HR Systems overview and navigation

The University's primary HR system, PeopleXD, is used across all HR teams across the University to record and manage recruitment activities and maintain staff records, including creating, updating and ending these records. Additionally, central teams use PeopleXD for tasks such as:

  • Managing equality and diversity data.
  • Completing statutory reporting.
  • Administering payroll processes. 

PeopleXD plays a critical role in ensuring the effective management of HR processes University-wide. Its navigation is organised into functional areas tailored to specific tasks, referred to as either 'dashboards' or 'widgets'.

How do I...

The dashboards you can access depend on your system role(s). Each dashboard supports different activities:

 Dashboard Purpose Navigation tips
Employee

To view:

  • contractual information including your salary;
  • recent vacancies you have applied for;
  • update personal details, such as your home address.

For participating departments only: To request leave, complete an absence record or submit timesheets for hours worked.

Hover over the red circle with your initials in the top left corner to flip it and access My Profile.
Manager

View basic personal and contractual information for direct reports.

Participating departments only: Approve leave requests, timesheets and absences.

Select Manager Dashboard from the dashboard menu to view your team's records.
Recruitment Create staff requests for new vacancies or some contractual changes. Advertise vacancies, manage applications, and update applicant data.  
People Management  View staff records, create new starters, record staff changes and process leavers.  
Talent Participating departments only: Allows HR staff to enable Reviewees/ Reviewers to record career development reviews and professional development time (currently for researchers).  
WFM Participating departments only: As part of the Workforce Management functionality, this allows Roster Supervisors to manage rotas.  
WFM Admin Participating departments only: As part of the Workforce Management functionality, this allows HR staff to view and action online timesheets.  
Social Hub Used by staff starting new appointments to complete new starter details via Onboarding tasks and access information aimed at new starters at the University.  
Insight An in-system reporting tool offering a limited selection of reports for HR teams, primarily supporting Onboarding processes.  
Org Chart

Provides a visual representation of the organisational structure, including active posts.

 

 

  1. Click the arrow next to current dashboard title.
  2. Select the required dashboard.
dashboards

 

The Navigation menu (see images below) can be expanded or collapsed using the three-line icon found top left. When collapsed the names of the menu options are hidden and only the menu’s icon is shown. Hover on the icon to display the menu name. 

navigation menu
navigation menu

 

Either:

(1) Use the back arrow.

(2) Select the relevant option in the breadcrumb.

back a screen
Filed name Description

View or View All

(buttons)

Used to either:

  • select a row to open another screen (eg Employee Search from the Command Centre in People Management);
  • view the details presented in another format (eg vacancies displayed as tiles to a list of vacancies); or expand the widget to full size window (eg clicking VIEW ALL on the Interviews widget from Recruitment Dashboard).
Actions (button) Used to either:
  • navigate to other menu screens (eg Applicant Details from the Vacancy in Recruitment Dashboard); or
  • process a specific task (eg link a planned appointment to a vacancy).

The options listed under Actions can change; always click the drop-down to check.

Ellipsis button (three dots) Similar to the Actions button there are options to navigate to other menu screens or click on an option to process a specific task. However, these options relate to the details of the specific row the ellipsis appears on, eg specific to an applicant.
Expand columns When you are presented with a table of information, hover your cursor between column titles to expand or decrease the column width (to see the full description etc).

 

 

 

  1. From the top right of the screen click on your initials.
  2. Select Log Out.

How do I...

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Navigation path: Employee Dashboard > Recruitment Dashboard > Vacancies

  1. Search by vacancy ID or job title
  2. From ACTIONS, either select Edit Vacancy or select View Applicants (as appropriate)

Navigation path: Employee Dashboard > Recruitment Dashboard > Vacancies

  1. Search by vacancy ID or job title
  2. From ACTIONS, select View Applicants.
  3. To view an individual's application, click on the ellipsis menu (at the end of the applicant row and select Applications Details

How do I...

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Navigation path: Employee Dashboard > People Management Dashboard > Employees View

  1. Search by name or employee number.
  2. Select View
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. Navigate to Contracts tab (A).
contracts
  1. Click into the appointment selection menu (B) to see all current and ended appointments held within your department or division (security access).  Each record must have a substantive appointment (for system purposes), in most cases this is dictated by PeopleXD and denoted by a blue star.
  2. Information displayed further below on the screen will be related to the appointment selected here (B) only. 

