Full-Time Staff Position Type Classifications

Purpose

This guideline is intended to assist in determining the classification of full-time staff positions as limited-term or regular staff. This guideline applies to full-time staff positions only and is not applicable to full-time faculty positions.

Overview

Penn State has transitioned from the historical categorization of funding sources as “permanent” and “temporary” with the launch of SIMBA on July 1, 2020 and the new approach to strategic budgeting.

All full-time staff requisitions should be categorized as regular staff (formerly standing) unless the funding for the position is substantially tied to time-delimited external funding sources. This applies to all new full-time staff positions regardless if it is a new position or backfilling for a previous incumbent. If you are submitting a requisition to backfill a previous incumbent, please be sure to assess the position type moving forward regardless of the position type of the previous incumbent.

When submitting a requisition, you may choose to utilize the ‘Justification’ box to indicate that the position has been confirmed to be limited-term. It is expected that the submitter of the requisition has correctly confirmed the position type prior to submitting. All limited-term positions should continue to include a statement within the job description indicating the length of the contract and the possibility of extending as had been done previously.

To aid in the determination of whether a requisition should be submitted as limited-term or regular-staff, please see the following.

Limited-Term

• Position supported by time-delimited external funding source(s) covering at least 50% of salary.
• Positions is largely reliant on, or principally supports activities that are externally funded.

Length of the limited-term contract should be influenced by the duration of the existing funding - but 100% funding in all out-years is not required if the hiring manager is/will be actively pursuing new funding opportunities.

Regular Staff

Position supported by:

• Internal sources only; or
• Internal sources and external funding sources that are not time delimited; or
• Time-delimited external funding source(s) accounting for less than 50% of salary.