Responsible
Responsible is the list of named people a record can be made somebody responsibility: the officer who handles a leave file, the person who signs off an offer, the one who chases a loan recovery. Each entry names the screens it is offered on, so a list of ten people does not appear on every screen in the system.
What it is for
Some screens ask who is responsible for this. Rather than typing a name on every record, the names live here once, with a phone number and an email address, and the screens pick from the list.
The second half of the record is the part consultants miss. Each responsible person carries a list of the screens they are offered on. A responsible person set up for the loan screens does not clutter the list on a leave screen. If somebody says "the person I need is not in the list", the usual answer is that this screen list is missing the screen they are standing on, not that the person was never created.
A responsible person is not the same thing as a user, and not the same thing as an employee. It is a contact point. You can point it at an employee record if the person is on the payroll, and at a position if the responsibility belongs to the chair rather than the person sitting in it, but both of those are optional. That is what lets you list somebody like an external labour consultant who has no employee record at all.
If what you want is a function rather than a person - the Payroll desk, the Compliance desk - use Responsibility Central instead.
Every field, in plain words
Header
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Responsible | Your short code for this person. | HR-OFFICER-1 | Required. It must be unique. |
| Name | The name shown wherever this is picked. | Faisal Mahmood, HR Officer | Required. Put the role in the name as well as the person, so the list still reads sensibly after somebody leaves. |
| Position | The position this responsibility belongs to. | HR Officer | Optional, picked from the position list. Fill it where the responsibility follows the chair. |
| Phone | The number to reach them on. | 0300 1234567 | Optional. |
| The address to reach them on. | The company address for this person | Optional, but it is checked. An address that is not a valid email address is refused on save with the address named in the message. |
Internal Reference
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employee | The employee record this person is. | The HR officer own employee record | Optional, picked from the employee list. Leave it blank for somebody outside the company. |
Process Code
One line per screen this person is offered on.
| Field | What it means | What to put in it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process Code | A screen where this person appears in the Responsible list. | Employee Request Leave | Required on every line, picked from the list of screens. Add one line per screen. No lines means the person is picked up by nothing. |
How to configure it
- Work out the list of screens the client actually hands work to a named person on, before you start creating records. The screen list is the whole point of this screen.
- Open Responsible and create a record. Type the code and the name.
- Fill in the phone and the email. Type the email carefully, because the save checks it.
- Pick the Position if the responsibility belongs to the post rather than the person.
- Pick the Employee in Internal Reference if this person is on the payroll.
- Add a Process Code line for every screen this person should be offered on.
- Save, then open one of those screens and check the person appears in its Responsible list.
Scenarios
"The leave screen offers fifteen names and only two are relevant"
Each of the other thirteen has a line for the leave screen that it should not have. Remove the leave screen from their Process Code lines. Nothing about the people changes, only where they are offered.
"Our labour consultant has to be named on the disciplinary records but he is not an employee"
Create him here with a name, a phone and an email, leave the Employee reference blank, and give him a Process Code line for the disciplinary screen only.
"The HR officer left and now the records point at nobody useful"
If the responsibility belongs to the post, point the record at the Position and keep the code the same. Change the name and the contact details when the post is refilled, and every record that pointed here follows along.
What it is connected to
- Offered on whichever screens its Process Code lines name. In PeopleNest those are typically the leave screens, Offer, Recruitment Requisition, the loan screens and Employee Basic Information.
- Can point at a Position and at an employee record, but needs neither.
- For a desk or a function rather than a person, see Responsibility Central.
If something looks wrong
- "The save says the code cannot be empty" - the Responsible field is blank.
- "The save says it already exists" - that code is already used. Codes must be unique.
- "The save says the email address is not valid" - the message names the address it refused. Correct the typing.
- "The person is not in the list on the screen where I need them" - there is no Process Code line for that screen. Add one.
- "The name in the list is just a person name and means nothing to me" - put the role in the name. The list shows the name, nothing else.