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Making the Most of
HR Data top
Many of us have been consumed since October
with getting transactions into PeopleSoft, and getting paychecks
out. Now that the pressures of stabilization are not so great,
it’s a good time to consider whether you are making the most
of the HR data and reports that are available.
Did you know that there are now 34 different
human resource reports for local users available in PeopleSoft
and AWS3? Over the past several months, significant progress
has been made in getting new reports up and ready for use, and
in tuning them for improved performance (nearly all reports
run in five minutes or less, and most in under a minute).
Here is a complete
list of PeopleSoft HRMS reports.
Training and online resources
If you still haven’t received AWS3 training, it’s not too late.
There will be a session on Running
HR Reports in AWS3 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, June
20, and classes are now being scheduled for July through September.
Contact your local training
registrar to sign up.
As for online resources, a recently updated web page for AWS3
users is available at
http://atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin/aws3.jsp.
Among other things, this page provides detailed information
about how to run and read the most frequently used reports.
Future report development plans
We know that new HR-oriented reports are still needed, as well
as enhancements to current reports, and this work is ongoing.
We will be forming a user group in the fall to review current
reports and make suggestions for others. If you are interested
in taking part in this user group, please e-mail Ana Bard at
ana_bard@harvard.edu.
If you would like to make a suggestion for a report enhancement
now, you can call the UIS Help Desk at 6-2001 or e-mail your
suggestion to uis_helpdesk@harvard.edu.
Please be as detailed as possible with your recommendation.
Redesigned Student/Temp/LHT Hiring Process
Expected to Debut in August top
What's the problem? back
Harvard University maintains a workforce of
approximately 8,300 student and temporary workers, resulting
in 13,000 hire and rehire personnel actions for this population
annually.
When PeopleSoft went live in the fall, one
of the most acute and widely publicized stabilization problems
had to do with student hiring and payment backlogs. Some departments
also experienced problems with non-student temporaries, particularly
those with multiple concurrent jobs or irregular work patterns.
Based on work with student employers from
across campus, we found that Harvard’s student hiring and payment
problem had these key components:
- new hires were not in the system
by the time they started work
- workers with multiple concurrent
jobs had trouble selecting the right job, so cross-reporting
mix-ups were common
- managers could not approve time because
workers were assigned to the wrong Time and Labor (T&L)
group, or because the managers’ data security did not allow
them access to all the workers for whom they were responsible
- timekeepers attempting to enter time
for students on Monday (a common practice) could not complete
their work, or see the results of their work, due to slow
system performance
- timekeepers successfully reported
time on behalf of student workers, but to the wrong job, because
system security could not prevent cross-reporting
- rates of pay were incorrect
- too much data was required for student
hires, given the relatively simple, but highly changeable
nature, of their employment relationships
- lack of clarity (in some cases) and
compliance (in other cases) on I-9 submission requirements
- paperwork processing delays in Central
as well as the submission of incomplete, incorrect, and duplicate
paperwork
- widespread confusion on the hiring,
time reporting, and payment processes for work-study-funded
students
- checks mailed to the “wrong” addresses
(that is, sent to the “primary office address” of the student
worker, which is not necessarily the department where the
student worked the previous week), and
- off-cycle checks prepared to address
urgent financial needs were left to languish in Payroll.
Numerous steps have been taken to address
these problems and the situation has improved. However, the
current business solution remains flawed. It is still too slow,
too labor-intensive, and too error-prone to properly support
the student hiring push that will inevitably occur in September.
Proposed solution back
There is no “magic bullet” for Harvard’s student
hiring and payment problems. The steps taken so far have made
the process workable, but not ideal. Here are the additional
steps we must take to realize significant process improvements:
| 1 |
Develop and deploy a Quick
Hire page in PeopleSoft
* that requires far less data and is fully
integrated with PeopleSoft and the Harvard University
ID system.
- The Quick Hire form, once
completed and submitted online, would immediately activate
the employee in PeopleSoft, assuming an I-9 is on file.
If the I-9 is not on file, the worker remains pending,
and the re/hiring transaction requires electronic submission
after the I-9 has been received by Central.
- The Quick Hire form can be
used to submit hires, rehires, and the addition of concurrent
jobs for students, temporaries, and LHTs. It cannot
be used for teaching fellows, or to effect job data
changes for any population.
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| 2 |
Increase the use of direct deposit by
students and temporaries to eliminate payment delays and
lost checks. |
| 3 |
Improve the mail handling and delivery
process for those students who will still get checks. |
| 4 |
Display the compensation rate for each
job to allow differentiation between otherwise identical
concurrent temporary jobs. |
| 5 |
Minimize loss and delays in the collection
and entry of I-9 data. |
| 6 |
More aggressively terminate inactive
student temporary jobs. Jobs with no time reported for the
previous six months will be automatically assigned a termination
date of one month hence. |
| 7 |
Increase and improve communication to
student employees. |
*
As of this writing, it is expected that users at FAS, SPH,
and HMS will continue to use local systems for student hiring.
