November 2024 bulletin

News and updates

The December payroll deadlines will be as follows:

  • Casual payroll deadline: Monday 2 December
  • Main payroll deadline: Wednesday 4 December
  • Supplementary deadline: Friday 13 December
  • Payday: Friday 20 December

All pay-related updates must be input and approved by the above deadlines. In December, the Payroll team cannot accommodate any late requests due to the shorter processing period.  

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

HR Systems Support closure: Closed from 16:00 Friday 20 December 2024 to 08:30 Thursday 2 January 2025, in line with UAS fixed-closure dates. 

Vacancy closing dates: Avoid setting vacancy deadlines between Monday 23 December 2024 and Wednesday 1 January 2025, inclusive, as technical support will be unavailable. If unavoidable, include departmental contact details in the job advert and/or job description to assist applicants. 

Staff Requests

  • Roles needing evaluation: Submit by Wednesday 11 December 2024.
  • Roles not needing evaluation: Submit by Friday 13 December 2024.

Role evaluations will pause from 16:00 Friday 20 December and resume Thursday 2 January, with reduced service until Monday 6 January.

Occupational Health Service will be unavailable from Monday 25 November to Monday 2 December due to a technology upgrade. For urgent issues, contact enquiries@uohs.ox.ac.uk or call 01865 (2)82676. For needlestick injuries, contact John Radcliffe Hospital at 01865 741166 and ask for the Microbiologist on call.

Further information and guidance can be found on the Occupational Health Service webpages.

The HR Systems team wants to hear from you! Whether you’ve contacted us for technical support, guidance, reporting, or other queries, your feedback is vital.

Please take 10 minutes to complete our survey and help us improve how we communicate and support you.

Take the survey now

Your input will help us serve you better - thank you for sharing your thoughts!

The survey will close on Friday 6 December 2024.

Sarah Rowles, HR Analytics Team Leader, shares her insights on the success of this year's HESA staff data return, read Sarah's Q&A.

We are pleased to announce that you can now submit enhancement and change requests for PeopleXD and reports via a new Service Request in IT Self-Service (OSM). 

You can suggest changes to features, screens, or reports, including requests for:

  • New User Defined Fields (UDFs)
  • Renaming field labels
  • Amendments to existing reports or creation of new ones
  • Other suggestions, such as improvement to guidance

Further details about the types of enhancements you can request and how to submit a request can be found on the requesting enhancements or changes webpage.

  • Occupational Health Service unavailability: 25 November - 2 December 2024
  • Staff Requests pre-Christmas submission deadlines:
    • Roles requiring evaluation: Wednesday 11 December 2024
    • Roles not requiring evaluation: Friday 13 December 2024
  • HR Systems Support Christmas closure: Monday 23 December 2024 - Wednesday 1 January 2025, (inclusive)

Reminders

The Athena Staff Data workbook's staff in post dashboards now include 2023/24 figures. Updates to Turnover, Reasons for Leaving, and Recognition of Distinction are in progress, with Maternity Return Rates to follow in early 2025. 

The 2023/24 Athena Swan recruitment data dashboards are also live. Only vacancies with valid, complete data, and a full applicant status history (ie Applied, Shortlisted, Offer Made – Personnel, Offer Accepted – Personnel) that resulted in an appointment are included. Vacancies set to 'appointment made' with a missing mandatory status are excluded.

To improve data availability for Athena Swan applications and University-wide monitoring, please continue clearing errors from the 2023/24 HRINFO21 reports. Tableau will be refreshed early in 2025.

For access to Athena Swan data in Tableau, follow the user access process. For queries, email: athena.staffdata@admin.ox.ac.uk.

As communicated in the recent HR Systems briefing, we’re excited to announce the launch of a new interactive Staff Classification tool. This tool includes filters and selection options to simplify identifying the correct staff categories and helps determine the right option to record on the staff request or appointment in PeopleXD. 

The current PDF version will remain available.

Project updates

As part of the People and Finance Service Transformation (PFST) Programme's initiation phase, a series of targeted focus groups is being hosted to discuss key capabilities required for the University to effectively deliver essential People services. The focus groups will cover various topics such as Recruitment, HR Analytics, Learning and Development, HR Operations, People Management and Payroll Management. Each session will last 1-2 hours, taking place throughout November and December.

Learn more about PFST and sign up for a focus group on our webpage. For questions or to enquire about contributing via an offline method, contact the PFST Programme team at pfst@admin.ox.ac.uk. 

We are launching new functionality in HR Self-Service to help researchers manage their CDRs and log Professional Development time. This will roll out in phases from this month to the end of February 2025.

A new menu option will appear on the left of the ‘Manager’ and ‘Employee’ dashboards in HR Self-Service. As departments are onboarded, CDR information will become visible in this new screen. By default, all staff will see the option to log professional development time.

The Employee Self-Service guide is being updated, with full guidance provided to participating departments. Other departments/staff are advised to ignore this new option for now. HR staff will see a new tab for the Talent (My Development) part of PeopleXD, with the project team providing support and training to those in scope over the coming months.

To help address queries, please direct staff to our dedicated page about this rollout: https://staff.admin.ox.ac.uk/hrss  

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. Note: These pages are updated regularly.

HR Systems Programme projects

Updated user guides

Guide(s) Update

Change the increment due date

Manage IPO

Unplanned recruitment scenarios eg re-advertising a previous vacancy

 Moved to web version

Make appointment and salary changes now includes:

  • Sabbaticals, special leave, unpaid leave, work groups, contracted hours, job title, contract extension

Has been updated to incorporate relevant scenario factsheets relating to appointment and salary changes.

(Removing the need to refer to two sets of guidance for one process)

Departmental roles

Additional directory information

Academic staff listing (white book)

Annual reviews

Manage academic titles

Added to Add and manage UDFs in PeopleXD

(Removing the need to refer to two sets of guidance for one process)
End a casual appointment Updated to include guidance on checking if casual record needs an ‘online payslip udf’ added. See item above.