Employment of Close Relatives (Nepotism) and Consensual Relationships

Purpose:

To provide employees information about institutional requirements for reporting the existence of any relationship that may create a conflict of interest, specifically a relationship involving a relative who is also a university employee or an allowable consensual relationship with another university employee.

Relevant Definitions:

Nepotism: When used on campus, this word refers to the process of declaring close relatives or spouses so as to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest; i.e., "nepotism" refers to the process of "avoiding/preventing nepotism". 

Close relative: Please refer to HOP 5-1260 for the complete list, but common sense will also aid you in this determination.

Consensual Relationships: There is a whole policy on this. 

Mitigation Plan: Please refer to the policy on consensual relationships.

Process:

• All university employees must disclose any close relative who is also a university employee and/or disclose any allowable consensual relationship with another university employee.

How to Update Nepotism Information in Workday:

1. Disclose the employment of close relatives and consensual relationships through your Workday profile.

2. Navigate to “Personal” under the left navigation pane of their worker profile (see screenshot). 

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3. Select "Additional Data":

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4. Scroll down to “Nepotism and Consensual Relationship Declaration(s)"

5. Choose “Edit” and enter the relationship type, name of employee, affiliate, or student, the individual’s EID, their CSU and Department, and any additional comments.

6. Generally speaking, if the relationship precedes the employment, and if there is no supervisory or evaluative relationship between the individuals, the disclosure itself will prove sufficient. If supervision or evaluation (or similar) are involved, then the employee(s) shall consult with their supervisor(s) regarding alternate supervision and/or evaluation.

7. Employees declaring a consensual relationship will need to notify their supervisor(s), per HOP 3-3050, and work with them on a mitigation plan, as needed.

Screen shot of Edit Additional Data field in WD:

FAQ:

Q: My spouse works for UT and already added our nepotism information – doesn't that fulfill the requirement?

A: No. Every employee is required to disclose this information in Workday.

Q: I received an email from Workday saying "REVIEW REQUIRED: Academic Workers with Declared Nepotism and/or Consensual Relationship(s)". Do I need to do anything?

A: Yes. The email includes instructions for follow-up and includes this note: "NOTE: Only users with the HR Associate, HR Executive, or HR Partner role in Workday may make updates to the Nepotism and Consensual Relationship Declaration(s) section on behalf others. If you do not hold one of these roles, please coordinate with the appropriate staff in your unit to make any needed updates for the workers listed above. The employee as self may also update their own declaration in Workday."

Policies

HOP 5-1260: Employment of Close Relatives (Nepotism)                        

HOP 3-3050: Consensual Relationships