October 2021 bulletin

 

Important - for action/attention this month

In-system support launches next month!
Are you ready? Back Office switched off on 1 November
Clear errors from the data quality reports as soon as possible

News and reminders

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In the August bulletin, we shared our plans to deliver real-time system guidance within PeopleXD. This means that soon, users will be able to view system prompts and access guidance materials as they complete processes in the Portal. 

Volunteers from UAS, Kellogg College and the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine are currently testing this functionality, ahead of its wider release.   

When will I get access? 

We aim to begin a phased rollout of this exciting new tool to system users from the end of November. An email providing set-up instructions will be sent on its release date. In the meantime, if you missed our demonstration in the recent HR Systems briefing, you can watch the recording here.

From 1 November (close of business), we will be removing the masking of bank details that is currently in place in HR Self-Service and People Management (Portal). This will ensure that HR users can check the accuracy of bank details once Back Office is retired and allow employees to check their bank details are correct via HR Self-Service. The decision to expose bank details has been ratified by the University’s InfoSec team, as the recent addition of Multi-Factor Authentication on SSO provides the required level of security. Please note that bank details will still need to be added/updated by HR staff in People Management. We will be exploring the possibility of enabling staff to maintain their own bank details via HR Self-Service with our POG members. 
 
We will shortly publish an FAQ on the Staff Gateway page to which you can direct any employees who may alert you to this change. We will also update the relevant How-To Guides.

Remember that once an appointment ID (eg 123456-1) has been used to appoint a candidate, it cannot be used again. 

Some system users have recently used existing appointment IDs from old vacancies (where an appointment was made) in the applicant offer process for new vacancies. This causes errors for both the existing staff member and new staff member. 

Please always refer to the Manage unplanned recruitment events guide in instances where you are either:

  • appointing individuals from unsuccessful recruitment drives; or 
  • where a role is being advertised again

to ensure you follow the correct system steps. This may involve raising a staff request to create a new planned appointment number (check the above guidance to ensure you select the appropriate type of request), and then linking that to the vacancy and appointment.

Work groups (a system term for teams) determine which staff records Self-Service Managers see in HR Self-Service. They are also used to assign permissions to approve timesheets and holiday requests, and record sickness absence (applicable to those departments who adopted Time Management as part of our recent pilot). 

It is essential that your department’s work groups are regularly maintained and the correct Self-Service Managers allocated, to ensure compliance with GDPR. If your department is planning on adopting the leave and absence functionality in the future, reviewing your work groups will also be an essential part of your preparations for go-live.

How do I check my work groups?

To view the current list of your Self-Service Managers and work groups, please run the PERDEP16 HR Self-Service work groups report. To create a new work group or make changes to an existing work group, complete a Service Request form. 

When submitting staff requests, some departments are asking for a new post to be created in circumstances where this isn’t required. The Reward team, who create posts and planned appointments, cannot validate the accuracy of the request, so it is essential that you refer to the Staff Request and Contract Decision Matrix before raising a staff request. This will guide you as to when you should raise a new post and when to base an appointment on an existing post.

Replacement/refills and backfills should be based on an existing post, except when the contract type is different from the original post it is replacing, eg fixed-term to permanent contracts. Regradings should be based on existing posts as should underfills reaching the substantive grade, because the original post has already been authorised at the substantive grade. 

We recognise that the Staff Request and Contract Decision Matrix is not the easiest document to follow and we plan to review it with the aim of simplifying it and making it more user-friendly!

The 2021 national pay award for clinical consultants has been approved for implementation in the University. 

There is an increase of 3% to basic pay. The new rates will be set up in PeopleXD on 25 October. They will be visible and ready for use thereafter. There is no change to Clinical Excellence Awards, discretionary points, and distinction awards.

The uplift will be implemented in the November payroll (29 November) and backdated to 1 April 2021.  

Full details of the pay award will be communicated via a circular PERS(21)06 which will be available later this month.

If you have any queries regarding the pay award please contact the Reward team. 

With just under two weeks to go, please remember that the Back Office will be ‘switched off’ on Monday 1 November. From this day, all processes will be completed in the Portal.

This applies to the Back Office Recruitment, Personnel and Payroll modules only. Users of other modules will not be affected by this change.

