It is never too early to start preparing for retirement. The choices you make today can affect your income and insurance options as a retiree. UW–Madison offers free, online informational sessions for employees at every stage in their career. Those who are 15–30 years from retirement can learn about strategies for preparing early by attending Starting to Save. The Mid-Career Retirement Check-In is designed for employees who are 5–15 years from retirement. UW employees who might retire within five years can learn about the retirement process in the Ready to Retire session; a recorded video of this session is also available. All sessions are offered on multiple dates.

All UW–Madison employees are paid biweekly on Thursdays. Benefits deductions for insurance premiums are split evenly across the first two biweekly paychecks each month. These include health, dental, vision, life, income continuation, and accident insurance. When there are three pay periods in a month, the third paycheck for that month (called the “C” paycheck) does not include these benefits deductions. The paycheck for January 12, 2023, is for the pay period of December 18–31, 2022, and will not include benefits deductions for insurance.

Each year, UW–Madison celebrates members of our community who provide critical administrative support of our academic, research, and outreach mission. The Administrative Improvement Awards (AIA) recognize outstanding work in process redesign/development or customer service that has resulted in improved efficiency, new revenue channels, cost or time savings, improved service delivery, or other benefits. Nominations are now open for individuals and teams. The nomination deadline is Friday, Feb. 10. Details are available at vc.wisc.edu/aia.

In the fall of 2022, the Office of Strategic Consulting offered Ignite: Fueling Organizational Excellence, a series of hour-long interactive workshops that focused on the tools and resources faculty and staff need to promote and sustain organizational excellence at UW–Madison. Many of these sessions are available for viewing as recorded sessions, including Atomic Habits at Work and a session on intentionally creating a workplace culture that values justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Session recordings are also available for the bonus miniseries on process improvement. Spring 2023 Ignite sessions will be announced soon.