June 2025 bulletin

News and updates

Details of upcoming Main and Casual payroll deadlines can be found on the Payroll website.   

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. 

Visit the Payroll website

 

As outlined in the recent HR Systems briefing (24 June), we’re implementing key updates to the Staff Request approval process. These changes aim to streamline workflows and reduce turnaround times.

Key dates for the Staff Request freeze

Date Action
Friday 11 July, 17:00

UPDATED: Aim to have all Staff Requests submitted by 5pm. 

Please review any ‘saved’ Staff Requests that have not yet been submitted for department approval.
Friday 18 July, 17:00

Approve/ reject all Submitted Staff Requests by 5pm.

UPDATED: Any outstanding requests that have not been submitted by 11 July, can be submitted in the week commencing 14 July, but they must be approved by 18 July. 
Monday 28 July     Final system configuration changes applied to PeopleXD
Tuesday 29 July     Staff Request functionality resumes in PeopleXD. New process now live

 

What’s changing?

Simplified approval workflow:

  • Only requests requiring grading will be routed to the Reward Team for approval.
  • All other requests will be approved at the department level only, automatically triggering the creation of the post, appointment, and vacancy.

Guidance will be updated and further communications will be sent to users ahead of the freeze with further details.

As of 25 June, we have a total of 2279 errors remaining. Despite clearing 733 errors since April there is still considerable work to be done ahead of the 9 July deadline.

We have contacted all departments key contacts for their second progress check-in and are following up with anyone who has raised queries or concerns.

For general queries, please contact us at hris@admin.ox.ac.uk. For specific data quality queries or help, email hris.dataquality@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Overview of data quality, by division 

 

We want to share that Lolu from our HR Systems Support team will be leaving the University at the end of June. Those who have had the pleasure of working with her know how helpful, conscientious, and kind she is, we will miss her greatly. We sincerely wish her success and happiness in all her future endeavours.

From 1 July 2025, the HR Systems Helpdesk will be operating with reduced staffing. To help us manage queries efficiently we would like to remind you that we use a ticketing system and tickets are typically addressed in the order they are received, however they will be prioritised accordingly, eg if they are payroll critical. Our aim is to respond to queries within two working days.

To answer your query as promptly and thoroughly as possible, we kindly ask that you:

  • State if it is payroll critical. Please state if the query you’re emailing will affect the current payroll month. Please note that your query will need to be submitted ahead of the payroll relevant deadline.
  • Avoid chasing responses. Submitting multiple tickets for the same issue creates additional work and may delay our response time.
  • Refer to system guidance and HR Policy webpages. Before contacting us, please ensure you’ve reviewed any relevant guidance and policies.
  • Provide all relevant details. When requesting assistance please, include all necessary details eg full name, staff number, a brief outline of the issue, what you’re trying to achieve and the full scenario etc 

We really appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

We are looking to recruit someone to join our lovely HR System Support team and believe this would be an excellent secondment opportunity, particularly for someone with PeopleXD and University HR knowledge. We are looking to advertise this position shortly, but should you wish to learn more please reach out to emma.fitz-gibbon@admin.ox.ac.uk for an informal chat, she would love to hear from you.

The issue with the HRINFO01 Data Validation report incorrectly flagging errors for clinical appointments on NHS Contract Grades '9 Specialty Registrar' and '10 Specialty Doctor' has now been fixed. Please continue to add or correct data where error messages are shown in the ‘NHS Contract Details UDF Errors’ column of the report output.

  • Clear all data errors for the HESA 2023-24 staff cohort - 9 July (Main Payroll deadline)
  • End of annual leave year briefing – 10 July 10.00 – 10.45 (will be recorded)
  • HESA data quality check-in with departments - w/c 21 July
  • Review and record academic titles for the HESA 2024-25 cohort - 23 July
  • Review Athena Swan data (before next data refresh) - 31 July

Reminders

Please can we remind you that the ‘Contact Person’ and ‘Contact Email’ fields on a vacancy must be completed with the HR team or HR individual who is responsible for managing the vacancy within PeopleXD. It should not have the recruiting manager’s details. These fields are used by the HR Systems team in case applicants are experiencing technical issues and they need to follow up with the HR team. This also provides contact details for an applicant to use directly if they have questions relating to the vacancy.

Should you wish to also include another contact in the Job Details, eg the recruiting manager, please follow the guidance for Job Description (Advert Text).

name on vacancy

We have been notified that several staff members are trying to record changes to their bank details via HR Self-Service.  Whilst new starters can record their bank details as part of the Onboarding Checklist, as a reminder existing staff cannot make changes via HR Self-Service, changes can only be updated by local HR teams. 

Please note that the new data extract will be taken on 31 July 2025. Therefore, please ensure that you review the data in the HRINFO02_AthenaSWAN Potential Staff Data report and make any necessary corrections before this date. Refer to the May 2025 bulletin for more details.

Before running the report output in HR Reporting use the Calendar icon to the right of the ‘Report date’ filter to select 31 July 2025.

For guidance, see: Run reports in HR Reporting guide

For help with any data errors or queries, email hris.dataquality@admin.ox.ac.uk

Please note that you should only ever enter a 'To Date' when ending an UDF record to add a new UDF of the same type. Entering a date in this field results in the UDF data not being returned in reports and can cause unnecessary errors in the data quality reports.

Following on from the May 2025 bulletin, when creating a new Academic Title UDF in PeopleXD that supersedes an existing one (eg Associate Professor replaced by Titular Professor), you must update the previous title’s UDF record by adding a ‘To Date’.

Completing the appropriate end date in the earlier Academic Title UDF ensures accurate reporting.. If multiple UDFs are active on the record, only the earliest title will appear in reports (e.g. Associate Professor instead of Titular Professor).

For full guidance, refer to: Add and manage UDFs in PeopleXD.

New and updated guidance and documents

Guide Update

Record/ cancel annual leave, sickness or other absence (Managers)

Record annual leave, sickness and other absence (HR)

Updated to include reference to Staff Volunterring scheme pilot (participating departments only)

 

Document template Update

Academic related contract
  • Updated to include new pension rates
  • Fixing minor formatting issues
Support staff contract

 

Project updates

Details of current, in-scope projects under the HR Systems Programme can be found on our dedicated webpage. This includes latest updates and timelines, where available. 

HR Systems Programme projects