EmpowHR - Calendar Year (CY) 11 - Pay Period (PP) 12 (Release 9) Release Notes

Reference Number: NFC-25-1741106410

These Release Notes are being superseded due to the replacement of gender with sex on all documentation. All other information remains the same.

Effective Pay Period 12 (June 12, 2011), the following changes will be implemented in the EmpowHR system. A high-level summary of the changes is reflected in the table
below. The detailed documentation on these changes can be found in the EmpowHR procedure manual. To view the procedure, go to the NFC home page (www.nfc.usda.gov)
and click the Publications tab. Then on the right−hand Quick Picks menu, select Procedures By Acronym, and search for EmpowHR. The summary table references the Software Change Request number, the section modified in the procedure manual, and a brief description of the change.

Software
Change
Request
(SCR)

EmpowHR Procedure
Section Number Updated

Application Modification

00116

Employee Self Service,
Section 8

This enhancement will modify the Contact Information page under the Employees Self Service (ESS) menu to provide employees with the ability to add or change their Ethnicity and Race Identification (ERI) Code and Sex and Handicap Code through
ESS.

00143

N/A

This enhancement will activate the Position Classification Code ’1’ to allow users to abolish an employee’s previous position.

00159

Manage Performance,
Section 10

This enhancement will add a Save Draft button to the Summary Rating and Progress Review pages in
Performance Management so that the rating and review can be saved as a draft until the manager feels it is ready to be saved and forwarded to the
employee.

00306

PAR Processing, Section 5

This enhancement will improve the processing of the history override process. The enhancement details
are:

  • Worklist − History Override packages with a status of Hold will appear on the Worklist the day following the creation of the package.
  • View PAR action when History override is started
    • 1 Users with appropriate access will be able to update NFC Flags at any time regardless of the history override process.
    • 2 Actions will be able to be viewed in HR Processing when a History Override package is in process. All data will be grayed out so users will not be able to make any changes to the data.
  • Applied Cancelled PAR − All applied cancelled PAR rows will be deleted at the end of the current processing pay period.
  • Update Applied Action − Functionality will be set up so that changed and exported data is controlled by Table 101. NOA 006 will update the last applied PAR. The status of the last applied PAR will remain PRO and the update will be noted in tracking and NOA 006 will not appear in history.
  • Correct a Nature of Action Code
    • 1 Users will not be allowed to modify a NOA on a newly entered or unapplied action. Users attempting to modify the NOA in History Override or HR Process will receive an error message directing them to either cancel/delete the PAR and start a new PAR with the correction Action, Reason, and NOA.
    • 2 Previous NOA, Effective Date, and Authority Code fields will be added to the Data Control tab for all correction actions.
  • Use Table 101 to Determine PAR Data Exported to NFC − The check boxes for TSP and FEHB will be deleted on the Benefits tab and Table 101 will determine whether PAR data should be exported to NFC.
  • History Override Usability 
    • 1 When a search is completed in History Override and the employee’s individual record is located, the system will open the record on the Do you want to start a History Override Package tab.
    • 2 The term HCUP will be replaced with History Override within the EmpowHR application.
    • 3 A Suspense Indicator field will be added to the History Correction tab. This indicator is displayed when there is error message 031, HCUP Document in Error.
    • 4 The review check box will appear on all intervening actions. If a history override package is released without checking the review check box, an error message will be displayed notifying the user that there are actions subsequent to the starting action that have not been changed, and they are required to review those actions, make appropriate changes or check the review check box to indicate there are no changes required.
    • 5 The three check-boxes in the HR Processing component on the search page will be removed and will default the navigation to a single option.

00356

Manage Performance,
Section 10

This enhancement will allow the reviewer to retrieve the pending summary rating from the menu list by drill-down from the employee report listing page and take the necessary action of concur/not concur.

00413

N/A

This enhancement details are:

  • PAR data pages will be modified to set the cursor position back to the page/field that is left blank or has incorrect data.
  • Specific PAR pages will be modified to re-align fields to eliminate extra data between a specific field and its field label.
  • Specific pages in EmpowHR will be modified to ensure that all tabbing is left to right and top to bottom.
  • Alternative Text necessary for 508-compliancy, will be added to the Security Warning Agreement page and Logon page for all EmpowHR environments to allow for text to be recognized by a reader.
  • Labels will be added to the Official Position Title Code, Organization Position, Title, and the Pay Plan/Table/Grade fields on the Job Code page.

00466

N/A

This enhancement will modify the current EmpowHR NOA table to store values from TMGT Table 061 and create a user interface page to maintain the values in
this table.

00526

ePerformance, Section 16

This enhancement will switch the field labels and data in the Major Duties and Requirements fields in ePerformance.

10161

N/A

This enhancement will modify the NFC Customized PAR Awards Excel spreadsheets to allow the processing of NOA 846 (Individual Time-Off Award) transactions via Excel to Component Interface.

10184

Payroll Documents, Section 6

The enhancement details are:

  • When New Enrollment/Change is selected for the TSP Transaction Code field on the Thrift Savings Plan page, the user will be prompted to enter a value in the Contribution Rate or the Contribution Amount field.
  • When Cancel or Waive is selected for the TSP Transaction Code field on the Thrift Savings Plan page, the Contribution Rate and Contribution Amount fields will not be editable and the fields will be updated with zeros when the save button is selected.

10211

PAR Processing, Section 5

This enhancement will:

  • add new codes, change existing codes, and expire non-used codes in the PeopleSoft-delivered Handicap Table, and
  • modify all references to Handicap to read Disability on all PAR pages that contain this element as an entry field.

10394

N/A

This enhancement will redesign the import interface for PAR transactions to accommodate improved
maintenance.

10401

N/A

This enhancement will establish EmpowHR as part of the overall Customer User Acceptance Test
environment (CUAT). The CUAT environment will provide clients with the capability of performing end-to-end testing for scheduled release projects in a production like environment.

90618

N/A

This enhancement will modify the nightly payroll
document export process to include four additional fields on the Leave Date Transferred document in the export file.