UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
TRENT HR USER GROUP
Tuesday 21 April 2009 at 11am
Room 320, Laver Building
Agenda
- Trent HR Project Team (page 2)
- Terms of reference and membership of user group (pages 3-4)
- Progress report and Project plan (pages 5-9)
There will be demonstrations of:
- Self-service (Dan Isaac)
- e-recruitment (Julie Clark)
- Trent HR webpages (Andrew Johnson)
- Infoview reporting (Andrew Johnson)
- Issues raised by Schools and Services and other users
- Issues to raise with Midland at next user forum
- Review of first meeting and recommendations for future scope/format/date etc of user group.
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
TRENT HR USER GROUP, Tuesday 21 April 2009
TRENT HR PROJECT TEAM
The Trent HR Project Team comprises the following members;
NameRole/Leading on
Emma BakerProject Manager
Richard AuthersonIT lead
Doreen MullanInterfaces, Trent implications of Aptos recoding
Alan DoggettBusiness Objects reporting
Jan Penaluna Tax year end, payroll issues
Chris BoltUser manuals, organisation changes, workflows, HESA
Andrew JohnsonPersonnel lead
Julie Clarke-recruitment
Lizzy Wrightpersonnel issues
Rachel Wallpersonnel issues
Stephen Woodcockpayroll issues
Dan Isaacself-service, Trent implications of Aptos recoding
Paul LightowlersUser support, helpdesk
Tom GardnerUser manuals, e-recruitment, user registration, security, HESA
Andrew Johnson
Personnel and Staff Development
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
TRENT HR USER GROUP, Tuesday 21 April 2009
TRENT HR USER GROUP: TERMS OF REFERENCE AND MEMBERSHIP
Terms of Reference
The Trent HR User Group (THRUG) is the key stakeholders’ group for users of the University’s HR system (Trent HR), managers and administrators who receive and rely upon HR information from the University’s HR system and staff who are responsible for system support and development.
- To provide a forum for the exchange of information and experiences relating to the use of the University’s HR system and its role within business processes and procedures.
- To consider common problems and consult on preferred solutions with a view to the promotion and application of best practice.
- To act as a forum for the dissemination of information on present use and actual or proposed changes and improvements.
- To provide a framework in which users are encouraged and enabled to influence improvements and developments in all matters relating to the University’s HR system and to put forward and review suggestions for system enhancements.
Membership
Independent Chair: Gail Seymour, School Manager for the School of Psychology and member of the HR Replacement Project Board has agreed to undertake this role for the first year. (“Independent” means not a member of : Personnel and Staff Development, Finance Services or Business Improvement and System Support.)
Users
Personnel and Staff Development
Administration and Recruitment (2) Julie Clarke and Pippa Jackson
Learning and Development (1)Kathryn Coombes
Operations (2)tbc
Payroll (1) Becky Jones
Pensions (1) Alison Rose
Finance Services/Corporate Services
Accounting (2)Abi Mahde and Andrew George
Research Accounting (1) Steve Popham
Payments (1) Gill Pearn
Other Stakeholders
Representatives of Schools (3):Helen Pisarska (SoGAER)
Caroline Hampson (Biosciences)
Dawn Teed (SALL)
Representatives of Services (3):Gill Malpas (Communication and Partnership)
Caroline Adams (Academic Services)
Patrick Kennedy (Planning Services)
Other internal Learning and Development providers (1) - tbc
System Administration
Policy team, Personnel and Staff Development
Trent HR Project Team/Business Improvement and System Support, Academic Services
Frequency of Meetings
The initial proposal is that THRUG will meet at least twice a year, in March/April and October/November, but it is suggested that this proposal be reviewed following this first meeting.
Administrative Arrangements
The Policy Team in Personnel and Staff Development will act as Secretary to the Group.
Notice of meetings will be communicated via a circulation list of nominated representatives, who will take responsibility for ensuring the most appropriate individuals attend each meeting.
Stakeholders will be given the opportunity to add items to the agenda by giving prior notification to the Group secretary.
Items arising from meetings of THRUG will be reported to the Corporate Systems Group, as appropriate.
Andrew Johnson
Personnel and Staff Development
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
TRENT HR USER GROUP, Tuesday 21 April 2009
TRENT HR USER GROUP: PROGRESS REPORT AND PROJECT PLAN
Progress to date
Payroll
1 Trent HR went live in April 2008 when all staff paid on the ‘main payroll’ were paid for the first time through Trent.
2 At the same time, the new style payslips were issued. Following representations made by a number of staff, the printing of bank account numbers on payslips was discontinued after one month.
