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Secondary Appointments

The content on this page applies to the following career tracks:

  • Clinician-Educators
  • Investigators
  • Team Scientists
  • Undifferentiated Track

Follow these instructions to submit a new secondary appointment:

New Secondary Appointment

 Effective Same Date as a New Primary Appointment

When a secondary appointment is being offered to a new faculty recruit and takes effect the same day as the primary appointment, FAO prefers to process both the primary and secondary appointments together. In this case, the primary and secondary departments would coordinate with each other, and the primary department would add the secondary appointment forms to the initial appointment transaction:

  1. Secondary department prepares Position Data/Appointment Forms (PDF) and provides them to primary department.
  2. Primary department submits an OnBase transaction for the new primary appointment and includes the secondary department's position data/appointment forms among the uploaded documents.
  3. FAO and HR Operations will process the primary and secondary appointments at the same time.

If a secondary appointment is offered after the new primary appointment is already processed, then the secondary department should submit a separate OnBase transaction using the instructions below for Current Primary Appointment in Feinberg.

 Current Primary Appointment in Feinberg

The secondary department completes the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page). Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:

  1. Secondary Appointment Cover Sheet (Word)
  2. Position Data/Appointment Forms (PDF), indicating employee ID
  3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable

 Current Primary Appointment in Another Northwestern University School

The secondary department completes the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page). Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:

  1. Secondary Appointment Cover Sheet (Word)
  2. Position Data/Appointment Forms (PDF), indicating employee ID
  3. Prior correspondence with FAO regarding special circumstances, if applicable
  4. Candidate's CV

 Current Primary Appointment in Your Own Department
Use this process to add a secondary appointment in another division(s) of the primary department

The primary department is the department in which a faculty member holds their primary appointment. Most Feinberg departments have divisions, so a faculty member's primary appointment will be in a specific division of the primary department.

Sometimes the primary department wishes to appoint a faculty member in two (or more) divisions of their own department so that the faculty member appears on multiple division faculty lists on the department website. This is accomplished by granting a secondary appointment in each additional division. Since all the divisions of the primary department report to the same department chair, granting a secondary appointment within a faculty member's primary appointment is done at the request of the department chair.

OPTION 1: Add a Secondary Appointment within the Primary Department: Update in FAO Faculty Database Only 

The following process is used when the secondary appointment only needs to be recorded in the FAO faculty database (which controls the faculty lists on Feinberg department websites) and not also in the university myHR system:

  • Email fao@northwestern.edu and provide:
    • Name of the faculty member (must be someone who holds a primary appointment in your own department)
    • The additional division(s) of your department in which they should be granted a secondary appointment 
    • Start date of the secondary appointments 

OPTION 2: Add a Secondary Appointment within the Primary Department: Update in FAO Faculty Database and myHR

While all Feinberg departments have department IDs in myHR, most divisions are not represented in the myHR organizational structure. However, some departments have separate myHR department IDs for each division. If your department is one of those and it is important that the secondary appointments in your divisions appear in myHR, then use this process:

  • Submit an OnBase transaction and upload the following documents
    •  Position Data/Appointment Forms for the secondary appointment

 

 

  

Reappointment

 Reappointment effective September 1

Secondary reappointments are generally effective 9/1 of each year and in that case are processed electronically.

 Reappointment effective any date except September 1

The secondary department completes the OnBase submission form (for help, view this OnBase page). Combine the following documents into a single PDF file and upload to the Position / Appointment Form button. When combining documents, use this order:
  1. Position data/appointment forms, printed from myHR and updated
  2. Prior correspondence regarding special circumstances, if applicable