Data cleanup efforts critical to HRMS success

The HRMS Upgrade Project is much more than just a technical upgrade from PeopleSoft version 8.9 to 9.2. In addition to significant new functionality and redesigned business processes, the project includes a major simplification of the appointment structure and a new reliance on Position data to drive other essential business processes.

“This is a big deal,” said HRMS project manager Kris Hause when the new appointment structure was unveiled last fall. “This new approach to appointment data lays the foundation for a number of other important changes to our system and business processes, which will simplify and streamline the way we work and improve data quality and consistency.”

The changes to core HR data and processes mean that the structure and accuracy  of HRMS data at implementation is critically important. Since last winter, the HRMS Upgrade Project team has been working with the OHR Operations and HR professionals in the academic and administrative units to “clean up” data prior to conversion to the new structure.

In this context, data cleanup means one of two things:

• In some cases, our current data is outdated, inaccurate, or missing -- e.g., when the Reports To field for an employee lists a past employee or an administrative assistant instead of the actual, current supervisor -- and needs to be updated or removed so we do not duplicate errors in the new system.
• In other cases, the data is essentially accurate but will not be supported in 9.2 and needs to be updated to transition to the new appointment structure. For example, today the Location associated with a Position does not necessarily have to match the Location assigned to the associated Job record, but going forward Job data is tied to Position, so the two locations will need to be brought into alignment.

OHR Operations staff and the HRMS team have partnered to automate the cleanup wherever possible, however, in many cases the units have the best perspective on the accuracy of the data or the ways in which it needs to be updated to fit within the new structure. The list and schedule for data cleanup tasks continues to evolve, and is being tracked on weekly basis to check on the work in progress and to monitor data that has already been updated to ensure that it stays “clean.”

The work can be time-consuming, but timely completion of specific cleanup tasks is essential in order for the HRMS project to keep pace with program-wide milestones and test conversion moves. (A test move is essentially a practice run for moving and converting data from PeopleSoft 8.9 to 9.2; updated data is essential for the conversion to perform correctly.)

The benefits of data cleanup extend well beyond the HRMS Upgrade itself, and data integrity will be an ongoing priority. For example, units are currently focused on updating Reports To data in the system, which is essential to new online time and leave approvals and is useful in workflows more broadly across the University if the data is accurate and complete. In addition, in the future, more accurate Reports To data should enable the University to report more accurately on its organization structure and to target communications directly to supervisors and managers.

“This work is important to the success of the HRMS Upgrade and ESUP overall,” said Hause. “For example, users across the University are stressing to us the importance of robust reporting to their work -- but our reports are only as good as our data. We need the help and support of every academic and administrative unit to ensure our data is as accurate as possible when the new system is implemented in 2015 and to help ensure it stays that way.”

First Look: HRMS begins high-level training with unit and OHR staff

“It’s finally here!” said Lori Lamb, director of OHR Operations. “We’re really doing this -- I’m so excited!”

Lamb sat along the back wall of a packed room on the first floor of WBOB -- the space reserved for HRMS Business Process Owners -- last Thursday afternoon and surveyed a bustling room full of HR and Finance staff anxious for a first look at new HRMS business processes and functions. The gathering was the first of four ESUP HRMS Processes & Functions training sessions scheduled for unit HR and Finance leaders, and the first formal training sessions of the Enterprise Systems Upgrade Program (ESUP).

For the next two hours, HRMS Training Lead Amanda Wolford walked more than 50 people through high-level flowcharts mapping end-to-end HRMS business processes from recruiting and onboarding through time and absence reporting and payroll accounting. Along the way, Wolford took special note of the new importance of Position data, as well as important process changes and new functions unit staff will be expected to perform when the new system goes live in February 2015. 

Participants were also given a more detailed functions document, explaining the responsibilities of each function and the competencies required to perform it well. This led to an exercise in which tables used Post-Its to map specific functions to the appropriate steps in the process flows. The goal was twofold: To see how well the group understood the process flows and to encourage units to begin thinking how current HR and Finance roles may need to evolve.

As the tables worked through the exercise, Dann Chapman, director of employee benefits, told Lamb how helpful the flowcharts were to understanding how the system and functions will work together -- and why data integrity is important every step of the way. Chapman’s feedback is important, because beginning in April, all Office of Human Resources (OHR) staff will begin similar high-level training so that the entire OHR team has a basic understanding of how we do the business of HR at the University.

