August 2022 bulletin

Save the date for our next HR Systems briefing, which will take place on Tuesday 27 September from 13:00 - 13:50.

Whilst we usually aim to schedule these within the no user input period, this particular session will take place in the following week, to enable the Payroll team to join us. Look out for a calendar invitation which will be sent to all system users soon.

As a result of a recent minor system update, the DOB field has been removed from the duplicate employee check screen in People Management.

We would like to remind users to search thoroughly to check whether a staff record already exists, and search separately on at least two of the following criteria: first name, surname and NI number.

We have queried this with our supplier and will keep you informed of any further updates.

Check our System Issues page regularly to stay up to date with the latest issues and fixes. Recent updates include information relating to:

• Recording or editing immediate previous employment history; and
• Gmail accounts not receiving automated system issued emails, particularly affecting applicants

The University has changed external auditors for 2021/22 from KPMG to Deloitte. This may result in some additional work as they familiarise themselves with the University and its systems and processes.

Deloitte will be carrying out their annual final audit of the University during the eight weeks from 5 September 2022. As part of this audit, Deloitte will want to take a sample of PeopleXD data relating to starters, leavers, amendments to standing data and payroll changes in order to check it to back-up documentation which is often held in the departments. They will also review any material redundancy packages.

Deloitte have the right under their audit terms with the University to ask for this information as it could impact on the accuracy of the financial statements; they also have a confidentiality agreement with the University. HR officers are asked to respond promptly to all queries asked by a member of Deloitte, who will all have a ‘deloitte.co.uk’ email address.

The audit will be a blend of face to face (approximately 2 days a week) and remote; so this may mean we need to set up some Teams meetings to go through information and use ‘shared screen’ for Deloitte to see some information.

We will try and to obtain in advance the departments that Deloitte intend to pick their sample from, so we can pre-warn you of the need for information and provide details of the auditor who will be in contact. Information should be sent securely to Deloitte to comply with GDPR.

Any questions or concerns about this audit should be directed to Charles Morgan, Payroll Manager, or Ben Heath, Director of Technical Accounting and Reporting.

The first pilot edition of the ‘Data Update’ news round-up is now available, highlighting some of the key work happening across the University to embed the Data Strategy and improve data quality and business intelligence. This first edition includes an article by our Interim Head of HR Analytics, Mandy Zaccheo about the team’s first dedicated data project. You can also:

• find out what we mean when we say ‘data quality’;
• see how you can make a difference;
• discover some of the improvements already happening; and
• learn how Power BI can help you present your data or use shared data more easily.

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 hr.systems@admin.ox.ac.uk or tel: 01865 (2)87900.

Contact the HR Analytics team on hris.dataquality@admin.ox.ac.uk if you have any queries relating to these reports; give the Person Reference number and Appointment ID or Vacancy ID and Applicant ID.

A new Person UDF 'Discipline taught/researched' has been created to store Academic Discipline taught and/or researched subjects. This information is required for the mandatory annual HESA staff return for a subset of staff, where the Sub Category is AT, AC, AP or AR (see the Staff Classification Guide).

All existing data in PeopleXD has been transferred from the 'Learning and Development' area of People Management (where it was previously recorded) to the new UDF. This includes mapping to a new set of subject/discipline categories which also can be found here.

The HRINFO01 Data Validation Qualifications and Subjects has been updated to pull the information in from the new UDF.

Our webpage guidance has been updated to reflect this change.

Action required

1. Note the new location for recording Academic Discipline and follow the updated Scenario Factsheet (p4).
2. If you have not done so recently, please run the HRINFO01 report and clear any errors with the message “Academic Discipline UDF is missing”. We need the best dataset possible for this year’s HESA return so please complete this task by 31 August.

For further guidance or help please contact hris.dataquality@admin.ox.ac.uk.