FAQs
Approvals
Who seeks the offline approvals and how can we be sure it has been done?
t is a manager’s responsibility to ensure that changes they make in the system have the necessary approvals and that they are in line with relevant policy.
Employment Support/payroll will also be conducting quality assurance checks against changes made using the control form trackers provided by Business Support. Control reports for professional users are also currently in development
What approval is needed in the system?
For most processes, manager plus one approvals are in place as part of the system controls
Will I still need to get approvals beyond my manager?
Offline control processes are still in place. So any change that requires finance or budget holder, SLT/DLT approval will still be able to have visibility and sign off via that route. |
Work Location
In light of Covid will I need to change the work base of my staff to home working?
Managers are not expected to formally change all employee work locations to ‘home working’ due to the current pandemic situation. Work locations should remain as per current the contractual work base and be changed only in those circumstances where the location of the role changes. Work is ongoing within P&W relating to current policy on this, taking account of ongoing estates transformation work and would be communicated separately.
Will a change in work location affect mileage claims?
If someone’s contractual work base is changing this would impact mileage claims. This may be dependent upon the scenario (e.g. change of role, or relocation), therefore we would recommend seeking HR advice on the specific scenario.
Work Schedule
What if the correct work pattern is not showing?
Where any work schedules do not appear in the available list, a request for a new schedule can be logged in assyst and a new pattern will be created and added to the available selection for managers to choose from.
When do I need to change my team members work schedule?
In relation to this MSS Pilot, you will need to change your staff members work schedule anytime you amend their hours |
Fixed Term Contracts
Can I extend a fixed term contract in the system?
Currently there is not the facility to convert someone from temp to perm or extend a fixed term contract via MSS in the system, this will be a solution and process we will continue to scope as part of the pilot work we are doing |
Volumes during pilot
Are you certain you will get enough volume of transactions in the Pilot in order to evaluate it properly? Change hours for example would not be done frequently for staff members
Where volumes are such that there is a lack of feedback, we can explore the opportunity to use our MSS pilot champion managers to work through some scenario's in a testing environment, to focus on any functionality the pilot has not covered. We will also be linking volumes to our confidence factor |
Employee notifications
Will the employee get a notification of any changes made to them?
Currently the notification process to employees is a manual offline process but as part of the pilot we are working towards a solution to bringing this into the system. Transactional services will be made aware of any changes and will manually produce a contractual change letter for the employee where applicable |
Work Structures
Will I still need to get the Establishment data amended to keep the structure up to date?
Yes, the master data i.e. structures (positions/depts etc) all need to be set up by the Establishment & Master Data team. Managers need to ensure that they have the right positions under them with right cost centres and FTE before changes are made via manager self service |
Leave entitlements
What happens to any leave entitlement once a persons working hours change?
Once contracted hours are amended on the assignment and approved, Oracle will automatically update the leave entitlement |
Contract types
Can you extend a Fixed Term Contract
Changes to fixed term contract end dates or conversion to permanent are not in this release of functionality but are being developed for future updates. |
Can you convert a Fixed Term Contract to a permanent contract?
Changes to fixed term contract end dates or conversion to permanent are not in this release of functionality but are being developed for future updates. |
Would you ‘promote’ an apprentice to a permanent role within Oracle?
No, this would not be used for the promote function, your scenario would be covered by the recruitment process or converting a fixed term worker to permanent. Changes to fixed term contract end dates or conversion to permanent are not in this release of functionality but are being developed for future updates. |
Can I terminate a contract within Oracle?
No. Due to the complexities of the leavers process, and the notifications that need to go to numerous departments, this will still be handled under the current leavers process. |
Can you extend a secondment?
Changes to contract end dates are not in this release of functionality, but are being developed for future updates. |
Compensations
- Currently it is not possible to back date additional/one off payments.
Can managers backdate additional payments/one off claims?
Can I back date honorarium and acting up payments/compensation?
No. This feature is currently being looked at for future updates, but it is not possible to do currently |
Support
What support is available to support me through the process?
There are a number of support routes available to you. Hopefully you managed to attend one of the Pilot manager briefings and received the welcome pack with all links attached. We also have an intranet page dedicated to the pilot (linked here) and also our Engagement HQ page (linked here). Both detail the guides, process maps and videos of how to complete the new levels of functionality. |
Payroll
Will payroll close down dates affect changes you make within Oracle?
No, payroll close down dates will still apply (these can be found on the intranet). You can make the changes at any point in the month, however, please be advised that if you have missed any cut off dates then the changes will not be applicable until the next payroll run. |
What requests go straight to payroll for authorisation?
Only changes to Work Schedules go directly to payroll.
How will changes in payroll be reflected in cost centres when costs move to a different cost centre?
The master data i.e. structures (positions/depts etc) all need to be set up by the Establishment & Master Data team. Managers need to ensure that they have the right positions under them with right cost centres and FTE before changes are made via manager self service |
Multiple Assignments
Can I enter changes to my team if they have multiple assignments?
No. Not currently available, this functionality will be looked at over the coming months as Oracle release more functionality related to multiple assignments |