As a final exercise, tables were asked to document the biggest changes from their perspectives, as well as what excited and worried them most. The overlap between tables was striking. On the positive side, attendees were excited about electronic time and absence reporting and approvals, automated COBRA notifications, and the fact that, going forward, not only does Position data “finally mean something,” but helps to integrate and automate currently disconnected business processes (especially recruiting).. At the same time, people expressed concerns about changes in staff functions, payroll accounting processes, and timeliness of time and absence approvals, as well as the scale and timing of training needed for successful implementation. 

Nevertheless, attendees offered kudos and applause for a successful and informative first session.

“I can’t say enough that this is only the beginning,” Wolford said. “This is high-level process training. Today is just an appetizer -- there will be much more to come!”

Now showing: Appointment structure sneak peek video!

In September, the HRMS work stream shared that restructuring the University’s appointment data could transform our system and data. This month, HRMS business owner Kelly Krattiger demonstrates how the new structure will work and what will change for the better because of it. Check out our latest HRMS Sneak Peek video!

Consensus by collaboration: HRMS partners with Finance, others to redefine processes

In any highly decentralized organization, fostering cross-functional collaboration is a challenge -- and a necessity. The HRMS upgrade project is a prime example of an initiative that cannot succeed without cooperation from across the spectrum of University units and functions.

A fresh perspective on core HR data
Restructuring appointment data and reducing multiple appointments required significant cross-functional consultation by the entire appointment data team just to develop a recommendation that would have traction in the broader U community. Gretchen Wolfangel (UMN) and James Ellis (CCI), in particular, conducted at least a dozen consultation sessions with academic and administrative units throughout the University. They also contacted peer institutions facing similar challenges to see how they approach appointment data. The conclusion? Everyone does it differently, and no one would recommend their approach.

Then in mid-July, the team invited the HRMS, Finance, and Reporting and Data Management work streams together for a collaboration session in which they walked through the major challenges posed by appointment data and solicited input.

“The big takeaway from that session was that everyone understood the challenges and said, ‘We’re ready for a consistent approach; come back to us and tell us how we can do this in a better way going forward,’” says Lori Lamb, director of OHR Operations.

The team invited the same people back together in early September to share the final recommendations for restructuring. More than 50 people attended the second session in person and online and gave their consensus endorsement to the new approach. That recommendation was ratified by the Integration Steering Committee at its Sept. 10 meeting and by the Executive Oversight Committee on Sept. 17.

Teamwork key to simplifying payroll accounting 
To redesign the University’s payroll accounting processes and take advantage of delivered functionality, the HRMS and Finance work streams held 26 working sessions this past summer, totaling more than 80 hours on the topic of payroll accounting. The Finance and HRMS Functional Steering Committees also met jointly on this topic, and the Integration Steering Committee reviewed and endorsed the resulting Distribution Entry business process last month. By many accounts, the level of collaboration has been unprecedented; past partnerships have been strengthened and new connections fostered around a process that has previously been challenging at best.

“The changes currently being recommended for the Payroll Accounting process are the result of significant collaboration between HR and Finance professionals,” says Dan Hemauer, project manager for the Finance system upgrade. “The representation for the first two phases of the project has been very broad. … As a result, a number of recommendations have been made that will significantly improve the current business process from a functional as well as technical perspective.”

ESUP Update 10-07-13 to 10-20-13

Three weeks later with Dennis Wenzel

Tricia Conway (TC): It’s been three weeks since Dennis Wenzel joined the ESUP team as the new Program Director. If you missed our first Q&A with Dennis, you can read it here. Now that he has his bearings, we asked Dennis to give us his impressions. Click here to read more.

A Dynamic Duo
Effective teamwork is foundational to the success of ESUP. Whether it’s the teams formed by the Program’s governance structure like the Project Leadership Team (PLT) or those formed around the University’s business processes in IDPs, strong teamwork is a key factor for the Program to reach its goals. Click here for more information.