Expected results back
Taking these steps is expected to:
| 1 |
Reduce the time needed
to hire temporary and LHT workers and activate them as
reporters in Time and Labor. |
| 2 |
Eliminate redundant data entry between
local units and Central, and reduce the risk of error from
re-keying. |
| 3 |
Get money to students faster via direct
deposit or delivery of checks to their campus residence,
rather than to their “primary office address.” |
| 4 |
Reduce the potential for cross-reporting
of time to the wrong job by eliminating inactive concurrent
jobs and displaying differentiators. |
| 5 |
Improve the early submission of I-9s
and the utilization of direct deposit by students. |
New business process overview back
There are two new roles in the system that
local administrators will assume: preparer and submitter/approver.
Here’s how the process will work.
| 1 |
The preparer completes
an online Quick Hire form for a student, temporary, or
LHT worker. A few key data elements will be needed, most
notably an HUID for students and a social security number
for non-students. |
| 2 |
The preparer will notify the submitter
that the transaction is ready for online review, or the
submitter will simply retrieve and review all pending transactions
on a regular basis. |
| 3 |
If okay, the transaction will be submitted.
At this point the employee is activated, assuming an I-9
is on file in Payroll. If not, the new hire will remain
in a pending status awaiting the I-9, and then will be submitted. |
| 4 |
Each evening, a University-wide process
will run to activate new overtime-eligible staff (including
those hired using this process) as time reporters visible
to time-keepers, adjusters, and approvers. (Newly hired
time reporters can enter time for themselves immediately.) |
| 5 |
Hours can be reported, and the employee
can be paid, beginning the next day. |
Implementation timeline back
| What
will happen |
When |
| User data from local authorized security
requestors due to FAD Applications Administration |
August 4 |
HR Release 4.0:
- systems outage
- new Quick Hire page released to production
systems
- new preparer and submitter user
roles and privileges are activated
|
5 p.m. on August 22 until 8 a.m. on August
25 |
| Quick Hire form and new business process
are live |
August 25 |
What local units can do to be ready back
Here are some steps local units can take to
be ready to help solve the problem.
| 1 |
Begin
to identify who will be given preparer and submitter roles,
and for which HR departments within your tub. Be sure
to build enough redundancy into your assignments so that
work can be done even in the absence of key individuals. |
| 2 |
Decide whether you need
a paper-based approval process to supplement the online
Quick Hire process. |
| 3 |
Plan now to collect I-9s
and direct
deposit forms for student workers at registration in
the fall. |
| 4 |
Now that things are more
stable, fine-tune your local business processes. Reexamine
your time reporting practices for students. Consider whether
it’s worthwhile to train students to enter their own time.
Look at whether your timekeepers should be given the adjuster
role to make data entry easier. |
Key points about the new student/temp/LHT hiring process back
| 1 |
The
new process will require only five data elements plus
Chart of Account values for student hiring, and is expected
to reduce cycle time and errors significantly. |
| 2 |
Lack of an I-9 will stop
the process dead in its tracks. Local units are still responsible
for conducting the I-9 process, for getting the original,
signed form to Payroll, and for monitoring the status of
those workers who are not being paid because Payroll is
waiting for an I-9. Once in hand, Payroll is committed to
a 24-hour turnaround on I-9 entry. Early submissions are
okay: In the new process, Payroll will enter this data to
a temporary table in the database while waiting for the
rest of the transaction. |
| 3 |
You can use this process
to hire students, temps, and LHTs. |
| 4 |
To use this process, you
must have a social security number for the worker or an
HUID for a student. To avoid processing delays, use the
full legal name of the worker as it appears on their social
security card or HUID. Also important: The effective date
of the rehire must be later than the original hire date. |
| 5 |
There will be a preparer
and a submitter/approver role. Each user will get one or
the other, as submitters can prepare transactions, too.
Redundancy in assignment is key. |
Questions or concerns? back
If you have questions or concerns about this
change, please email them to fad_communications@harvard.edu.
If they are of common interest, we will answer them in future
issues.
Payroll Closings Calendar for July-September, 2003
Now Available top
The FAD Payroll office has issued the payroll
closings calendar for the first quarter of FY 2004. It is available
at atwork.harvard.edu/hradmin/related_docs/pay_calendar.pdf.
This document also includes a revised calendar for this month.
Please note that several deadlines have changed.
e-News for Users of Harvard's Financial Applications top
Please follow
this link for additional news of interest to users of the
financial applications.
About the e-News
top
The Financial Administration
publishes this semimonthly electronic newsletter for users of
Harvard University's financial, HR, and reporting systems, policies,
and procedures. Generally, the e-News is published on or around
the 12th and 26th of each month.
It contains:
- updates on projects underway to build
or improve University administrative systems;
- information about new University
policies, procedures, and forms;
- reminders about upcoming deadlines
and cut-over dates;
- tips and tricks for working more
easily or productively.
We welcome questions and
suggestions for improvement from readers. If your questions
are of general interest, we will answer them in future issues.
Please send comments, questions,
or suggestions for improvement by email to us at: fad_communications@harvard.edu
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