Nottingham Trent University have been a VT2000 customer since 2009, and used the system primarily to manage the contracting of hourly-paid lecturers at the University. The system was used for creating contracts, detecting overlaps in employee claims and producing reports on hourly paid work at the university. However, monthly pay claims were still submitted outside of VT2000 and were manually entered against existing contracts in order to validate them (e.g. to check for overlaps or confirm that the claim is associated to a contract of work). This was time consuming and resulted in duplicated effort.
Overview
Challenge
Nottingham Trent University needed a solution that could:
• Allow employees to submit pay claims online and automatically validate them at the point of entry, so that no manual intervention is required
• Integrate with the payroll system to easily pay authorised claims each month without any manual data entry
• Enable employees to download their work schedules on demand, and self-serve information relating to which claims have been processed and paid
• Ensure that employees are only contracted for work that complies with their position, and at pay rates that comply with their grade and scalepoint
• Allow the HR team to track Tier 4 visa compliance requirements automatically
Solution
• We installed the VTS self-service module to enable employees to submit pay claims online, directly into the VT2000 system. VTS includes claim validation checks, to ensure that every claim complies with the contracted work schedule and ensures that there are no overlaps between claims.
• VTS also allows employees to see the status of every submitted claim, and employees can view and download their contract of work online at any time.
• We implemented an interface between VT2000 and the payroll system. Authorised claims can now be exported from VT2000 each month in a csv file that can be directly uploaded into the payroll system
• We implemented an interface between VT2000 and the HR system to automatically import employee and position records into VT2000 overnight. Position data is used to allocate employee-specific pay rates, ensuring that employees can only be booked at pay rates that comply with their position
• As part of the employee record, VT2000 also imports the visa type for each employee. This allows VT2000 to identify which employees are subject to working hours caps, and can automatically apply these caps to employee contracts at the point of contract creation. This can be used to prevent breaches upfront.
Results
“The implementation of the VTS self-service module has significantly improved our processes for managing the claims and payment of hourly-paid lecturers. Our HR Teams no longer have to match and approve corresponding claims to those in VT2000, saving them a considerable amount of time and effort. Claims submitted via VTS can be automatically verified and approved without the need for manual intervention. Employees are able to check their contracts and claims online, reducing the number of queries received, and managers have easy access to reports to fulfil their MI requirements. The consultants at GenTech are extremely knowledgeable and flexible. They worked closely with us to meet our requirements, advising on appropriate solutions based on their experience with other customers and made the implementation process as seamless as possible.”
– Mick Morton, HR Systems and Data Services Manager