New Approach to Appointment Data will Transform HRMS

It’s mid-afternoon, and HRMS business owner Kelly Krattiger is presenting a proposal to restructure the U’s appointment data to a full conference room. The discussion could be dry and technical -- a bad combination after lunch -- but Krattiger begins by clicking through a simple model of the current system, built in PowerPoint. Click here to read more.

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New approach to Appointment Data will transform HRMS

It’s mid-afternoon, and HRMS business owner Kelly Krattiger is presenting a proposal to restructure the U’s appointment data to a full conference room. The discussion could be dry and technical -- a bad combination after lunch -- but Krattiger begins by clicking through a simple model of the current system, built in PowerPoint. In this simulation, Krattiger is an HR professional looking up an employee’s salary. In this case, the employee in question has six appointments in HRMS, and it’s not clear which will include the employee’s actual salary.

The maroon boxes represent six active appointments, some paid, some unpaid, and
none identifiable until you click into them; the gold bubbles represent multiple pages,
windows, and clicks required to reveal this faculty member's job and pay.

Click. Click. Click. Heads nod, and several people in the audience chuckle knowingly. One by one, Krattiger deciphers each appointment. Once he has the full picture, he’ll need a calculator or scratch paper to add up the pay associated with each appointment. The process can take many minutes.

Nancy Casey is an HR specialist in the School of Public Health’s dean’s office and one of the subject matter experts consulting on the HRMS upgrade. She can vouch for the challenges posed by the current system and structure.

“On the AHC side, there are always multiple records and multiple appointments -- UMP, AHC, school or division, et cetera,” Casey says. “Verifying an actual base salary for grant purposes is an adventure. Condensing and simplifying the appointment process would help us verify accurate base salaries.”

Simplified structure and processes
In the current system, users click through multiple appointment records on multiple screens to access even basic appointment information. In the new system, most U employees will have a single appointment record, with all of their key data and information only a click or two away using delivered PeopleSoft functionality.

Krattiger shares examples of the new structure for various types of employees. The visual is still complex, because the relevant information is still detailed -- but it’s clear the process of accessing that information is significantly simpler and quicker. PeopleSoft’s Components of Pay functionality makes it possible to enter multiple types of pay for a single appointment, eliminating the need for multiple appointments to record base salary, administrative augments, and awards, for example.

Single appointment record using Components of Pay functionality --
relevant information is only a click or two away

Fewer multiple appointments
This new approach to appointment data enables the University to significantly reduce the number of multiple appointments in the HRMS system.  The University will still use multiple appointments for U doctors who are also part of University of Minnesota Physicians (UMP), retirees who return to work, individuals who have separate 9- and 12-month appointments, and employees who work two distinct part-time jobs.

The U will also take a consistent approach to its 300-plus academic administrators, such as deans, department chairs, and directors with faculty rank.

• Chancellors and deans, as well as vice chancellors and associates and assistants in both categories, will be considered primarily administrators and will have an administrative appointment, with their salary broken out using Components of Pay functionality.  
• Department chairs, department heads, and directors with faculty rank will have a faculty appointment, with their salary broken out in the same way.

“This is a big deal,” says HRMS project manager Kris Hause. “This new approach to appointment data lays the foundation for a number of other important changes to our system and business processes, which will simplify and streamline the way we work and improve data quality and consistency.”

Krattiger acknowledges the work to get to this point has been highly collaborative but also challenging.

“Some appointment data issues, such as recording tenure, were simple, because the functionality is delivered in PeopleSoft version 9.2,” he says. “Others, such as how to handle without-salary appointments, were more complex, but doable. But handling multiple appointments was the big one. I believe we’ve come up with a consistent approach that people can understand and live with.”

Restructuring appointment data enables and supports significant changes to payroll accounting and other key business processes. Check back for more information on these changes and the strong collaboration between work streams in the near future.

ESUP Update 08/26/13 - 09/09/13

ESUP welcomes new consultants
If you walk through 150 Williamson Hall this week, you’ll see a new work area in the back corner where a conference table used to sit. This is the new home of the Identity Management (IdM) project and its PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) consultants. Click here for more information.

New Program Director search announced
On August 9, 2013, the ESUP Executive Oversight Committee announced the posting for a new Program Director position. Since this is a substantial organizational change, ESUP Change Management and Communications team pulled together a few questions for the executives. The following Q&A is based on discussions with Robert Elde, Dean of the College of Biological Sciences, and Kathryn Brown, Vice President of Human Resources. Click here to read the Q&A.

