Maryland Annual Collections - MAC2

EMPLOYEE DATA SYSTEM (EDS)

A. Collection Description

The purpose of the Employee Data System (EDS) is to annually collect data from public higher education institutions. The data reflects characteristics about those employed at the institution. The data is collected on full-time and part-time employees by race, gender, occupational categories, and instructional programs, allowing institutional and statewide reports to be generated by the Commission.

B. Adhere to Due Dates and Record Frequency

Biannual Due Dates:	December 15th
Collection Period:	November 1st to October 31st
Record Frequency:	One record per employee as of specified date submitted one (1) time a year.

C. Comply with the Selection Criteria

1. Who to include:

a. All persons on the payroll of the institution as of November 1st.

b. Staff who are on sabbatical leave and staff who are on leave but remain on payroll

c. Staff who are hired to temporarily replace staff who are on sabbatical leave or on leave with or without pay

d. “Visiting” instructional, research and public service staff who are paid by your institution

e. Adjunct instructional staff

f. Staff in workforce development training programs and Adult Basic Education (ABE) programs

g. Staff at off-campus centers associated with the campus covered by this report

h. Corporate administrators for single-campus institutions or for multi-campus organizations

2. Who to exclude:

a. Staff on leave without pay

b. Staff in the military or religious orders who are not paid by your institution

c. Staff whose services are contracted by or donated to the institution

d. Casual staff (hired on an ad-hoc or occasional basis to meet short-term needs)

e. Undergraduate students

f. Students in the College Work-Study Program

g. Graduate students who are receiving waivers and stipends that are not in exchange for services rendered

h. Staff who work in hospitals associated with medical schools, but are not employed by the medical school

Helpful Insight

Helpful Insight to Reduce Errors – This list only includes select data elements or statements that are prone to errors. Please review the documentation page for full EDS layout links and details for more extensive reporting information.

1. Do not insert a space between commas when a data element is not reported.
2. When the Date of Initial Employment (DD87) is not known, enter 0000.
3. Principal Occupational Assignment (DD89) – Use the predefined 2-digit codes.

E. Data Collection Websites, Emails, and Responsibilities

To secure and ensure data collection integrity, it takes the cooperation of each institution partnering with the MHEC team to manage collections. Websites, specific email addresses, and established responsibilities all work together to offer guidance for data collections, reporting problems or concerns, and outlining due diligence necessary for successful data submissions and management. Detailed information about the websites, emails and responsibilities can be found on the responsibilities page of the data website.

F. Follow the File Layout

The EDS file layout can be found on the documentation page of the data website. The required format is comma-separated values (CSV), which means each data element is separated by commas and the file extension is .csv. Data element submission details for the file layout relies exclusively on MHEC’s online data dictionary. The layout provides the item number, field length parameters, data type, name and the data definition (DD) link to the data dictionary for comprehensive, up-to-date data element guidance, explanations, and examples in some cases.

G. Include the Header Record

The EDS header record can be found on the documentation page of the data website. It is required as part of the uploaded .csv file. It is critical that the uploaded header match MHEC’s header for data editing purposes. Headers that do not match create errors in the validation process.

H. Review the Sample Records

The EDS sample record can be found on the documentation page of the data website. The sample records are available for your reference and serve for demonstration purposes only. The .csv version of the records shown below the samples is what a submitted record should look like. Note that if a field is empty please do not include a space between the commas.

I. Transfer the File to MHEC

To transfer a .csv file to MHEC, user credentials are required. File transfers between higher education institutions in Maryland and the Commission are secure. Please use the prescribed secure file transfer process and refrain from emailing submissions. The File Transfer page has different functional areas. Select the “Maryland Annual Collection 2 (MAC2)” link to begin the file transfer process. Use “P” to preface UserID credential. Select the option to perform either a preliminary edit or an official submission after editing is complete. Complete the form for the upload and include comments if necessary.

J. Perform File Editing Procedures

The submission process provides editing guidelines that includes an edit report for the purpose of reviewing and verifying data submitted. The report offers frequency distribution counts on selected variables that can be used to verify data counts. The edit program also checks records for proper data element ranges and position. If there are fatal errors or warnings, an explanation will be associated with the infraction and corrections should be made before a subsequent preliminary edit resubmission is performed. The correction and resubmission process should be repeated until the file is free of errors. Before submitting the official version of the file, internal institutional edit confirmations should be performed to check frequency output against uploaded data to verify the accuracy and completeness of the data. At the time of the official submission, if there are remaining fatal errors or warnings on the edit report that cannot be addressed with a correction, then comments with a detailed explanation from the institution must be included in the comments section of the upload form.

K. Check MHEC Internal Validations

The Stata syntax code used for validations can be found on the documentation page of the data website. Stata code is used to validate file submissions. Additional validation testing may be completed contingent upon the results of this baseline code. New validation steps may be added over time as the scope of the collection changes.

L. Data Cookbook

Data Cookbook is MHEC’s MAC2 On-Line Data Dictionary. It contains all data elements used in all unit record data collections managed by MHEC.  On the “Functional Areas” tab, under "Sharing" in the far right column select the definitions link to view the data elements for one of the MAC2 collections. Each data element name is listed in alphabetical order with its functional definition.

To contact MHEC for questions or support, submit an email to mac2help.mhec@maryland.gov.