compensation information can be found at:

• Student Employment Classification Schedule
• Student Employment Compensation Structure

For all questions regarding classification and compensation, please contact Human Resources.

For details about payroll and taxes please contact the Payroll and Processing office.

Payroll processes the biweekly payroll for Boise State employees. All employees are paid on a biweekly basis, two weeks in arrears.

Pay period schedules can be found on Payroll’s website, including the dates that time must be entered by student employees into the Time and Labor System, when supervisors must approve the student employees’ time and when paychecks will be direct deposited.

Once a student has been hired they will be required to complete a W-4 form (Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate) online through their myBoiseState account.

The W-2 wage and tax statement is an official record of the total amount of wages paid to the employee during a calendar year. It also shows the total federal, state, and Social Security (FICA) taxes withheld. Boise State University issues W-2 statements to each employee by January 31 of the year following the end of the tax year.

Student employees are not compensated for sick leave, vacation pay, or holiday pay. Student employees are paid straight time (not time and one-half) for any time worked unless it is over 40 hours in a week. Boise State’s work week runs from Sunday through Saturday

Student employees are eligible for Worker’s Compensation. Worker’s Compensation is compensation for loss of pay resulting from injuries or disabilities incurred on the job. Worker’s compensation covers expenses for medical care and for certain other benefits. For information about Worker’s Compensation please contact the Office of Risk Management and Insurance.

In order to assist in the post-graduation employability of our students, departments and supervisors are strongly encouraged to treat on-campus employment as a professional development opportunity for students. The following are guidelines and resources developed by the Division of Student Affairs, but accessible by all at the university. If you have questions, please contact the Career Center at career@boisestate.edu.

Every student employee should expect:

Include the Department Orientation PowerPoint in your individual orientations – this is a comprehensive set of slides and a facilitator’s guide, covering standard Boise State orientation topics and is available on the On-Campus Student Employment website. If you already cover all these topics in your student employee orientations, then please continue as you have planned or add the parts that were missed.

These conversations are intended to help you develop a professional mentoring relationship with your student employees by fostering a culture of care and helping your employees make connections between their current job and future goals. These conversations can be informal, formal, or in groups and should take place throughout their employment.

More information and helpful resources about intentional conversations are available on the On-Campus Student Employment website.

Whether you integrate into your existing evaluations or use one of our provided templates, performance evaluations are a key opportunity to engage in a constructive conversation with your student employees about their performance.

All student employees should have an annual performance evaluation. Additionally, we recommend that you do an initial one within a few months of their employment to go over expectations and provide constructive feedback.

Regardless of what performance evaluation template you are using, we encourage you to include the Professional Skills Evaluation (Word document) when evaluating your student employees. This evaluation tool gives you the opportunity to help your student employees understand how the skills they are learning in their student employment jobs are skills that will be important to their future career goals.

To initiate changes to your student employee for any of the following please access HCM through Bronco Hub in myBoiseState. If you have questions please contact Human Resources at extension 1616.

• Student employee funding source
• Pay increases
• Supervisor changes
• Changes in employee end date (including separations)
• Business title changes and changes in employee standard hours

Student employees are “at will” and may be lawfully released or terminated without cause at any time. However, given the professional development nature of these positions, we encourage you to seek Human Resources guidance if a situation involving termination arises. For more information about the separation process and student employee relations you can contact Human Resources’ Employee Relations.

Human Resource’s Workplace Learning and Development often offer workshops on supervisory techniques and can be a great resource.