3 Individuals paid on a claims basis – both weekly and monthly – including Graduate Teaching Fellows were transferred from AltaHR to Trent HR for payment from August 2008.
4 The payment of ERBS pensioners has also been processed through Trent HR since April 2008.
5 August 2008 increments were processed through Trent with a few teething problems and we have planned to manage this more effectively in July and August 2009. Other significant payroll changes (2 general increases, in May and October 2008, outcomes of the Professorial Salary Review and payment of the University Bonus in December 2008) were managed more effectively than would have been possible on AltaHR. (This was mainly achieved by the ability to upload changes from spreadsheets.)
6 Limited sickness absence information from AltaHR was migrated to Trent HR for sick pay purpose. Trent HR automatically calculates and processes sick pay and maternity pay. (The Payroll Office did this manually in AltaHR.) We have some continued concerns about whether this functionality is working effectively: it is necessary to devote a significant amount of time in the Payroll Office to checking Trent’s calculation of sickness. The main problems relate to term-time staff, staff who have changed jobs or FTE and staff with more than one position. (We are working with consultants from Midland Trent to develop solutions to these problems to free time in the Payroll Office.)
Personnel Administration
7 All personnel administration has been managed through Trent HR from April 2008 – ie creation of records for new staff/appointments, changes to contracts (eg renewals changes to FTE) processing of leavers etc.
8 There have been a number of changes to the structure of the University since April 2008 which have been implemented in Trent HR.
9 To ensure that the University is meeting its obligations under the legislation on Right to Work in the UK, we have reviewed the data related to this and reports are being developed to identify staff who need repeat checks etc.
Reporting
10 Reports from Trent HR began to become available from May 2008. Most reports have to be developed in-house using Business Objects. The version of Business Objects we are using, along with the Trent HR database itself, is more sophisticated than reporting from AltaHR: this slowed the initial development of reports and led to some data errors in earlier versions of reports.
11 Initially, reports for managers in Schools and Services were run by staff in Personnel, who emailed an Excel version of the report to School Managers etc. Scheduled reports – which are automatically run ‘in the background’ by Business Objects and emailed in Excel format to nominated staff – began to become available from September 2008. Managers who receive scheduled reports are reminded about the data protection ‘conditions of use’ of data from Trent HR.
12 There are now over 100 ‘on-request’ reports which have been developed for users in Accounting, Learning and Development, Payments, Payroll, Pensions and Personnel Operations. There are also nearly 300 scheduled reports which are programmed to run automatically each month.
13 There is currently one full-time member of staff working on requests for new reports, requests for scheduling of reports and requests for enhancement/modification to existing reports. As expected, ‘supply creates its own demand’ – there is a long list of requests which, regrettably, have to be responded to on a priority basis. This means that some people may have to wait a significant period before their request can be actioned.
HESA Staff Return
14 Trent HR went live in April 2008, at the commencement of a new tax year, whereas the HESA reporting year ran from August 2007 to July 2008. Consequently, for 2007/8, the HESA return had to be built from both AltaHR and Trent HR. This was a time-consuming process and consequently the University’s submission was made later than usual.
Website
15 Webpages for users of Trent HR and managers who receive information from Trent HR have been created within the Personnel and Staff Development webpages at Further information will be added as the project continues (for example, reports and minutes of User Group meetings). Currently there are links to information about:
- data protection and how the University uses data about employees recorded on Trent HR;
- a summary of generic reports which School and Service and for specific units within Schools and Services and data protection standards for users of these reports;
- how to lodge a problem with the Helpdesk;
- registration form for new users;
- calendar of activities; and
- protocols for uploading data.
Registration and Security
16 There are now ?? users of Trent HR in the University (based in Accounting, Learning and Development, Payments, Payroll, Pensions Personnel Administration and Personnel Operations as well as the Project Team). Initially, all AltaHR users were automatically created as users on Trent HR, but we have now asked all existing users to formally re-register so that there is an auditable record of who has been granted access. The registration form draws the user’s attention to data protection standards and they are required to sign that they understand these. Further refinements to the registration process may be necessary to ensure that data protection is effectively managed.
Helpdesk
17 Since January 2009. all problems and questions from Trent HR users about use of the system have been directed to the IT Helpdesk in the first instance.
18 The purpose of this change was to provide users with a more effective standard of service which could be logged at any time and tracked and (if necessary) escalated through the Helpdesk's eSupport web portal. In addition, by recording all queries through the Helpdesk's eSupport web portal, we can more effectively monitor trends and discover underlying problems, enabling more effective solutions to be developed for frequent problems. This in turn will assist us to more effectively monitor the ongoing level of user support which Trent HR users will require when the Project Team comes to an end in summer 2009.
