Introducing substantive appointments to the system also introduces several advantages and new terminology. These are outlined below.
Appointment IDs
It's important to clarify what an Appointment ID is.
An appointment represents a contract an employee has with an organisation.
Each Appointment has a post number and a post sequence, e.g. post no. 000123 post seq. 1.
This will have an appointment ID of 000123-1 (unique identifier).
If the contract is updated, the sequence increments but the appointment ID remains the same.
If the person has a new contract, they also have a new appointment ID.
Advantages of substantive appointment software
Substantive appointment changes ensures that the appointment ID does not change during its lifetime.
Retains the employee's holiday balances in Workforce Management.
It resolves issues for system administrators where the appointment ID changes when promoting secondary appointments to primary.
Introduces the concept of the substantive indicator and moves away from the previous primary and secondary appointment concepts.
On ending the current substantive appointment for an employee, the system picks the new substantive appointment based on the next highest FTE.
📌Note: The substantive indicator can be over-written if required.
Ensures correct HESA reporting.
New terminology
Primary appointments will be called "Substantive" by the end user.
Secondary Appointments will be called "Non-Substantive" by the end user.
From a user's perspective, whether an appointment is substantive or not, it doesn't matter - it's still just an appointment.
Employee Scenarios
For a new starter, their first appointment will be substantive.
Ending or leaving employee - the substantive and any additional appointments are ended.
Ending an individual appointment - all associated elements, e.g. allowances, pensions and cost allocation records are ended.
Re-hired employee - their first new appointment will be substantive.