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Work Study: Superior Responsibilities

Superior Responsibilities

For most students, the Federal/Institutional Workstudy Program is their very first opportunity in seeking and obtaining employment.  For this reason, it is important that you provide your student employee with adequate orientation, on-the-job training, guidance, motivation, open communication and feedback.

As a Supervisor, it is your responsibility to:

  1. Provide your student worker with valuable training and experience that will complement and reinforce the student's educational program and/or career goals.
  2. Assure that students are not permitted to work in your department before receiving prior authorization from the Student Employment Office.  Each student assigned to your department should present the Authorization Form to you.  If the student does not have these documents when he reports to work, he/she is not authorized to work.  He/she should be asked to go to the work-study office immediately.
  3. Arrange a work schedule mutually agreeable to your student employee that does not conflict with his/her class schedule.  This schedule should include enough hours that the student can earn the minimum hours required to work in order to retain his/her federal work study award.
  4. Complete all forms, associated with your student employee, accurately, legibly, and forward appropriate documents to the Office of Student Financial Aid in a timely manner.
  5. Monitor the total hours worked each pay period by your student employee and make certain his/her maximum earnings are not exceeded.
  6. Ensure that your student employee does not exceed the maximum 20 hours per week.  Do not require or encourage your student to work over 20 hours each week additional hours will not be compensated by Federal Work Study funds.
  7. Clearly explain the job and performances expected of each student and provide sufficient opportunity for questions and clarification as needed.  A job description should be given to each student employee and if he/she is not performing the job duties in a satisfactory manner, you should discuss the problem with him/her and provide assistance where needed to improve the work performance.
  8. Accurately review your student employee's timesheet each pay period before providing your signature.  Ensure that he/she submits actual hours worked and check accuracy of totals.
  9. Supervisors are responsible for submitting timesheets to the Office of Student Financial Aid office in a sealed envelope.  TIME SHEETS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED IF SUPERVISORS DO NOT HAND DELIVER TIMESHEETS TO WORKSTUDY OFFICE ON/OR BEFORE DESIGNATED DUE DATE.  A sign-in sheet will be available for the supervisor to sign and date stating that he/she has turned in time sheets.  Timesheets submitted after the due date will not be accepted.
  10. Supervisors should designate someone to sign timesheets in their absence and that person should be knowledgeable of the students' work schedule.  The departments will be held accountable for students whose timesheets are late and not properly signed and not submitted to the Work-Study Office on due date.