19 Instructions on the Trent webpages advise Trent users to observe standards of confidentiality when lodging problems with the Helpdesk. Most problems are currently forwarded to the Project Team for resolution. Since the introduction of this method of recording and resolving user issues, over 40 problems have been lodged with the Helpdesk each month.
Project Team and ongoing support
20 The project will run until July 2009, after which the ongoing support and development of Trent HR will be handed to Personnel and Staff Development, with technical support from the BISS team in Academic Services. From summer 2009, the Trent Support Team in the Personnel and Staff Development Policy Team will comprise 2.6 staff, including 1.0 FTE on a fixed term to Spring 2010.
Priorities for 2009
21 The Project Board has agreed the following priorities for the Project Team, to be completed by July 2009.
e-recruitment
22 A significant amount of work has been invested in developing the user interface for job applicants to apply for vacancies online. E-recruitment will allow all job applicants to apply online, which will also improve the University's ability to undertake equality and diversity monitoring of recruitment activity and, in turn, achieve Two Ticks status for its commitment to the employment of people with disabilities. Eventually, the current web listing of vacancies will be replaced by a new Trent e-recruitment interface. We will shortly begin piloting e-recruitment for a small number of jobs with a view to extending e-recruitment to all vacancies from the beginning of the next academic year.
23 The e-recruitment functionality also encompasses recruitment administration and we are now working on how this will be utilised, not just within the recruitment team in Personnel and Staff Development but by recruiting managers across the University. E-recruitment offers the University significant opportunities for saving on administration, which will be important in achieving the Creating Value agenda.
24 Once this has been completed we will continuing work on the development of an e-SR1, to replace the paper SR1, within Trent HR, allowing Schools and Services to track progress of their proposals.
e-filing
25 The University has to make a number of statutory returns to HMRC for the end of the tax year via 'e-filing' and there are financial penalties for failing to make these returns on time. Since this is the first year we will be making our e-fling returns via Trent HR, it is essential that we invest resources in ensuring that this functionality is fully and successfully tested so that we can meet our statutory obligations.
Employee self-service
26 Following an initial trial of employee self-service in the BISS team in Academic Services in March, a more comprehensive pilot – using the Live system – will take place in Academic Services, Personnel and Staff Development and the School of Psychology in April. It is planned to extend this to all staff (excluding individuals engaged on a claims basis) from May 2009. Access will be via a link on the staff portal
27 Trent’s self service functionality offers only a limited range of information – including personal details, bank details, payslips and employment details. Most fields will be view only but some will be open to updating by employees. In particular, Employment Details (job title, unit, location etc) will be read only and any changes which staff may wish to make will need to be formally approved by a senior manager in their School or Service.
28 Another limitation of Trent’s self service functionality is that it is not currently possible to embed the user guide which has been developed into the interface, so users will have to view this in another window. It is hoped that further enhancements of self service by Midland Trent will address some of these issues in the future.
29 From the beginning of the new leave year in 2010, employee self-service will be extended to the booking of annual leave.
30 As part of the Creating Value agenda, we will also be looking at replacing printed payslips with the electronic payslips that staff can access via self service.
Learning event administration
31 After the implementation of employee self-service, this will be extended to the booking of learning events. We will also be looking at using Trent for recording PDRs (e-PDR).
Sickness absence
32 We will be working with sickness monitors in Schools and Services to replace the current arrangements of sending weekly paper returns of sickness absence to Personnel and Staff Development with direct input into Trent HR. This will improve the timeliness of information and give Schools and Services greater access to sickness absence data about staff in their teams. In addition to testing security issues and looking at the registration process, we recognise that this will need to be fully supported through training and user support.
Uploading
33 We are currently working with Halls of Residence to upload information about overtime working from spreadsheets, avoiding the duplication of input and increasing accuracy. It may be possible to extend this to other actions, such as uploading of weekly claims, which are currently input manually.
General Ledger recoding
34 The General Ledger recoding project will have significant implications for the University’s use of the Trent HR system and the managing the recoding changes in Trent HR and its interface with Aptos is one of the agreed priorities for the Project Team.
Reporting
35 Alongside these developments, we will continue to support the provision of management information through reporting. Further reports will be developed as need arises but priority will be given to those which are necessary for system administration, strategic management and monitoring and statutory purposes (for example, equality and diversity, increments, HESA, Right to Work checks). All requests for new reports, amendments to existing reports and changes to recipients of scheduled reports should be directed to the IT Helpdesk in the first instance.
Input of staff expenses
36 Following further consideration of this issue with managers in Finance Services, and taking account of the GL recoding project, it is likely that from August 2009 staff expenses will be administered through Aptos rather than Trent HR.