Managing Your HR System by Employee or Position ?

When PeopleSoft is set up to manage the workforce by employee, job codes are utilized to classify job data in general categories, such as Administrative Assistant, or Sales Representative. Employees are linked to a job code on their job data records, where other distinguishing information about the employee’s job is entered as well. In this scenario, many employees share the same job code, even though they might perform their work in different departments, locations, or companies.

When PeopleSoft is configured to manage the workforce by position, job codes are still used for general classification, but positions are employed to uniquely identify each role associated with the job code. In this instance, a position associated with the Administrative Assistant job code might be an Administrative Assistant in the Marketing Department in Cupertino or an Administrative Assistant in the Human Resources Department in Houston. Basic information about the job, such as salary plan and EEO classification, remain the same for each of these positions, but other characteristics can be different, and these differences are indicated on the position record. Employees are linked to positions, and all of the data elements, both job code and position-related, are defaulted to their job data records. Positions usually have a one-to-one relationship with employees, unlike job codes, which generally have a one-to-many relationship.


Options

Implement Workforce by Employee
If the organization is fluid, a broader groupings of employees is utilized, and new jobs are often created—then driving the system by employee would be the optimum choice. This method is useful if for organizations expanding rapidly, or for organizations that often have new projects requiring the creation new jobs or job types regularly.

Implement Full Position Management
If the organization is fairly static, jobs and job descriptions are mostly fixed, and people move in and out of them—then driving the system by position would be the optimum choice. For example, government agencies and hospitals, which budget by position, often well in advance of filling them, find this method very useful.

Implement Partial Position Management
In order to reap the benefits of both worlds, PeopleSoft can be set to optimize partial position management. In some areas of the organization, driving the system by employee is preferred, while in other areas of the organization, the business process requires driving the system by position. For example, you might find that driving the system by position serves well for only some departments or management levels in the company, and that driving the system by employee works well for others. PeopleSoft Human Resources provides the flexibility to use both. By selecting a setting on the installation table called partial position management either method can be utilized.

Impact of Implement Workforce by Partial Position Management
· Maintenance: Requires set up and maintenance of positions for those employees hired or transferred into position managed departments.
· Conversion: With this option, employee data records do not have to be associated with positions prior to conversion. This impacts Tandem, Digital and ASD. Positions could be assigned to employees post-conversion.
· Upgrade to future versions: Not an issue as this is current PeopleSoft functionality.