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  • Extra
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General

In the HR system for our fictitious organisation, the University of Small Bites, we will move from job to applicants to successful and unsuccessful letters. In a real system there would be some form of process to shortlist applicants and invite them to interview in between. Because this is just a demonstration system we have skipped some stages.

In order to use this stage you must have created at least one closed advert with at least one applicant.

If you are logged in you will see a list of your closed jobs. Click on one of these and you will see all applicants. Then simply do the following:

  • Decide who has been appointed
  • Allocate a salary
  • Set a start date and if necessary an end date and a continuous service date
  • Enter the number of hours the person will work per week and
  • Tick if you want a letter produced.
When you save your work if you have opted to get a letter a page will open which will show the basic terms of a contract of employment for anyone you have identified as successful and an unsuccessful note for anyone that you have identified as unsuccessful.

This shows how straight forward it can be to prepare successful and unsuccessful letters.

Extra

There is some low level intelliegnece programmed into the system. You can see this by changing the details of appointments and running the letters again. You will see that the letters change slightly to accommodate the options that you enter. This is just a way of showing that ideally there should be some connection between a mail merge template and the contractual terms for a particular job.

You may notice some of the following:

  • If the continuous service date is set after the start date the system uses the start date.
  • If the number of hours for the job is set as higher than the terms of the role the system uses the default maximum it hold for the job.
  • If there is no end date the system prepares what is known as an open ended offer
  • If the system detects an end date then a fixed term offer of employment letter is prepared.
The above is all very basic and does not necessarily trap every possible error but it is a useful way of helping busy administrators.

In a proper business system the unsuccessful letters letters produced would normally go into a queue to be emailed out. Job offers would probably be printed out to send with other new starter information.

Technical

The letters are adjusted depending on what is selected. This is done with the help of an algorithm (a series of steps and decisions). Below I have set out the steps that decide if an unsuccessful letter should be sent.

  • If the decision is Appointed
    • Then produce an appointment letter
    • If there is an [end date] that is not before the [start date]
      • include a line about the employment being fixed term starting on the [start date] and ending on the [end date]. ELSE
      • include a line about the employment being open ended and beginning on the [start date] and so on for each of the other terms of the letter. ELSE
  • If the decision is Not Appointed
    • then produce an unsuccessful letter.
This type of flow, or conditional branching, can be written initially in natural language or diagrammatically as a flow chart. Once all of the decisions have been walked through they can later be translated into business rules in the system. Fortunately when you buy an HR system this work is done for you in advance either as part of the off of the shelf package or during installation.

There is no need to spend any more time on this. That is unless you are interested in becoming a programmer and writing your own systems.

Key Legislation Underpinning Employment Contracts

The Employment Rights Act 1996 underpins contracts of employment in the United Kingdom.

The terminolgy to use is a written statement of particulars of employment. This summarises the main particulars of the employment relationship and must according to the legislation be given within two months of the person's first day of service.

Whilst the law states two months it would actually be poor form to encourage a person to give up an existing job or prior state of affairs without actually presenting them with the contractual terms of their new role until two months after it has started. The law is quite flexible but if we are truly focused on the quality of the engagement with the prospective member of staff the written statement of particulars really should be issued as soon as possible after the decision to appoint has been made.

Issuing the written statement of particulars at the earliest point means the person is aware of what they being contracted to and can clarify any uncertainties before accepting. Starting a relationship in this manner where possible helps ensure a more harmonious contract.

The key aspects of a written statement of particulars are as follows:

  1. The names of the employer and employee.
  2. The title of the job which the employee is employed to do or a brief description of the work for which they are employed.
  3. Where the employment is not intended to be permanent, the period for which it is expected to continue.
  4. Either the place of work or, where the employee is required or permitted to work at various places, an indication of that and of the address of the employer.
  5. The date when the employment began.
  6. The date on which the employee’s period of continuous employment began (taking into account any employment with a previous employer which counts towards that period). The continuous employment date is often the same as the start date. Where it is earlier this may give the new starter certain employment rights that come with longer service.
  7. The scale or rate of remuneration/pay or the method of calculating this.
  8. The intervals at which remuneration is paid (that is, weekly, monthly or other specified intervals).
  9. Any terms and conditions relating to hours of work.
  10. Entitlement to holidays, including public holidays, and holiday pay.
  11. How incapacity for work due to sickness or injury will be handled, including any provision for sick pay.
  12. Pensions and pension schemes.
  13. The length of notice which the employee is obliged to give and entitled to receive to terminate his contract of employment.
  14. Any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employment. In large organisations trade unions negotiate with the employer on behalf of staff, the agreements they reach with the employer are called collective agreements.

Key to the Organisation Chart

An explanation of the symbols used

collapsed icon This icon represents a unit that has child units. Click it to see the child units.
expanded icon This icon means that a unit has its child units visible. Click to close the child units.
Unit name Click on a unit to get more information on it. If the unit has child units it will open a page showing them too.
Organisation structure details Clicking this icon takes you to some basic theory on organisation charts and structure.
collapse all button This button is Collapse All and when clicked closes all units that have been opened up.
expand all button This button is Expand All and when clicked opens all units so you will see every aspect of the tree.

Welcome to Learning in Small Bites

YouTube page

Welcome to the free website for people who want to learn about the technology used for keeping staffing details in offices. Using this site you can learn as much from the comfort of your arm chair as you could in two years at work. Here is your chance to practice with systems that you may only have heard about. Get a behind the scenes view of what happens with your information and how it is stored.

This site is aimed at people from school leaving age and above who may be interested in working with what are known as Human Resources (HR) information systems.

If we can help even one person to secure a job in HR or specialise in HR systems as a result of using our free development site then the creators of HRMISolutions and Learning in Small Bites will have achieved what we set out to do.

Prerequisites

You will get the best out of this site if you have:

  • A little experience of using a computer, a tablet or a smart phone.
  • A desire to help people to use less effort to achieve more.
  • An interest in office systems (don't worry if you are not sure at the start).

About

Contractual Relationship

YouTube page In this section we will carry on from the recruitment section and offer our successful person a contract of appointment. We will look at the component parts of a contract and briefly touch upon the law that underpins contracts of employment.

We will work form the model that you have advertised a job and of the applicants there is one that you wish to offer a contract. Below is a list of your recruitment actions, select one to view your applicants and then issue contracts or unsuccessful letters.

Jobs Grade Organisation Unit Closing Date
Image cross not signed inNot signed in

At present you do not have any recruitment campaigns

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