Wizards and Plug-ins

Recruitment Management

This set of wizards and plug-ins is designed to help manage applicant information. The recruitment wizards provide the following functionality:

• Where organisations look to fill vacant posts with internal staff before they look elsewhere, the New Applicant from Employee Wizard enables the user to generate an applicant record using the details of one of the current employees.
• Once a successful applicant is found, the New Employee from Applicant Wizard is used to create an employee record in the system (based on the applicant details that have been recorded)
• Having recorded a list of applicants for a vacancy, the Manage Applicants Wizard enables users to move groups of individuals to the next stage in the recruitment process (it is also possible to generate a letter for the applicants during this process).

Employee Management

A set of Plug-ins and Wizards are provided to help users manage employee information. These wizards provide the following functionality:

• The New Employee Wizard can be used to add information about a new member of staff to the system. This customisable wizard presents a series of screens to the user (job, salary, contacts, etc.) as they add information; any number of employee screens can be included as steps in this wizard.
• The New Employee from Applicant Wizard is used to generate an employee record using the details of a successful applicant (see recruitment section – above)
• The Individual Job Title Change Wizard is used when an employee is given a new role. The wizard also gives the user the opportunity to update the employee’s salary information at the same time.
• The Register Employee as a Leaver Wizard should be used to update an employee’s records when they leave (this wizard replaces the Individual Termination of Employment Wizard). The wizard reconciles absence and training records, and marks other historical records as closed.
• The Organisation Chart Viewer plug-in is used to generate organisation charts using the system data. It is available in 2 different versions. The standard version is included free-of-charge, but there is a fee for the advanced version (providing additional functionality).

Salary Management

A series of salary-related wizards provide users with help when updating employee salary information. Tools to apply simple salary changes (individual pay-review, cost of living increases, etc.) are included alongside the Salary Review Manager plug-in, designed to help with the management of more-complex changes to employee salaries (see Wizard Pack 4 for more detail).

• The Individual Pay Change Wizard is used to update the salary information for a single employee. The wizard provides the employee’s old salary information as a starting point.
• The General Pay Review Wizard allow the user to apply either a fixed-amount or a percentage increase to a group of employees (this wizard replaces the General Pay Change Wizard)
• The Salary Review Manager is used to review and update salaries for employees within the organisation. Users can model changes to salaries for different groups of employees before applying the changes to their records. The changes can be based on details in an imported spreadsheet if preferred. Learn More
• The Attach Payslip plug-in is used to attach a monthly (or weekly) batch of pay slips to employee records. Pay slips can then be shared with employees via the People Inc. ESS module. Learn More

People Inc. provides comprehensive functionality to help manage details of employee salaries (and related information). Click to learn more about managing pay and benefits using People Inc.

Attendance Management

Where the People Inc. time & attendance module is used, a number of wizards and plug-ins can be used to manage attendance information. This includes:

• For time & attendance users, the Create Pay Period Wizard is used to add pay periods for the coming months across a selection of planning groups. Pay periods are used when extracting attendance figures from the system.
• Time & attendance users can use the Close Pay Period Wizard to lock attendance data held in the system after it has been extracted from the system, and employees have been paid.
• The Delete Pay Period Wizard is used to remove pay periods from a selection of planning groups if for some reason these change (if the organisation moves from weekly pay to monthly pay for example.
• The People Inc. time Roster Day Planner plug-in is used to ensure that, for each planning group, there are sufficient staff to provide the level of cover needed throughout the day. Users can make adjustments to planned staffing levels if needed.
• For time & attendance users, the Bank Holiday Wizard is used to add details of bank holidays to a selection of planning groups within the system
• For time & attendance users, the Group Synchronisation Wizard is used to manage future shift-patterns for staff who change job (move to a different department or planning group).

Absence Management

Recording and managing absence information can be a particularly painstaking and detailed exercise. Comprehensive absence-related functionality is provided within People Inc. via absence rules, allowances and bookings, and a set of absence wizards and plug-ins. Data is managed record-by-record using system screens, but where bulk updates are needed, this is done using wizards.

• The Absence and Holiday Viewer plugin allows users to view absence records between two dates for a selection of employees (in a grid, employees listed on the left, dates across the top).
• The Absence and Holiday Calendar plug-in shows absence records for a calendar year for an individual employee (in a year-planner view). Entries are colour-coded and allowance information is also provided.
• The Assign Absence Allowances Wizard is used to set up annual allowances for the different types of absence for a group of employees.
• The Recreate Absence Allowances Wizard will create absence allowances for the coming year, based on the allowances employees have had in the current year (this is one of the features that used to be provided via the General Absence wizard). Different categories of absence can be included/excluded when this wizard is used. Learn More
• The General Absence Book Wizard is used to block-book a period of absence for a group of employees. This might be used when the offices is closed for a period of time (between Christmas and New Year for example. A similar wizard is available for time & attendance users.

• For time & attendance users, the Recurring Absence Wizard can be used to add details of planned absence that will repeat at regular intervals (for example, attendance on a training course, or hospital appointments).
• Once the absence information for a particular year is up to date, the Close Absence Allowances Wizard is used to close the allowances. This ensures that information that has been extracted and used (perhaps for accounting purposes) cannot then be changed. (this is one of the features that used to be provided via the General Absence wizard). Learn More

Click to learn more about managing absence requests, absence allowances and recording full absence history for employees using People Inc. Alternatively, this article (click here) describes how People Inc. can help with absence-recording and related processes.

Training Management

At various times during their employment, members of staff will all need to attend training of one kind or another. This might be health & safety training (to help with compliance), training associated with activities related to their job, or training provided for career/personal development. Wizards are included with the People Inc. system to help manage training information. These tools are particularly useful when managing training records for groups of employees.

• The People Inc. Assign Training Needs Wizard is used to register a training need for a selection of employees. The wizard records training needs against individual employee records, and each entry is given a target date that can be used to ensure training is provided in a timely fashion. Learn More
• The Book Training Course Wizard lists employees who have a particular training need, and allows users to book a selection of these people onto a training course. Users can then send invitations, joining instructions or related course material to the delegates, using e-mail (direct from the People Inc. system). Learn More
• The Complete Training Course Wizard is used to update course bookings once a training course has taken place. It is possible to change the list of delegates (some may have missed the course, and others may have attended in their place). It is also possible to add training needs for refresher courses using the wizard. Learn More

• The Training Matrix plug-in provides a summary of employee training (completed training, bookings, and training needs) in a colour-coded grid. From within the matrix it is possible to assign and manage training for individuals or for groups of employees. A version of the Training Matrix is included with the People Inc. Employee Self-Service module as standard. Learn More

People Inc. includes extensive functionality to manage employee training records (and related information). Click to learn more about managing training needs, scheduling training courses and recording full training history for employees using People Inc.

System/Data Tools

A set of data-management Wizards and Plug-ins are provided to help look after the data held within People Inc. This includes the following:

• The Action List Manager plug-in displays filtered Action List entries in both a list-view, and a calendar-view. Users can load a selection of records (between 2 dates for example), can update entries, and can also create follow-up actions as required.
• The Data Check plugin provides an analysis of system data based on a range of dates. The plugin lists areas of the system which may need review, and highlights areas where information may be missing.
• The Update Data Field Wizard is used to make global changes within the system. For example, if the name of a department changes, the wizard can be used to update all job history records (replacing the old department name with the new).
• The Recalculate Data Screen Wizard is used to recalculate information recorded via a particular screen. When data is added using the screen, checks and balances are made to ensure the information is complete (and consistent). This wizard re-runs these checks. It is often used if data has been imported into the system.

• The Mail Queue Manager plug-in displays a list of queued email messages. Messages can become queued for a variety of reasons (for example, an incorrect email address). Users can address any issues and re-send the e-mail.
• The Change Employee ID Wizard is used to update the employee-id field for a specified employee. This might be done to ensure that the data in People Inc. can be linked with employee information held in other systems (for example a payroll system).
• The Delete Records Wizard is used to remove information relating to leavers (or relating to applicants) from the system. This is needed for compliance with GDPR (after a specifies period of time, personal information relating to employees should be deleted).
• The Delete Records (Unrestricted) Wizard is used to clear unwanted data from screens within the system. It can be used where old data held in a particular screen is no longer needed.

User Management

Three wizards designed to help manage user-access are included with People Inc. They provide the following functionality:

• The ESS Synchronise Users Wizard is used to add (and remove) Employee Self Service user-accounts. A version of the wizard designed for use in a multi-database system is also available. It is possible to automate the creation and removal of ESS accounts.
• The ESS Reset Password Wizard is used to reset passwords for ESS users. A version of this wizard designed for use in multi-database systems is also available.
• For time & attendance users, the Copy User Security Wizard is used to replicate user access settings when setting up a new user account.

System Updates

A library of system updates and a library of report templates can be access from People Inc. These are added to on a regular basis. Two plug-ins are used to access these libraries:

• The Feature Browser plugin is used to add new screens and associated functionality to the People Inc. system. To do this, the plugin uses definitions from an online library of standard features. This is normally only done by a People Inc. consultant.
• The Report Library Browser plug-in enables users to download report templates from an online library and add them to their People Inc. system. The templates can then be managed, modified or updated using the report writer provided with the system.