Building the future: People and Money Phase 2 rollout for Estates is huge success

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Estates is one of the University’s largest departments, with almost 1000 staff members, and is responsible for the maintenance and running of all UoE buildings and infrastructure. The HR and finance requirements for Estates are often complex and large scale.

To support the transition of Estates to P&M Phase 2 the Estates Systems Partnership team in Estates and Information Services (ISG) carried out a joint project to provide change management support for the rollout.

Thanks to excellent collaboration, resilience and communication across a wide range of teams and individuals all of the project’s goals were met ensuring a smooth transition to P&M’s new job roles, time and absence recording, and payslip access. 

This project was further supported by the efforts of the P&M Change Manager, Joanne Smyth, who was recognised by the project team for her collaboration and commitment to solving Estates’ issues.

Despite the Estates Department’s size and complexity, potential problems were efficiently mitigated by the project team through targeted and effective communication including:

• Identification of roles and key messages required by different Estates stakeholders
• Weekly meetings delivered by the project team to keep Estates staff up to date with progress and action required e.g. to ensure that they were fully prepared for the system close down period
• Crucial details about the phase launch date and business process changes were shared through regular email notices from the Estates Communication Officer (Kristin Mason-Low)
• Estates staff were provided with curated training through sessions set up via Microsoft Teams which featured P&M training videos and slides of other key contextual background information.

In total 104 attendee slots were filled for 12 training sessions, with some individuals even attending more than one session. All areas of estates were made aware of P&M changes to time recording and other new processes for job changes and absence management.

As a result, line managers and leaders in Estates are now actioning HR and Payroll related functionality within P&M. For example, all absence recording is now being actioned in P&M and any related anomalies or difficulties have been identified and addressed.

Overall, the project’s success has resulted in very high uptake of P&M Phase 2 in Estates with almost 90 percent of staff engaged with the new system.

Zoe Stephens, Head of Organisational Development and Change in Estates Department and the project sponsor, said this was “a really successful project, delivered through a brilliant partnership approach between ISG and Estates. Marjory Howarth, our project manager, has done an excellent job in identifying, tracking, managing and delivering all the activities required for the successful adoption of Phase 2 P&M within Estates. A great example of how ISG and Estates can work together to deliver a required outcome."

Marjory Howarth, Senior Project and Programme Manager in Applications Directorate, said: “Our success came down to the positive dynamics established within the group. Everyone was committed and worked really well together. It was fast paced, and staff were very resilient, consistently problem solving and looking for solutions. It was a great project to lead.”