Business Office Operational Support Team (BOOST)
The Business Office Operational Support Team (BOOST) program provides temporary short and longer term support for a variety of typical business office tasks. The need for BOOST support is a result of staff vacancies, assignment to departmental or institutional projects, or during particularly busy times of year (such as during fiscal year end or annual budget preparation).
Our team consists of two units: BOOST Training Support Team and BOOST Deployment Team. Our teams work together to provide the most optimal support needed to consistently maintain Faculty research portfolios within a compliant and best practice framework.
BOOST Mission
The YSM Business Office Operational Support Team (BOOST) program provides targeted and consistent staff onboarding, training, and temporary staffing support throughout the Yale School of Medicine Business Office community, while also providing support and guidance to change management and institutional initiatives prior to deployment to a wider YSM community.
BOOST Support Request Process
Departments are required to complete a BOOST Support Request Form and submit it to: john.palmieri@yale.edu.
BOOST is also notified via PRC process if a department is replacing or hiring new research administration staff and we may reach out to departments directly.
BOOST Request
A meeting will be set up with an IBO representative to discuss the request in further detail.
Topics for discussion will include but are not limited to:
- Reason for request
- Confirm primary responsibilities and skills required during deployment.
- Position funding arrangements, if applicable
- Department plan to fill resource gap, if applicable
- Amount of support (% of time) and support schedule
- Duration of support
- Identify training needs for staff
- Assist with capacity modeling
Scope
Our support is aimed at providing short or long term vacancies relief for research administration type roles in IBOs and is not intended as a replacement for the hiring of permanent staff at the department level. Typical assignments are no more than 90 - 120 days in length.
BOOST support will not typically include direct support for faculty or the direct provision of clinical or research activities, but exceptions can be discussed on an individual basis.
BOOST Roles and Responsibilities:
- Upkeep of faculty portfolios and determination of remaining funds
- Approvals that may impact department finances
- PAA and JE related to research portfolio
- Schedule labor through “Make it So” where applicable.
- Hiring letters for faculty and staff & other HR related duties
- Meet with faculty and provide follow up as needed
- Provide guidance to leadership that may create efficiencies in dept process
- Progress reports limited to labor and budgetary items.
- OS updating utilizing “last known good”
- Assisting faculty with providing information for sponsor ad hoc requests
- Complete new award setup process
- Coordinate with outgoing subrecipients
PI or Department staff responsibilities *
- Administrative or financial assistant responsibilities; including PO, REQ and creating expense reports
- Approving decisions that might impact dept finances
- Programmatic sections of RPPRs
- Approve and/or determine eligibility PD proposals
- Hiring letters for Faculty, PDA and staff letters
*These items may be completed by the PI themselves, Post Award/Finance Staff, Sr. Admin Assistants, and/or Coordinators, based upon department staffing structure.
How is department charged for BOOST service?
FY24 Hourly Rate: The Analyst hourly rate is $85 per hour, inclusive of 43.1% fringe. The ledger account charged to the department = 81034 Services Expense/SC343 Internal Expense – Other Services.
We process a manual journal and bill one month in arrears. The department will be required to review and approve the manual journal in Workday. We upload a summary of the # of hours devoted to the department for the month, by week. This cost cannot be charged to sponsored grants and contracts.