On April 1, the first 12 managers, supervisors and assistants joined the three UCPath directors for their first day on the job at the UCPath Center in Riverside.

They call themselves the UCPath Trailblazers, a fitting moniker as this initial group sets in motion the facilities, processes, technology and systems needed to get UCPath ready for opening day on July 1, 2014.

UCPath will be implemented in three separate waves. This approach will allow UC locations time to stabilize their systems and processes and give the UCPath Center sufficient time to ramp up and provide the best level of service to employees.

At the conclusion of Wave 3, all UC locations and its 190,000 employees will be using UCPath for payroll, benefits and human resources services. Each wave will include approximately five UC locations and be spaced six months apart, as follows:

Wave 1, which will begin using UCPath on July 1, 2014, includes UCLA/UCLA Health, ASUCLA, UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz and UCOP. These locations are currently designing their local processes and systems to work with UCPath.

Wave 2, which will begin using UCPath on Jan. 1, 2015, includes UC Davis/UC Davis Health, UC Riverside, Agriculture and Natural Resources and UC San Diego/UC San Diego Health.

Wave 3, which will begin using UCPath on July 1, 2015, includes UC Berkeley, UC Irvine/UC Irvine Health, UCSF/UCSF Medical Center and UC Santa Barbara.

In keeping with UCPath’s objective of hiring as many current UC employees as possible to staff its operations, all 12 of the new staff come from within the UC system and bring their knowledge of functional areas and familiarity of the UC culture.

The Trailblazers join Executive Director Jim Leedy, Operations Director Gayelea Allison, and Customer Service Director Bryant Bailess to form the core UCPath Riverside team.

Find out more by following the links below:

>>Trailblazers arrive in Riverside

>>UCPath Center recruiting update

>>Meet the new UCPath directors

>>Three questions for UCPath Director Jim Leedy

>>UC selects design for UCPath Center