December 2025 bulletin

2025 Highlights at a Glance

 

Wishing you a joyful Christmas break and a well-deserved rest. 

As we wrap up 2025, we want to express our gratitude for your support and collaboration—it’s what makes our progress possible. Here’s a look back at some of the highlights from this year...

  • 8,881 support incidents handled (≈740 per month)
  • 7 funded projects delivered
  • 56 Continuous Improvement initiatives to enhance processes and efficiency
  • Gender Pay Gap reporting was completed seven months ahead of deadline
  • 127 system changes driven by updates and internal process improvements
  • 53 BAU tasks (statutory returns, annual reporting, etc)
  • 79 departments now live on Workforce Management module
  • HESA staff return completed a record 18-days early

News and updates

Details of upcoming Main and Casual payroll deadlines will soon be available on the Payroll website.   

The upcoming payroll deadlines for January 2026:

  • Casual: Tuesday 6 January
  • Main: Friday 9 January
  • Supplementary: Thursday 22 January

Visit the Payroll deadlines and cycles page to learn more about the monthly payroll cycle, including the key monthly payroll dates for People Management users. 

Payslips will be available on HR Self-Service from Friday 19 December, giving staff the opportunity to review their pay before the winter break. Please encourage staff to check their payslips promptly and report any issues to their local HR contact as soon as possible to ensure a timely resolution.

All requests for pay advances must be submitted to Payroll by 10am on Tuesday 23 December. Any requests received after this deadline will not be processed until the new year.

  • HR Systems Support Christmas closure: Wednesday 24 December 2025 to Sunday 4 January 2026 (inclusive)
  • HR Systems Briefing: Tuesday 27 January 2026 10:00-11:00 (invite to follow)

Reminders

We would like to remind departments of the importance of correctly setting up casual appointments and ensuring the appropriate post type is used (eg CASTCH, CASEXM, CASAMB). Using an incorrect post can lead to reporting inaccuracies, impact HESA returns, and create additional work. 

Please ensure you follow the guidance provided and refer to the table on the Information and background section of the Casual appointing guidance, which provides a definition and an overview for all casual staff/ post types. 

In addition, we are reviewing the HRINFO20 Casual Worker Data Quality Validation report to explore improvements that will help identify inconsistencies between casual staff type and the appointment’s attributes.

HR Systems Support closure: Closed from 16:00 Tuesday 23 December 2025 to 08:30 Monday 5 January 2026, in line with UAS fixed-closure dates. 

Vacancy closing dates: Avoid setting vacancy deadlines during the Christmas closure, as technical support will be unavailable. If unavoidable, include departmental contact details in the job advert and/or job description to assist applicants. 

With most departments now live with Leave and Absence, we’d like to remind you to encourage your staff to download the PeopleXD Mobile App.

Via the App staff are able to:

  • Access and update personal details  
  • View and download payslips   
  • Departments live with PeopleXD Leave and Absence and/or Roster functionality can request leave, view leave and absence, and access roster information.

To download the App and access guidance, visit Downloading and using the App.

New and updated dashboards

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new Internal Mobility Dashboard. We have created this dashboard to provide high-level insights to support the focus on internal mobility, including the Internal Mobility Principles. More broadly it provides insights to support the development and delivery of initiatives under the People Strategy.

HR colleagues who would benefit from using the dashboard can request access by completing this form by 16 January 2026.
 

The Staff Diversity Overview Dashboards and EDI Specialist Diversity Dashboards have been updated with the 31 July 2025 staff in post data.

If you require access to staff diversity data in your role, please follow the user access process.