Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions about the People and Finance Service Transformation programme

Extensive engagement with divisions, departments and central teams will be essential for the programme's success. We are building this into the programme design in several different ways:

  • Divisional and departmental voices included in programme governance and sponsorship; David White, Divisional Registrar for Social Sciences Division is a co-sponsor of the PFST programme, alongside Katherine Gardiner, Director of Finance Operations and Renu Gupta, Director of Talent and Deputy HR Director.
    Programme board membership reflects all academic divisions and additional members will be added soon.
  • We are working closely with colleagues on the development of Shared Leadership Groups for HR and Finance, through the Strategic Review of Professional Services. As these groups are formed and embedded, we envisage these will provide a key route for ensuring good lines of communication between departments and the PFST programme.
  • For HR, we will use existing groups such as Product Ownership Groups, Communities of Practice and People Forums. We will consider whether we need to make any changes or additions to ensure we are hearing from a wide and representative range of voices.
  • The Finance Division will be engaging the wider Finance Community via the Process Ownership and User Groups (POGs and PUGs). PUGs are open to all to join and sessions attract high attendance from across the University. 
  • Where specific engagement activities are needed to delve into particular topics, we will take care to check the range of voices we are hearing from is broad and diverse. For example, we engaged with around 500 staff in focus groups held in Michaelmas term 2024, of whom around 300 were from divisions and departments. 

The programme team is currently working with the sponsors on a more detailed roadmap for the programme. Later on, we envisage there may be opportunities for secondments and redeployment to work on programme activities and we hope that colleagues in departments may consider taking up some of these roles and contibuting their experience and skills directly to the programme.

We encourage everyone to engage with the existing forums like POGs and Communities of Practice, to keep an eye on People News and the Cascade for any upcoming engagement activities and further updates about the programme's next steps.

The programme team has reviewed lessons learned from previous projects both here at Oxford and from other organisation's experience. Engaging those with day-to-day experience of using the system will be critical to the programme's success. We are thinking carefully about how to make sure our engagement structures and activities include these voices without creating additional burden on staff.

We encourage colleagues to engage with the existing forums, such as POGs and Communities of Practice, People News and the University Cascade for updates and engagement opportunities, including potential opportunities for secondments onto the programme.

Our current focus is on determining the programme's broad approach, phasing and resourcing needs. We will engage with colleges about how we can best work together on joint appointments and other key areas of intersection when we move into the planning stage.

 

Our next step is to analyse outputs of the initiation stage focus groups (held in Michaelmas term 2024),  and develop a high-level roadmap with different options.

Some key decisions, including funding, will then inform a more detailed timeline. Details will be shared as soon as decisions are made. We anticipate that the 2025-26 academic year will take forward a number of preparatory projects, but that the full programme will run for several years.

There will be a number of opportunities for involvement. Updates about the programme's next steps, including opportunities to engage, will be shared in People News and in the University Cascade. Colleagues are also encouraged to engage via existing forums, including the Product Ownership Groups (managed by the HR Systems team) and Communities of Practice. 

EDI is one the capabilities that was identified and explored as part of the Michaelmas term 2024 focus groups, and the collegiate University EDI Strategy forms an important input to future plans.

The programme is still at a very early stage of planning. However once we have a clearer plan, Equality Impact Assessments will be incorporated.

At this stage we are working out the programme's broad approach, phasing and resourcing needs before getting into detailed preparatory projects. Improving compliance is one of the aims of the programme, so will have focussed attention to ensure all elements are considered.

Meeting our compliance obligations more effectively and efficiently is one if the aims of the programme. We will need to consider different options for how to achieve this, including; how systems and tools can help, how Shared Leadership Groups and Process Ownership Groups can ensure we are considering end-to-end services including processes and compliance, and how we can support staff to build in compliance as part of day-to-day operations.

At this stage we are working out the programme's broad approach, phasing and resourcing needs before getting into detailed planning to cover the wide range of needs across divisions and departments. The particular needs of MSD have been captured by the Michaelmas term 2024 focus groups and are being explored further with senior leaders within the division. We are aware of the level of complexity in this area and the need for future systems and processes to work in this context.

Many of these system changes are aimed to deliver improvements to day-to-day processes, for example, automated email reminders of upcoming 'end dates' for fixed term contracts. More significant changes, such as the Workforce Management project, are helping us to move towards more common ways of working, and to improve the underlying data capture in the system, which will help to simplify and de-risk a future system change. Decisions about projects and changes to proceed with are being considered with PFST in mind, aiming to find the right balance between current needs and future ambitions.

The programme team is actively learning from examples of organisations who have been through or are currently enacting a similar transfromation. Some examples you may read about are 'cautionary tales' which are instructive. More recent positive examples include St. Andrew's University.

We are also in contact with colleagues at Cambridge and Imperial who are ahead of us on the journey and are engaged in networks through our suppliers and HE networks, such as the British Universities Finance Directors Group.

Get in touch

pfst@admin.ox.ac.uk

Files

PFST Briefing for HR staff (recording) - January 2025

PFST Draft Objectives - February 2025