Reporting staff unveil student reporting prototypes
Recently, staff from the ESUP Reporting and Data Management (RDM) Team created several reporting prototypes and are now sharing them with multiple stakeholder groups to find the best solution that will meet their reporting needs. Click here for more information.

Quick hits and reminders from across the work streams

• The HRMS work stream has scheduled a second collaboration session with the Finance and Reporting and Data Management work streams for Thursday, Sept. 5, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in 101 Walter Library. Attendees will review the proposal for the re-structuring and implementation of appointment data at the core of the HRMS upgrade project. Please attend if you are interested in this important issue!


• Integration Project Director Tim Gagner, Portal Project Director Susan Geller, and other ESUP staff will give presentations and answer questions at the next IDEAA group meeting on August 27 at 1 p.m. in 155 Nicholson Hall.


• The Portal Leadership Team held a retreat on Monday, August 19, to prepare for launching a content governance process for the new portal, and to get ready for a busy fall, including the release of the rough draft of the portal.


• Many Student work teams will not meet over the next two weeks due to the start of fall term. Please go to the ESUP Student calendar for up-to-date information.

Subscribe to the ESUP Blog!
Get each new blog post delivered to your inbox by entering your email address in the Subscribe by Email window at upgrade.umn.edu and following the instructions. Once your subscription is activated, you will receive an email alerting you to new ESUP posts late in the afternoon the day they are published. If there is no post, you receive no email -- simple as that!

HRMS upgrade lays foundation for the future with collaboration sessions

For the past year, nearly every document summarizing the HRMS upgrade project has included some version of the following language: re-implementing core HR data functions especially regarding appointment data and job designations. Last week, a cross-functional group of HR, finance, and reporting stakeholders took a closer look at what that means.

Click image to enlarge.

On July 17, the HRMS upgrade project team held a collaboration session with the HRMS functional steering committee and members of the finance and reporting communities to discuss issues concerning the University’s appointment data, which is being restructured as a part of the upgrade. The redesign of human resource business processes as part of the HRMS upgrade project provides the University with a prime opportunity to simplify its appointment data, create a clearer definition of our organizational structure, increase functionality, and improve data quality and reporting.

“We needed to tackle the data issues up front, because getting this right enables us to really transform how we do HR work at the University,” said Lori Lamb, director of HR Operations. “This work is foundational to everything else we hope to accomplish with this upgrade.”

Deeply ingrained in the data and related processes, however, are important issues regarding how the University tracks tenure and manages contract pay, enters without-salary appointments for non-employees who have a special affiliation with the University, processes student refunds, and uses multiple appointments, particularly for individuals with both academic and administrative duties.

This last issue is a big one. Currently 333 people across the University’s five campuses, from chancellors and deans to chairs, department heads and directors, hold some combination of academic and administrative appointments. Admittedly, it’s only a little more than one percent of the University’s workforce, but it’s a crucial one percent: the various ways of recording these multiple appointments make accurate reporting of administrative counts and costs difficult.

Click image to enlarge.

The collaboration session enabled the HR, finance, and reporting stakeholders to talk through this issue together at their tables and as a large group. According to facilitators, the session underscored the need for multiple appointments in certain circumstances, the understanding that no single solution would completely satisfy all parties, and the recognition among participants that the University needs a single set of consistent guidelines on when and how multiple appointments should be applied -- an approach that has also received support from University leaders.

“I thought the result was very positive,” said Lamb. “I think people came away ready to make a change, and we can move forward with developing a recommendation based on their input.”

A day later the HRMS and Finance functional steering committees held a joint meeting to discuss the implementation strategy for payroll accounting, which impacts both the HRMS and Finance work streams. The response to this meeting was similarly positive. Finance functional steering committee chair Rob Super, who also serves on the HRMS functional steering committee, said he’s never been more optimistic about the success of a project in his 20 years working on University-wide projects.

“The spirit of teamwork and collegiality with central and end users on this project is unprecedented in my experience,” said Super. “We are dealing with really fundamental issues proactively and together. In the process, we have begun to break down two sets of silos -- those between functional areas, like finance and HR, and those between central units and end users.”