UC officials on Thursday said they were centralizing payroll operations, adding up to 600 jobs to the Riverside campus, but did not say how many jobs will be lost at the 10 other campuses across the state.
The news came during a morning press conference at the UC Riverside campus.
The Riverside campus was selected by the University of California President’s Office as the location for a UC-wide shared service center that will process routine transactions related to payroll, benefits, leave management and workforce administration, the university said in a statement.
The center is expected to launch with roughly up to 160 employees, and will hire more people as campuses and medical centers transition into using its services. When fully deployed, it could employ up to 600 people in Riverside County.
Nathan Brostrom, UC's executive vice president of business operations, confirmed there will be cuts to mostly administrative jobs in various departments such as human resources, information technology and and some academic departments, but he couldn’t provide a number, saying that the number will vary from campus to campus.
The center, called UCPATH, will serve all 10 campuses of the university in routine payroll, benefits, leave management and workforce administration.
The project, a part of the UC’s “Working Smarter Initiative,” could save as much as $100 million annually once it is fully deployed, officials said.
The announcement of the program launched in the face of deep state budget cuts and was being touted as a boon for jobs in the hard-hit Inland Empire.
“UC Riverside emerged as the best choice, particularly when we factored in our desire to attract staff,” said UC Executive Vice President Nathan Brostrom in a statement. “We hope to draw job applicants from across the University, but this central location will make it an especially convenient choice for staff at our four Southern California campuses.”
The new human resources center will open in July 2013 and will initially serve five locations: UCLA, Ronald Reagan UCLA – Medical Center, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, and UC Office of the President.
All other campuses and medical centers will make the transition by October 2014.
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“The university is doing the right thing here,” said UC President Mark Yudof. “We are using the power of technology and of centralized services to streamline our costs and to give taxpayers the best possible return on investment.”
Six campuses put in a bid to host the shared service center. Land values, cost of living and availability of local talent all played into the decision.
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