September 2022 bulletin

News and reminders

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Our new Head of HR Systems, Marie Cooksey, joined the team on 30 August. Marie comes from University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire, where she was Workforce Transformation Lead.

Marie will join the upcoming HR Systems Briefing on 27 September, and looks forward to meeting you then.

We are pleased to share that the Excel version of the User Access Form will soon be replaced with a new online version within OSM; the University’s online service request tool. This is due to be launched in early October (date to be confirmed).

As part of this, we are amending our current user access process to make it easier for all involved. In future, new users will be encouraged to, where possible, submit the User Access Form themselves after they have completed all relevant training. Future system users will only be able to request access upon completion of the required training for PeopleXD.

The revised process for requesting access will be:

  1. Future user to:
    - Identify the type of access/training required
    - Complete the relevant HR Systems training
    Complete and submit the OSM user access request form
  2. Line manager and/or HR Systems guardian to approve the form (via OSM)
  3. HR Systems team verify details and grant access

Our Access and training webpages will be updated at the time of the launch, detailing the new user access process, with a link to the new form, and details of the training required for the different system roles.

Excel user access forms submitted to us prior to launch will be processed as normal. From the launch date, Excel forms will no longer be accepted. All new requests after this will need to be submitted using the online form.

Automatic increments are due to be paid for Professional and Management, Academic and Research grades from 1 October. Please read the following to ensure that the correct rate of pay is taken forward.

How the process works

The day before the increment is due a new salary record is created automatically. This salary change doesn’t need to be authorised, it will take effect the next day unless it is overridden. After the increment has been applied, the system will set the next increment due date for one year’s time unless the bar point has been reached. For the 1 October process therefore, the new row in the appointment record will become visible to users on 30 September.

Action required

  1. Undertake a data checking exercise of all records to ensure that the increment date is populated where required: The ‘Increment Due Date’ report will help you to identify any staff with no increment due date, records where the ‘increment on hold’ flag has been ticked which will prevent the increment from happening, or those without a future increment date. You will need to check if any of these records are incorrect and amend/update them, if required. Note that in order for an employee to be eligible for an increment on 1 October 2022 they must have been in their current role since at least 1 July 2022.
  2. Ensure the correct salary is approved prior to the increment date: The system will add one increment (as applicable) to the current approved salary on the day the job runs. It is essential that employees due an increment on 1 October have the correct salary approved as at 23:59 on 29 September. Please also ensure that any future dated salary lines with an effective date after 1 October 2022 have been set at the scale point the employee will be on following the automatic increment. You can use ‘Staff in Post’ report to check current salary data, and the ‘Monthly Personnel Changes’ report to check for any future-dated salary changes, and to check the approval status for salary requests.

If you have any questions about this, please contact the HR Systems Support team.

We hope that you can join us for our next briefing session, which will take place on Tuesday 27 September from 13:00 - 13:50. The agenda will include:

  • Payroll cycle – overview and overcoming common issues
  • New OSM User Access form
  • Key process reminders (including secondments and vacancy IDs)
  • Team news

The briefing will be recorded. If you are unable to attend, please contact us with any questions you would like answered during the session. 
A calendar invitation has been sent to all system users.
 

Due to staff training and annual leave, our user support phone service has been suspended until 10am on Monday 3 October.

Our step-by step guidance materials are designed to help you complete system tasks. Please always refer to these resources first, as they will most likely answer your query.

If you still need help with PeopleXD/HR Reporting, please contact us on hr.systems@admin.ox.ac.uk. Queries will be prioritised according to urgency, and some delays are expected during this time. We thank you for your patience during this period.

Payroll corner

Please note that the Main Payroll deadline for October is Monday 10 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 requesting this.

Every new starter must provide you with a P45. Parts two and three of the form must be emailed to your Payroll Officer without delay.

If your new starter does not have a P45 on day one (eg employee is new to the UK, or their previous employer has not yet sent it) then they MUST complete a Starter Checklist, to be sent to your Payroll Officer by post or by email. If they subsequently receive their P45, this must still be sent to Payroll regardless of whether a Starter Checklist has already been provided. Payroll would rather have both forms than neither. Use the Starter checklist for PAYE - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for the most up-to-date version.

Many people are paying too much tax because these essential forms have been overlooked. Please help your staff by ensuring they complete and send either tax form, as soon as they start work.

Two helpful notes on Starter Checklist completion:

  1. Employee statements A, B and C only relate to previous employment in the UK in this tax year (April to March). Employees working abroad immediately prior to the job should tick box A.
  2. The student loan declaration is for UK Student loans only.

Please remind your staff (including casual workers) that payslips and P60s are available online, via HR Self-Service. The Casual Payroll Team are spending a significant amount of time dealing with requests to provide copies of payslips; we would appreciate your support in helping to reduce the number of these queries by reminding your staff about online access and by following the guidance below. Unless exceptional circumstances apply, Payroll should not be contacted with requests for copies of payslips.

Casual workers

Delays/non-issuing of SSO details for casual workers will prevent their access being set up to HR Self-Service and therefore their online payslips. At present, casual staff continue to be issued with paper copies too, so it’s essential that postal addresses are kept up to date in PeopleXD. Casual workers can (and should be reminded to) update this themselves, via HR Self-Service.

VPN issues

Most staff can set up VPN on their device by following the guidance available on the HR Self-Service landing page. VPN issues that prevent people from viewing their payslips should be raised with IT.

Update from the HR Analytics team

 

Report name

Action required

Required for

HRINFO01 Data Validation

in conjunction with

HRINFO01 Qualifications and Subjects

Across the University there are currently 136 Staff Classification errors in the HRINFO01 Data Validation report output. Therefore please pay particular attention to clearing these errors before clearing all the other validation errors by Thursday 22 September 2022.

Guidance:

HRINFO01 data quality validation report

Staff Classifications

Clearing data quality errors

REF

HESA

Medical Schools Council Survey

Athena SWAN

Financial year end reporting

HRINFO20 Casual Worker Data Quality Validation 2021-22

Clear staff classification errors then the other error types by Thursday 22 September 2022.

Guidance:

Staff Classifications

HRINFO20 Casual worker data quality validation report

HESA

HRINFO21 Vacancy and applicant data quality reports:

Step 1 Advertised Vacancy Validation

Step 2 Applicant Status Validation

 

Clear Step 1 errors before Step 2 errors by Friday 30 September 2022.

Where vacancies resulted in an appointment being made, only closed vacancies with complete applicant status history (i.e. Applied; Shortlisted; Offer Made – Personnel; Offer Accepted – Personnel) are included.

Guidance:

HRINFO21 Vacancy and applicant data quality reports

Manage Recruitment statuses and events section 4

Add applicant status history data

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 hr.systems@admin.ox.ac.uk.

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.

The Athena Swan staff data Tableau dashboards have been updated for maternity leave return and longevity information (5 years of data available for the academic years 2016/17 to 2020/21)

Guidance: Athena SWAN

Email: athena.staffdata@admin.ox.ac.uk.

Reward updates

If job descriptions have been amended to provide contextual information, departments can submit them as ‘generic job descriptions’. If they have been amended to remove or add responsibilities, they need to be checked by a role analyst to confirm that this has not affected the grade of the role.

An increasing number of job descriptions are being submitted, which have only a few bullet points and cannot be evaluated.

Departments can contact a role analyst to ask for job descriptions that have previously been evaluated, so that they can develop their job description in consultation with managers. This should be done prior to raising a staff request.

This month's deadlines

Monthly payroll dates are now available from the This month's Payroll deadlines webpage.

Please bookmark this page, which is updated monthly.