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4 appts
  1. The history of employment changes can be viewed under Amendments (C). This screen is very useful for understanding how an individual’s appointment(s) have changed over time, the unique sequence number for each change, and why (Reason). 
  2. Click VIEW at the end of each row to open the View Contract screen. Here you can see in read-only the details of Organisational Structure and Contract Information for that change.
  3. Alternatively, select the ellipsis in the Summary section (D) and select Timeline to view a visual timeline of the appointment changes (pictured below).
timeline of appointments
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. Navigate to Current Salary tab (left of the screen).
  4. Where the individual has multiple appointments in your system security access, select the relevant appointment from the appointment selection (see 'view current/ past contract information' guidance above).
  5. Make sure you are on Current Salary menu.
  6. The Salary History displays all the historic changes to the salary. This information will default to Excluding Rate History. Click the drop-down to change this to Include Rate History. Each row under Salary History represents a change in salary. They are displayed in start (effective) date sequence with the most recent at the top.
Field name  Description
Start Date Date this salary record/ change took effect (or will take effect if in the future).
Rate effective Date rate of pay was last updated for this grade and point.
Pay Scale/ 
Grade
Grade related to salary. X99 is used for Casual appointments. N99 is used for non-employee appointments, eg. visitors.
Point Grade stage.
Rate Type Normally Annual.
Rate Amount Annual Salary for the Pay Scale and Point at the Start Date.
Multiplier Used to calculate the salary, in most case this will match the individual's FTE (exceptions include long-term sickness).
Actual Pay Rate of pay * Multiplier.
Status

Pending: salary has not yet been approved at any level.

In Approval: salary has been approved by Personnel (1st level of approval, a Salary Approver at department or divisional level) but not yet approved by Payroll.

Approved: salary has been approved by both levels – Salary Approver in HR and Payroll approval. 

Reason Reason related to the change.

 

  1. Alternatively, you can click Timeline View button to see the salary changes in a timeline:
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. Navigate to Current Salary tab (left of the screen).
  4. Where the individual has multiple appointments in your system security access, select the relevant appointment from the appointment selection (see 'view current/ past contract information' guidance above).
  5. Navigate to the Increment History menu (A).
increments
  1. Next Increment (B): Details the increment due date for this appointment.
  2. Increment History (C): Details the increments applied over the course of the appointment.
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. Navigate to Current Salary tab. 
  4. Select Allowances (middle tab) (A).
  5. The history of allowances and changes to allowances are listed below in start date order with the most recent at the top (B).
allowances
Field name Description
Allowance Allowance type
Start Date Date Allowance was/ will be paid from.
End Date  Date Allowance ended (or will end), in some cases there will be no end date, so the allowance will be paid indefinitely. 
Value Monthly or percentage value. 
Status

Pending: salary has not yet been approved at any level.

In Approval: salary has been approved by Personnel (1st level of approval, a Salary Approver at department or divisional level) but not yet approved by Payroll.

Approved: salary has been approved by both levels – Salary Approver in HR and Payroll approval. 

Ended: End date is in the past.

 

The list of allowances assigned to this appointment can be searched and filtered (C).

To view more details about a specific allowance:

  1. Click the ellipsis at the end of an allowance row.
  2. Select View (D).  This allows you to see more details of the allowance, eg cost allocation, reason, and comments. 

Negative allowances

The Current Salary screen displays the salary along with a value including allowances. This figure may be less than the current salary. This will be the case when there are negative allowances, deductions eg travel loan, childcare services:

negative allowances

 

Allowances should never be cancelled or deleted.

The Add and Manage Allowances guide should be followed where a change/ correction is needed.

 
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. Navigate to Cost Allocations tab. 
  1. Search and open staff record (see above).
  2. Click View.
  3. From ACTIONS select Personnel Profile.
  4. Select Emergency Contact (under Employee Detail).

The Organisational Chart tool is visible to users with the People Management administrator user role. It provides a visual representation of the organisational structure, including vacant posts in PeopleXD, regardless of your access rights.

When you first navigate to Organisational Chart tool, your own staff card will be displayed by default, then you can drill up/down to see the see the management structure recorded in People Management.

This data is driven by the Work Group recorded on the appointment. If you believe this to be inaccurate, please review your Work Groups and Work Group managers using report PERDEP16 HR Self-Service Work Groups report. To update a Work Group or Work Group manager, please submit the relevant Service Request form.

NB: Staff who have multiple appointments or who are on secondment, will only appear in the Organisation Chart in their substantive appointment.

There are three reporting tools available:

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Real time information from PeopleXD can be accessed by PeopleXD users and HR Reporting only users in departments.

Reports cover recruitment and applicant information as well as many staff data items.  Full details of all reports available including their purpose, available search criteria and hints and tips can be found on the Reports library there is also a user guide for running and exporting reports.

Tableau is a reporting software that enables University staff to access people reports/data, in a more visual and interactive way, often presented as dashboards. This information can be downloaded in various formats for further data manipulation or analysis.

Staff, based on their job role, are able to request access to Athena SWAN data, Payroll costing and High level staff and recruitment data. Please refer to our user guide for accessing tableau dashboards.

Accessed from PeopleXD, Insight reports are used to support HR teams support the onboarding process for new staff appointments.  See the relevant section of the new appointments guidance.

Gaining access

Based on the level of access you need to PeopleXD, HR Reporting and/ or Tableau, you will need to complete the relevant training before submitting a user access service request form.  Full details regarding what levels of access is available, the required up-front training and process for requesting access can be found on our Access and training webpages.

Further training and guidance

We have some eLearners which can be completed before or after requesting access to PeopleXD, as well as user guidance, FAQs and Whatfix content which can be referred to whilst using PeopleXD: