Contacting HR Services about casual workers and their pay
11 Aug 2021
How you can help us process casual workers and their payments faster
There continues to be an exceptionally high demand for casual workers to be processed by HR Services, and consequently we are receiving much more correspondence than usual to the shared hrservices@manchester.ac.uk email account. This demand is in turn impacting all services the team deliver.
We would like to thank you for your patience with this issue and ask that you refrain from sending chasing emails requiring an update on the status of your requirements to ensure that we can maximise our resources on processing the set-up of the casual staff.
If there is a specific issue, please take a few steps to identify what has happened so far (see ‘troubleshooting’, below) as you may be able to resolve this directly if assistance is required, please liaise directly with your Employment Services Team to escalate the case.
If the matter is genuinely urgent, please consider calling rather than e-mailing, with your case reference number to hand, contact details and numbers are available at:
Please also note, if you have a large volume of casuals requiring to start, it is paramount that notice is provided to your Employment Services Officer by contacting them directly as detailed above, and no commitment is made to the staff member of their start date until agreement has taken place regarding processing arrangements. Employment Services need to plan resource for such volume processing and will not be able to process if no notice is provided and cases are simply submitted by the payroll deadline.
For information - there is a window each month after the Payroll deadline during which only future-dated records can be added to the system. This is when the system is locked for Payroll processing, and is usually for one week after the 15th of the month. In this time, we cannot add backdated new starters, so it is essential all forms needed to set a staff member up are returned to HR before the start date, and allowing at least five days as per the service level agreement (SLA) prior to the payroll deadline.
Troubleshooting
Can you let me know if the casual has been set up?
If we have set them up they will be visible in the Timesheet system. Please check this first.
Why hasn’t a casual been set up yet?
If they have not been set up on the Timesheet system, please check with the Casual that they have returned their paperwork i.e. their CAS2 and CAS3 forms, and the date it was returned.
If the paperwork was sent late, i.e. the start date was retrospective, we will not have been able to add them during the week the system is locked for Payroll processing.
If you are satisfied the forms have been returned more than a week ago, prior to the Payroll deadline, and are still not visible on the Timesheet system, please contact your Employment Services Officer, quoting the case number the individual received when they emailed hrservices@manchester.ac.uk with their CAS2 and CAS3 forms. They will investigate and have the person added with urgency.
Can you give me the casual’s employee ID so I can add their hours?
If you requested their set up we should have confirmed their ID to you at the time. If you did not request their set up personally, you can search for their employee ID by logging into MyView and using Employee Search box in the top right corner.
A casual worker has told me they have not been paid.
Firstly, if they have never received a payment before, ask them to check they returned their bank details to HR. If yes, it’s worth asking them to double check which bank details they provided HR with, as often when we receive this query they have more than one bank account and forgotten which they provided to us. Also ask them to confirm the date they sent their bank details back, as if it was after the Payroll deadline they will be processed by HR the following month.
Assuming that bank details have been supplied correctly and in time, check next with your local Timesheet Administrator whether the hours that have not been paid were approved in the system by the Payroll deadline for that month. This is the most common cause of delayed payments.
A reminder that within the Timesheet System there are three statuses which indicate the following:
- N means new hours have been submitted but haven’t yet been authorised by your School/Directorate approver - Pending
- Y means hours have been authorised, but are not yet sent to payroll - Authorised
- C means hours have been pulled by Employment Services and handed over to payroll - Posted to Payroll
If the hours were approved on time, and their worker has returned their paperwork, please do not email the main HR address but escalate the matter directly to your Employment Services Team for us to look at the issue and arrange emergency payments if needed.
I can't access the Timesheet system to add or approve hours
It is your responsibility to request access as a Timesheet Administrator or Authoriser and undertake the relevant training in a timely way. If you have requested this and not had a response in five days, please escalate to your Employment Services Team by phone, quoting the case number you received when you emailed hrservices@manchester.ac.uk.
If it has been less than five days since you requested, but you need hours to processed urgently, please try to find another Administrator / Approver in your area that can do this for you before contacting your Employment Services team for assistance by phone.
The Timesheet system is down
Please log a ticket with the IT helpdesk as a high priority issue affecting payment of your (and other) staff. Issues affecting the system are usually dealt with very quickly once flagged. If however you need to action something urgently for a Payroll deadline while the system is down, contact your Employment Services Team by phone for advice, with your case number to hand.
I am not listed as an administrator/ approver of the required activity code
Please speak to the finance helpdesk as HR cannot amend this.
Can I just email HR Services casual hours on a CAS4 (casual timesheet) or PR18 (bulk casual timesheet) form?
No, please do not send in casual hours on a CAS4 or PR18 form unless a member of your Employment Services Team specifically requests you do so. If they do request one, email them directly marked for urgent processing. Using the Timesheet system ensures payments are made automatically and in a timely way. Forms sent to the main address will take longer for the team to identify among other messages to HR, and to process manually.