The latest New Core Meet the Team interview comes from Esther Hess, one of the Functional Leads for the HR and Payroll Workstream.
What is your role on New Core?
I have responsibility for the core HR administration (HCM), Absence and Time and Labour modules. This has involved engaging with stakeholders across the University to capture our requirements, working with our implementation partners to build these into the system and ensuring that these modules are thoroughly tested.
What were you doing before joining New Core?
I worked in the private sector as an HR Projects and Reporting Partner. I was responsible for implementing a new cloud HR Information System for their UK and Ireland operation as well as other business improvement projects. Previously I had worked at the University of Manchester in their HR Systems Team so when I saw the exciting opportunity to combine my experience in HE with my experience in HR systems and projects I knew I had to apply to join the New Core team!
What has been your focus over the past few weeks/months?
The entire HR and Payroll Workstream have been busy focusing on system integration testing over the last few months. This has involved ensuring end to end system tests for HR and Payroll are giving us the results we are expecting. This covers the entire life cycle of an employee, from us advertising a vacancy to when they leave and everything in between. The testing phases of the programme have given us more experience and knowledge of the system than any other phase which is enabling us to liaise with HR and other stakeholders about the impact it will have in their areas.
What are you most looking forward to in the new system?
I am really looking forward to the months after go-live when we see all our hard work come to fruition and people are using all of the self-service and manager self-service functionality available. As a cloud based system Oracle Cloud is continually evolving and improving, so it’s exciting to know that what we put in place will continue to get better and better.