UW Center for Human Neuroscience

Research Participant Payments in Workday

UW recent financial reorganization has had a major impact on participant payment/reimbursement (see description below). Over the last week we raised concerns to the admin, and UW is now collecting information from labs that have been affected.

A draft report to UW Admin (HSD and finance) is HERE. The final draft will be submitted Monday 21st. Please make comments/suggested edits.

We’re asking labs to fill in BOTH the UW Connect Ticket (that goes directly to UW admin) and the more detailed CHN Survey. The CHN survey will be used to create an informal report to the administration (fully anonymized). Instructions for both of these are below. Please take the time to submit feedback to upper admin, participation will help us make sure that participant reimbursement is equable, private and non-onerous.

This page will provide ongoing updates on the status of this issue.

Please forward this page to any members of your laboratory and colleagues who do human subject research.

Please contact Ione Fine ionefine@uw.edu if you have any additional concerns or questions.

UW Connect Ticket

How to fill in a UW Connect Ticket

  1. Go here: https://uwconnect.uw.edu/finance?id=sc_cat_item&sys_id=7ae1b9fe87a2a5546f1997dd3fbb35ce and sign into Workday
  2. “Have you searched Self Help” choose NO (ignore instructions to search)
  3. “Add watchers.” Feel free to add ionefine@uw.edu if you want (or not)
  4. “Select topic”, Choose “Procurement” .
  5. a. Begin your Description with this sentence
  6. “This ticket should route to Procurement under the “Misc Payment (non-UW employee payments)”.
  7. Then describe in detail the exact nature of your issue(s) and the impact it is having or will have on your research participants, studies, and programs. It will help to divide the issues into TIME CRITICAL: e.g. Participants are waiting an unacceptable time for payments, and there is the potential that this lack of payment will need to be reported as an adverse event to NIH, or you cannot recruit participants because you have no legal way to pay them. Please only describe things as time critical if they are either likely to be an adverse event or have halted research. HIGHLY TIME SENSITIVE: Research is significantly impacted. E.g. Recruitment is being impacted because participants dislike the payment method, Participants are taking too long to be paid (but not adverse event length) or lab administration has become unreasonably onerous. IMPORTANT BUT NOT TIME SENSITIVE should be used for other concerns (e.g. the $200 limit). Another thing that will help is being very clear about what you need in general terms: e.g. I need to be able to pay participants between $100-200, with a cash equivalent (Zelle, check or cash) within 2 weeks of their participation, without collecting SSN. Finally, please state how many people your lab represents.
  1. Encourage your colleagues to submit their issues as well.

CHN Survey

CHN is also soliciting feedback via a separate, more detailed, questionnaire which will be used to generate a report to the UW admin summarizing the experimenter perspective (fully anonymized). Please try to complete by Fri 11th Aug.

https://forms.gle/zeAaXfqKPJQ5Zx9w6

Thank you to everyone who has already filled in the survey!

Current status

The VP of Research, Vice Dean of Admin and HSD are aware of this issue and have requested that affected laboratories fill in a UW Connect Ticket. Instructions for doing both are on this page.

CHN is also independently collecting more detailed information from laboratories, which we plan to compile into an unofficial report to be sent to the upper admin.

The impact of the Financial Transformation on Participant Payments

Currently, the newly-updated rules are:

  • Cash payments via a Field Advance are only permitted in exceptional circumstances (e.g. testing in remote locations where cash is required).
  • Zelle payments now require collecting ALL the information below, regardless of how much the participant is paid.
  • US Bank cards/gift cards require collecting the information below if the participant receives over $200.

Some faculty have raised concerns including the following:

  • Payments under $200: Many participants dislike US Bank Cards/gift cards. However payment with Zelle now requires collecting all the information listed below.
  • Over $200/Zelle: We are now required not only collecting SSN but also address information. This heightens existing security, equity and privacy concerns. It is important to note that the approval request will route broadly throughout the UW because of the way security roles are set up in Workday.

Information to be collected

Much of this information always needed to be collected for participants receiving more than $200 (although the reason for this is unclear, given that the Federal limit is $600). Information in bold italics is additional information that is now required for Zelle and payments over $200. 

For Zelle payments under $200, labs will be required to collect and submit this information. 

For payments over $200 participants will be sent an email link from UW and will have to fill in this information themselves.

  • Full Legal Name
  • Social Security Number (SSN) / Tax Identification Number (TIN)
  • Permanent Address (Include City, State and Zip Code) – should not be a P.O. Box
  • Phone number
  •  Amount given to the Research Subject
  •  Payment Reference Numbers and Payment Dates
  •  Brief description of the type of payment
  •  Research Subject’s signature showing receipt of the payment, if paid in cash
  • Name of person preparing the report, Phone and Department Name