People and Finance Service Transformation

The People and Finance Service Transformation (PFST) programme aims to empower and enable our staff to deliver efficient, reliable, ​and modern HR and Finance services. It will involve reimagining our ways of working and adopting technologies that help us to provide the level of support our ambitious academic mission demands. ​ 

The programme will take a critical look at how we operate in the context of our core, underpinning systems.  

It will consider both PeopleXD and Oracle, as well as the other systems we use to deliver our People and Finance services. However, technology is not the only driver for the programme; any decisions related to system changes will be considered as part of a wider ambition to optimise our ways of working, empower staff to work better together and provide better data insights. 

Why do we need to transform our People and Finance services? 

World-class teaching and research need excellent professional services to support them. Simplifying, improving and making our services more consistent will help our academic communities to focus on their priorities and thrive into the future. 

We know that our ways of working are often a source of frustration for our staff who carry the burden of inefficiencies and deficiencies in our processes and systems. We also recognise the risk of skill erosion when our practices do not align with professional leading standards. PFST has grown in response to feedback provided by staff using or delivering People and Finance services across the University, and the evident need to provide better tools, insights and opportunities for skills development to achieve the excellence we strive for. 

How can you get involved? 

The programme is currently in its initiation phase, the purpose of which is to define the programme’s strategy and scope, to identify the key HR and Finance capabilities required by the University, and to develop plans for the journey forward. To get this right, we need the input of our departmental, divisional, and central colleagues working in HR or Finance roles. We will be hosting a series of online workshops on various People and Finance topics as an opportunity to hear your views. Whilst these sessions will utilise existing meeting forums (e.g. Finance Process User Groups, HR Product Ownership Groups, Communities of Practice), they are open for all to attend.  

Please register your interest in attending a session on one or more of the below topics through this form. We suggest that each department might like to contribute to at least two of the listed topics, however, we welcome your input across them all. You may wish to agree representation within your own team or department first. 

There will be many opportunities to be involved with the programme in the coming months and years. If you are not able to attend a session this term or if those listed are not directly relevant to your role at this time, we suggest the following:

• If your role involves Finance, please join the Finance Community and get involved with the Process User Groups. 
• If your role involves HR, please sign up for People News at peoplecomms@admin.ox.ac.uk. 
• If you would like to contribute offline rather than attend these sessions, please email pfst@admin.ox.ac.uk outlining your role and main areas of interest. It may be possible to share your feedback via an offline method, or ensure appropriate delegates are able to attend sessions of particular interest.   

What are we aiming to achieve? 

This is an ambitious transformation programme, and there is a lot of work ahead to clearly define which changes should be introduced and to ensure those changes deliver value on par with the University’s investment. PFST aims to deliver improvements in the following ways:  

• Simplify ways of working: streamline processes to make common ways of working easier, more efficient and cost effective for everyone  
• Use technology effectively: adopt leading practice to maximise technology opportunities, including automation and AI  
• Empower our people: provide easy-to-use tools to reduce workload pressures and improve job satisfaction   
• Build better data insights: ensure high quality data to provide better insights and enable smart decision-making  
• Work better together: build stronger relationships between central, divisional and departmental teams, ensuring everyone's knowledge and experience are valued   
• Meet our obligations: manage our statutory requirements and strategic commitments more effectively  
• Stimulate culture of improvement: set ourselves up for continuous improvement and future innovation   

How long will it take? 

PFST will be a multi-year programme and it will involve many people. Listening to stakeholders and working collaboratively is essential to success. Over the last few years, we’ve set up Process Oversight Groups (POGs) and Process User Groups (PUGs) in Finance, and Product Ownership Groups and Communities of Practice in HR as early steps to ensuring this collaboration is fully integrated into our approach.  

Some projects are already underway as part of the PFST transformation. These have been prioritised because they address: 

• gaps in our service - for example, the Workforce Management​ Project is bringing consistency to how time and absence is managed across the organisation and offering us a new rostering capability; 
• particular pain points stakeholders have highlighted - for example, the Purchasing Hierarchy​ Project will improve the way we approve purchases at the University so it is simpler, more efficient, more consistent across the organisation; 
• key risks - for example Employee Relations Case Management. 

Together, these and other projects are fuelling the journey needed to transform our services. PFST is the Administration Portfolio Committee's top Digital Transformation investment priority. The programme is a key enabler of the People Strategy and will work in accordance with the recommendations of the Strategic Review of Professional Services to help the University achieve the Professional Services Together ambitions.