New Employees

New permanent employees go through a probation/onboarding period. Probation periods are typically six months or one year. Talk to your supervisor if you're not sure how long your probation will last. You will have some restrictions on leave time during this period.

If you are an hourly or seasonal employee, please see the following resources for more information specific to hourly/seasonal employees:

• Orientation for hourly/seasonal employees
• Benefits eligibility for hourly/seasonal employees

Payroll Clerks can provide information about pay and benefits. Contact your Payroll Clerk if you have any questions about paychecks, timesheets/time entering, position-specific benefits or leave time.

Benefits

More information about City benefits for permanent employees can be found in the Benefits section of the City Human Resources website, including information about:

• Permanent new hire orientation
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Wage Insurance (Short/Long-Term Disability Insurance)
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• The Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS)
• 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan Accounts
  • Fidelity
  • MissionSquare

If you have questions about benefits, please reach out to the City of Madison Benefits Team at benefits@cityofmadison.com. 

Benefits Enrollment

A new permanent employee has 30 calendar days to submit completed benefit enrollment forms to Human Resources. Forms should be submitted as either enrollments or waivers. Returning these forms is your responsibility.

You are strongly encouraged to return enrollment materials in person in order to ensure forms are received by the required deadlines. If a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, enrollment forms must be submitted by the last working day before that weekend or holiday (if returning in-person).

To return forms: Human Resources cautions against returning confidential documents via email, as all City emails are subject to open records requests. We recommend inter-d delivery, fax, or in-person drop-off as more secure options. If you do opt to return your form(s) via email, please send them from an email on file for you to the Benefits inbox (benefits@cityofmadison.com) using email encryption.

• Please note: hardcopy forms require ink signatures, while forms completed digitally require either an official DocuSign signature, an inserted drawn signature, or an ink signature on a scanned PDF; typed signatures are not accepted.

Vacation

You may take your 3.5 personal days before your probation ends. All other vacation will be accumulated during your probation, but may only be used after the completion of your probationary period, or after six months of employment.

Pay

Paychecks are generally issued every other Friday. Pay periods are two weeks in length, begin on Sunday and end on Saturday. View pay period calendars.

Your first paycheck will come on the payday that falls 13 days after the completion of your first pay period worked, which could be up to 26 days after your date of hire.

Employee Self Service

ESS can be used to view your paychecks and leave balances.

ESS Login

• Username: Your employee number. To get this number, contact your Payroll Clerk.
• Password: The first time you log in, your password will be the last four digits of your Social Security Number (SSN).

You will be prompted to reset your password on your first login.

Usernames

To find out your username, please contact the Information Technology Help Desk at (608) 266-4193.