The Employee Service Center (ESC) assists staff and faculty with questions about benefits, payroll, personal information, and much more. Started in 2009 to provide a primary resource for staff to get accurate information, the ESC now has a team of 10 customer support specialists, including their manager, who field a combined average of 106,000 calls and emails yearly.
While questions about employee benefits, pay, and time are the most common, requests for retiree counseling, tax documents, the child scholarship benefit, and personal record updates (e.g., a marriage or a new child) are also popular queries.
“We get a vast blend of questions about health savings or flexible spending accounts, and certain topics are seasonal, like open enrollment and tax document inquiries. Our I-9 office is extra busy in August and September, with a higher number of new hires during those months. If we don’t have the immediate answer, we will escalate it to the benefits team or Yale peers to get our customers the accurate information,” said Eileen Pepe, manager of the Employee Service Center.
Callers can also get assistance with HR policies, the I-9 process, direct deposit, the homebuyer program, annual enrollment, and Workday (for office and home address updates or current and retiree benefit changes). The ESC team fields questions from job applicants, new hires, new employee orientation attendees, and retirees and provides referrals for employment verification. For requests outside of their area—often someone seeking IT support—they will direct callers to the appropriate department.
The ESC is open Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and can be reached by phone at 203-432-5552 or email at employee.services@yale.edu.