If you are still using the Back Office and would like to gain more confidence in using the Portal, please contact our training team for support. 

Payroll Corner

All leavers must be input to PeopleXD by the normal Payroll deadline each month. Normal notice periods should give you plenty of time to do this. The supplementary deadline is only for late leavers that you weren’t aware of earlier in the month. There are often deductions that need to be reclaimed from a leaver, eg Childcare vouchers, bus ticket loans, which need to be sorted out well before the final pay-run of the month.

Please check the status of your casual workers and end any that are no longer working. There are hundreds on Payroll that don’t need to be, and this can affect their tax status, as HMRC thinks they are still due to work for the University.

Update from the HR Analytics team

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The HR Analytics team have now released the 2021-22 version of all the HRINFO data quality reports 01 – employees, 20 – casuals, 21 - recruitment. Please run this suite of reports at least monthly and clear any errors.

If we contact you concerning errors that need to be cleared from 2020-21 data quality report please ensure you run the earlier version of the report as soon as possible while they are still shared with you.

Report name Action required Required for
HRINFO01- Staff Validation 
in conjunction with
HRINFO01 Data Validation – Quals & subjects

Clear validation errors for all employee appointments active for any period of time from 1 August until 31 July the following year.

HRINFO01 data quality validation report web page gives additional details about the report.

Prioritise the clearing of staff classification errors first.

Guidance can be found here:

Staff Classifications

Clearing data quality errors

 HESA
Medical Schools Council Survey
Athena SWAN
Financial year end reporting
HRINFO20_Casual Worker Data Quality Validation

Clear validation errors for all casual worker and casual teaching appointments active for any period of time from 1 August until 31 July the following year.

HRINFO20 Casual worker data quality validation report gives additional details about the report. Prioritise the clearing of Staff Classifications errors first.

Please note that the error messages relating to FTE Hours can be ignored.

 HESA

HRINFO21 Vacancy and applicant data quality four paginated reports:

Step 1 Advertised Vacancy Validation
Step 2 Applicant Status Validation
Step 3 Non-Advertised Vacancy Validation

Applicant Data View and Export

Clear validation errors for all vacancies posted externally on or after 1 August.

For additional details about the report and guidance on closing vacancies and adding missing Applicant Status history please refer to HRINFO21 Vacancy and applicant data quality report.

 HESA
Athena SWAN
Race Equality Charter

            

For guidance on making the indicated changes to clear the data anomalies highlighted red and amber in the report, please refer to data quality in the first instance.

If you need assistance making data changes or running any of the above reports contact HR Systems Support.

Contact the HR Analytics team if you have any queries relating to these reports. Give the Person Reference number, (and appointment ID if the individual is on more than one contract). For queries relating to appointment records; provide the Vacancy ID for queries relating to clearing errors from the HRINFO21 Step 1, Step 2 & Step 3 reports; and Applicant ID for queries relating to adding a missing applicant status.

This month's deadlines

Please refer to the November 2021 payroll cycle diagram.

Guidance on the University’s pay periods and payroll cycles is available here.

 DEADLINE EXPLANATION 
Supplementary payroll deadline Any changes which affect payroll but do not require payroll action/ approval, must be entered and approved within the department by this date in order to be included in the payroll run.
No user input Users cannot enter data into the Personnel module/People Management in the Portal or use menu options under 'Core|Personnel>Maintenance'.
Staff request deadline For staff requests which do not require grading, any requests received by this deadline will be processed by the payroll deadline. Staff Requests received after this deadline are not guaranteed to be processed by the standard payroll deadline. The usual turnaround timings for gradings apply (ten working days).
Casual payments deadline  Details of casual payments must be received by this deadline in order to be included in this month's payroll run.
HRIS Data Services users only: Data Services admin deadline Data Services payroll forms should be submitted to the HRIS Data Services team by this deadline. This is to ensure sufficient time for the team to process them for the payroll deadline and resolve any queries.
Support requests Requests for assistance associated with actions for this month's payroll deadline should be received by HR Systems Support by this date. This is to ensure that sufficient time is available for the team to address your queries.
Payroll deadline All changes which require payroll action/approval must be entered and approved within the department by this deadline in order to be included in this month's payroll run.