September 2021 bulletin

 

Important - for action/attention this month

Furlough scheme ends 30 September - enter all remaining data by this date
Contract templates available in Recruitment from w/c 27 September
Check the HR Analytics newsletter for important actions and updates

News and reminders

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Would you like to help shape the development of our HR system? By being a POG (Product Ownership Group) member you can influence decisions on the release of new system features and enhancements!

We are currently looking to expand membership of the existing POGs, as well as set up a brand new group for Time Management. PeopleXD users from all divisions are welcome to get in touch, and we are particularly keen to hear from those within GLAM and Social Sciences.

If you are interested and would like to hear more, please contact Tonya Iasisen-Kandola.

As part of the work to deliver improvements to this service, we have made the following contract templates available in Recruitment: 

  • Academic-related staff contract 
  • Support staff contract 
  • Casual teaching contract of services 
  • Casual workers letter of engagement 

Please refer to the updated guidance for further information on producing documents in PeopleXD. 

The following changes have also been made in the system: 

  • The academic-related contract has been updated to reflect the change to pension contributions from 1 October 2021;
  • The instructions for returning the signed contract have been updated to reflect current practise; and
  • The Reject Post Interview email template has been amended to remove the superfluous text ‘on <<INTERVIEW_DATE1>>’. 

All the above changes will be live and available to use w/c 27 September. 

Please be reminded that the Back Office will be ‘switched off’ on Monday 1 November. From this day, all processes will be completed in the Portal. Please note 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. 

Users with screen readers are now able to easily navigate through the dashboard and widget quick jump list. The screen reader will read the list item that is in focus. We hope that this makes the system easier to navigate, but should you spot any issues or would like to provide any feedback regarding this enhancement, please contact us. 

Join us for our next quarterly briefing on Thursday 23 September from 10:05 - 10:55, held via Teams. The session will include:

  • Preview of the new in-system support tool (Whatfix) being released later this year
  • Update from Liz Mitchell on HR Analytics activities
  • POGs update: future system enhancements
    - *Coming soon* Producing contracts in Recruitment
  • Update on Time Management pilot
  • Key reminders and other updates

An invitation has been sent to all system users. We hope to see you there!
 

KPMG, the University’s external auditors, will be carrying out their annual final audit of the University during the seven weeks from 13 September 2021. As part of this audit, KPMG will want to take a sample of PeopleXD data relating to starters, leavers, amendments to standing data and payroll changes as they have done in previous years and in order to check it to back-up documentation which is often held in the departments. They will also review any material redundancy packages.

KPMG 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 KPMG, who will all have a “kpmg.co.uk” email address.

The whole audit will be mainly conducted remotely so this may mean we need to set up some Teams meetings to go through information and use “shared screen” for KPMG to see some information.

We will try and obtain in advance, the departments that KPMG 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 KPMG 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.

Please check our Known Issues and Common Queries web pages regularly to stay up-to-date with the latest issues, fixes and tips!

Recent updates include a fix to the Right to Work (RTW) data and errors in the HRINFO report. A fix has been applied to resolve the error users were finding in the HRINFO report due to a blank 'RTW undertaken by' field. 

Payroll Corner

Please note that the Main Payroll deadline for October is Friday 8 October.

October is always a busy month University-wide and Payroll is no exception. We will not be able to accept late submissions in PeopleXD or by email, so please do not put your Payroll Officer in a difficult position by asking!

Update from the HR Analytics Team

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The second HR Analytics newsletter was published on 14 September, aimed at keeping you informed about important HR data quality news and actions. If you missed it, click here to read. This includes details about the following actions required by departments:

  • Source of Funding queries - please respond by 20 September
  • Furlough Scheme -  all remaining furlough data must be entered by 30 September
  • Urgent action required to clear errors: 2020/21 NHS Contract Details and HESA Clinical Sub Specialty UDFs

Correction: Please note a correction relating to the ‘EJRA extension applications’ item: For system guidance, please refer to the EJRA Scenario Factsheet.  

As the scheme ends next Thursday there is less than 7 working days to enter all remaining furlough data taking into account the two No User Input Days.  

Please ensure that for any individual whose period of furlough ends on 30 September:

  • the effective date of the FURLOUGH END… appointment change record is 01-OCT-2021, and
  • a ‘Period To’ date of 30-SEP-2021 is added to the final ‘Appt: Part-time Furlough Weekly Hours UDF’, where an individual is working part of their contractual hours.

This will ensure that the Furlough End Date is populated with 30-SEP-2021 in the PERDEP91 report’.

Visit our website for more guidance regarding the end of the Furlough Scheme.

Please continue to prioritize the clearance of all Staff Classification Errors. Guidance can be found here:

Report name Action required Required for
HRINFO01- 2020-21 Staff Validation 
in conjunction with
HRINFO01 Data Validation – Quals & subjects 2020-21

Clear validation errors for all employee appointments active for any period of time from 1 August 2020.

We will follow up all instances of missing or inconsistent staff classification and NHS Contract Details UDF and Clinical Sub Specialties UDF so please avoid being contacted by clearing them before the deadline. See the guidance about staff classification above this table.

For guidance on NHS Contract Details UDF and Clinical Sub Specialties UDF see email to sent to PeopleXD users/admin teams affected on 1 September 2021.

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

 HESA
Medical Schools Council Survey
Athena SWAN
Financial year end reporting
HRINFO20_Casual Worker Data Quality Validation 2020-21     Clear validation errors for all casual worker and casual teaching appointments active for any period of time from 1 August 2020 in a timely manner.
HRINFO20 Casual worker data quality validation report gives additional details about the report. Please note that the error messages relating to FTE Hours can be ignored.		 HESA

            

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.
 

New/updated documents and reports

We are continually making updates and improvements to our guidance materials. Please always access guidance directly from our website, to ensure you have the most up to date version.

The following guides have recently been updated:

Guidance What's changed
How-to guide – Close a vacancy Reference to new checkbox function to select applicants on Generate Applications screen. 
How-to guide – Generate shortlisting packs and screen applicants Reference to new checkbox function to select applicants on Generate Applications screen. 
How-to guide – Manage a successful applicant  Updated to reflect that contract templates are now available in Recruitment (from w/c 27 September).
How-to guide - Manage recruitment statuses and events Now explains the process around adding missing applicant statuses and information on corresponding reports that should be run.
How-to guide – Generate and download letters and forms in PeopleXD Includes new guidance on producing documents (eg contracts) from Recruitment. Further guidance/troubleshooting advice on producing documents is available on our Common queries page.   

How-to guide - Recording start and end dates in PeopleXD

 Minor updates to layout and content, including guidance relating to the type of contract held by the individual.

How-to guide – Replace a contract within the same department

 Reminder added for users not to copy allowances over to replacement contracts. 

EJRA Scenario Factsheet

 New guidance on entering leaving reason for ended substantive appointments and on ending EJRA appointments. Please refer to this month’s HR Analytics newsletter for more details.

Furlough Scenario Factsheet

 New section added with details of actions that need to be completed before furlough scheme ends on 30 September 2021.
How-to guide - End appointments The HR Systems Support team have reinstated several ended appointments so other departments are able to process transfers of employees. A reminder has been included in the guidance for users to check the individual's next area of employment before ending their appointment.

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This month's deadlines

Please refer to the October 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.