UTflex, a virtual 'employment agency'

What is UT-Flex?

At the University of Twente many students have a job as flex worker (student assistant or on-call worker). This involves much administrative inconvenience, especially if a student has several jobs. In addition, students often need to involve various desks in order to make the necessary arrangements.

In order to simplify these processes, a new system has been developed: UT-Flex, a workflow web application that makes for a more simple administration. Besides, the system contributes to matching demand and supply of work more efficiently.

The word “(temporary) employment agency” has been put between inverted commas because it is not an independent intermediary that has its own legal status. As a student, you will be employed by the University of Twente and will be paid under the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. Formally, you will be employed by the Human Resources department, division UT-Flex, and not, as before, by the faculty of department where you performed your tasks.

Four parties can be distinguished within UT-Flex. These are:

Demand and supply of small jobs

The web application UT-Flex can only be accessed by UT students and UT staff members via Web application, using the S-number or M-number

The tasks performed by students often involve incidental jobs. For this UT-Flex uses the phrase small job.

A small job receives a unique number which is called the small job number.

If you are a student and wish to perform a small job, you can apply at the virtual employment agency UT-Flex. In so doing, you can indicate which period you will be available for work.

If you are a staff member looking for a student to perform a small job, you should open a small job via UT-Flex. You can also consult UT-Flex to see if someone is available. If you find a student whom you would like to perform the small job, you can contact him or her and ask him or her to apply to UT-Flex and respond to the small job vacancy.

The so-called approver plays a special role within UT-Flex. In principle this will be the faculty dean or head of the department. In daily practice, the dean or head will not perform the task of approving himself, but will have authorised one or more others to do this for him. At most of the units, this task will be performed by a staff member. The staff member will match a small job to a student; determine the duration of the employment and the budget. The approver will state who has to approve the hours worked by the student.

Registered with the UT

The student has to be registered with the UT. Students from institutes other than the UT cannot enrol via UT-Flex. This policy has been opted for in order to have UT students benefit optimally from the possibility to gain work experience in addition to their studies.

Legal position student

The student will be appointed for one year via UT-Flex. The employment will be confirmed as usual via a letter of appointment. The working hours have been formally set at zero hours. The actual time worked will be determined afterwards by referring to the hours worked via the UT-Flex web application. After the hours have been approved via workflow by the supervisor of the student, these will be approved by the salary administration for payment. Payment of the student will take place on the basis of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities. The other employment conditions are laid down in the “general provisions” for UT-Flex. These can be referred via this site.

Questions

For general questions on UT-Flex and specific questions on salary payment you can call Stephanie Hesse (4892835) of directorate Human Resources.