Appointing guide for new and existing staff (online applicants)

Where an individual's application to work beyond their 'Employer Justified Retirement Age' (EJRA) is approved, the individual must be appointed into a new, fixed-term appointment in PeopleXD. Follow the appointing steps in this guide.

Details of the request and the approval must be recorded in the EJRA UDF.

The previous appointment must be ended - follow the guidance on ending appointments.

There are three groups of Marie Curie staff:

1. Marie Curie Fellows (MCF):
   • Post-docs paid against a spot salary, on grade MCF
   • Employed for a minimum of three, maximum of 24 months.
2. Marie Curie Researchers (MCR): 
   • Early career researchers, post-graduate without a DPhil
   • Paid against a spot salary, on grade MCR
   • Employed for a minimum of three, maximum of 36 months.
3. Marie Curie Students (MCS early career researcher/student):
   • Normally, three-year studentships with worker status.
   • Non-employees, but have some employment rights.
   • To request a post for them, do not use the staff request process. Instead, email HR Systems with the required details and they will create the post for you:
     • Expected Start Date
     • Expected End Date
     • Department and Pay Administered by (usually the department)
     • Location
     • Default cost centre for the department (cost allocations can be added later)
     • Hours to be worked
     • Whether a vacancy is required
   • Receive a Student Living Allowance and possibly, other Marie Curie allowances:
     • Follow the steps in the add and manage allowances guide, noting the following: 

Please note the following:

• You must notify Payroll in advance when an employee will be working overseas. This is to ascertain their UK residence status for pension auto-enrolment purposes, which only applies to staff working or ordinarily working in the UK. Employees temporarily based overseas and expected to return to the UK, are deemed to be ‘ordinarily working in the UK’. Those permanently based overseas may not be subject to the auto-enrolment regulations. If in doubt, treat the employee as working in the UK. 
• Approvals may need to be sought before agreeing overseas working arrangements with the individual. Read the University’s overseas working policy for full details.
• Details of any approved overseas working arrangements must be recorded in the Overseas working UDF, in PeopleXD.

Secondments within the University

• Secondments should be set up as an additional appointment, with the previous appointment remaining active. Both, the department responsible for the new seconded role and the department responsible for the previous appointment must take action. 
• Where a secondment is in another department, HR Administrators from both departments should agree the details off-system, before making updates in People Management.
• If the individual has Manager Self-Service access they should not retain during their secondment, raise a Service Request to remove their access. Re-instate it upon their return.
• Where a secondment turns into a permanent arrangement, this should be processed as a transfer in the system (or as a 'contract replacement' if within the same department) between the original appointment (before the secondment) and a newly created appointment. Follow the steps in this guide, as applicable.

System guidance:

1. To create a new secondment appointment, refer to 'Create additional appointment' section in this guide and follow the steps from that point onward.

2. To amend the previous appointment follow the guidance here.

For participating departments only:

Before recording/ updating secondments, see an outline of the workforce management principles for your information: Managing annual leave when an employee starts and ends a secondment.  Full system steps are covered throughout the appointing guidance.

Secondments outside the University

• For secondments to external organisations, amend their current appointment, following the guidance here.

Appointing someone as an 'underfill'

In certain circumstances new starters (in grades 1-10) may be appointed on one grade lower than the substantive post grade. Check the HR Support website for guidance on this.

IMPORTANT - Once you have the candidate who is to be appointed at the lower grade:

1. Email the Reward Team, quoting the post appointment number with a request to update the planned appointment to the lower grade.
2. Once notified by email when it has been updated, you can proceed with appointing at the new lower grade. Follow this appointing guide carefully, which includes notes specific to underfills.
3. Ensure that the contract of employment issued to the employee states the correct grade.

Promoting to substantive grade

Once the employee can be ‘promoted’ to the substantive grade, raise a staff request to set up a new planned appointment at the higher grade. Follow the Create and approve staff request guide. Then proceed to appoint the employee into a new appointment following the replace an existing appointment part of this guide.

If post was advertised on a permanent basis and successful applicant must have fixed-term contract due to visa restrictions, use the permanent post and ensure the following is recorded when completing the Contract Information on the Appointment Wizard:

If the individual's right to work status changes in the future and they later have indefinite right to remain, their appointment will need to be updated, refer to Make appointment and salary changes guidance.   

If there will be a gap between two appointments and it has been agreed that the individual will keep their continuous service, please email HR Systems Support who will be able to advise the required system steps. Please note, depending on the scenario, the record can be updated either by the leaving or the new department.  We expect that you have / will have consulted with your HR Business Partner to discuss all possible considerations and implications from a University HR policy perspective, including annual leave accrual and implicit contract terms.  

Due to data feed issues between the Card Office, IT and PeopleXD systems, existing University students will not normally be identified for HR Self-Service account creation when they are appointed in PeopleXD. This is because they already have a University card and SSO and therefore at the point of their appointment, there is no data feed triggered between the systems. 

To ensure HR Self-Service accounts are created in a timely manner, contact hr.systems@admin.ox.ac.uk when appointing existing University students. In your email, please provide the:

• Employee number (PeopleXD) and name
• Email address
• SSO (eg admn1234)

There are ongoing discussions with IT Services and the Card Office for a longer-term solution.

Note: Please check whether an HR Self-Service account already exists by running the PERDEP01 Home Address and Contact Details report in HR Reporting.

When an employee who is a 'work group' manager changes roles, departments must update their work group details to reflect this change. This ensures GDPR compliance and maintains the accuracy of workforce management processes, such as annual leave approvals.

To update the employee's assignment as a work group manager, please submit a self-service request.