This article will run through the process of setting up your service to accurately record worked hours that add towards a staff members pay parity pay step progression.


Brief:

The pay parity pay step reporting within Infocare enables tracking of all recorded staff work hours and tracking of staff members' pay step changes.


The system offers options to start counting from a specific date or include all historical staff hours.

If pay steps have previously been calculated externally they can be easily added as an initial figure.


A customisable alert is available for staff approaching a pay step change. Additionally, the system supports reporting for both individual services and multi-service setups.



User Setup

Initially the Staff Pay Parity reporting and calculation functions will be disabled for all users. Enable Pay Parity Calculations within user access.

  • Login to Infocare using an account that can modify 'User' access.
  • Centre > Users
  • Select the account you wish to grant pay pairty calculations access.
  • Modify the Pay Parity Calculation option to: 
    • Write (full access).
    • View (view only access).
    • No (no access, cannot view, default).
  • Click Update

If Write access is given, the user will be given access to new pay parity options within Centre Options, Staff Details and Group Reports.

Pay Parity - Centre Options

The initial use of Pay Parity reporting requires some options to be defined.

These options allow you to define when reporting should start, when to get alerts, and which staff activities are counted.


Centre > Centre Options > Pay Parity

If this option is not available check the user access is set to Write (see User Setup above).



Within the Pay Parity window will be 3 fields plus a list of all your staff activities.


Effective date of staff hour record keeping

This date field is to define when the system should start recording staff hours for pay parity reporting.

If this is left blank the system will look at all historic and future hours in the system.

It is highly recommended that services define an effective date if they have been active in Infocare prior to 1/07/2024
This is to prevent any historic mismatch of staff activities and enable the an initial staff credit hour count that can be pulled from external records.



Pay Parity Attestation

This is the pay parity attestation you wish to calculate staff pay steps against.

The system will be set by default to the same attestation as the Funding Rates options.

This can be changed at any time.

This does not affect any funding figures or RS7 submissions. This is purely for staff pay step calculations.


Event Warning (Hours)

This is the lead time for warnings about staff increasing in pay step.

Depending on the average number of hours staff work and how much lead time you require, increase or decrease this number.

If your staff work 40 hour weeks a 80 hours Event Warning will provide a warning two weeks before a pay step change will be due.


Staff Activities counted in pay parity calculations

This list will show all of your staff activities. An option to include each activity can be selected on the left.

Activates that are included will count towards your staff members pay steps.

Activities that are excluded will not.


By default the following activity types will be Included

  • Contact
  • Non-contact
  • Discretionary
  • Annual Leave
  • Sick Leave
  • Bereavement Leave
  • Practicum

By default the following activity types will be Excluded

  • Break
  • Lunch
  • Away


As your staff activities can be customised review the list and include or exclude any entries.

Remember only hours that are considered worked hours should be included.

Activities like Unpaid Sick Leave or Unpaid Leave should be reviewed as they may incorrectly be included based on the above defaults.


Pay Parity - Employee Records

Employees > [Select an employee] > Pay Parity


Initially each employee record will have blank Pay Parity details.

Within this page will be options to populate the initial pay step of an employee and any prior hours.


The details populated in here will run through a calculation to provide a Pay Step.



Qualification Group

This defines the initial pay step of the employee.

Options:

  • No Qualifications
  • P1, P2, & P3
  • P3+
  • P4
  • P5

To work out which group your employee is in refer to MOEs help documentation.


Management Position

This defines the Management Position of the staff member.

This will override the Qualification group during pay step calculations.

This option is only available when Full or Extended Parity attestations is set.


Calculated credited worked hours prior to (Effective date)

If the 'Effective date of staff hour record keeping' has been defined, this field will be available. Otherwise this will be greyed-out.

Populate this field with the calculated credited worked hours the employee has as of the start of the effective date.

In practice this is the figure you obtain from your current external staff pay step calculations.


Prior recognised service (working as a teacher in NZ)

Populate the total recognised service hours this employee has obtained prior to their employment at your service.

This is the total certified worked hours of this employee. Refer to the 'Recognised Service' section in the funding handbook.

If you have populated the 'Calculated credited worked hours prior to (Effective date)' this field should initially be left blank. It is expected that your external calculations have accounted for these hours and have been populated in the field above.


Prior relevant work experience

Populate the total relevant worked experience hours this employee has obtained prior to their employment at your service.

Refer to the 'Previous Relevant Work Experience' section of the funding handbook.

If you have populated the 'Calculated credited worked hours prior to (Effective date)' this field should initially be left blank. It is expected that your external calculations have accounted for these hours and have been populated in the field above.


Recorded worked hours as a certificated teacher at this service

The system will count the employees current certificated worked hours at this service and show a running total.

These hours are populated based on the settings within Centre Options and the 'Worked Hours on the Staff Timesheets.

Only hours within an active Practicing Certificate Start and End Date will counted.


Recorded worked hours as an uncertificated teacher at this service

The system will count the employees current uncertificated worked hours at this service and show a running total.

These hours are populated based on the settings within Centre Options and the 'Worked Hours on the Staff Timesheets.

Only hours outside of an active Practicing Certificate Start and End Date will counted.


Calculation

Once the above details have been populated click Update

The calculation section will populate the employees Pay Step.

If a previous pay step has passed the system will display a 'Last Step Change' if.


The 'Last Step Change' will only occur after 'Effective date of staff hour record keeping'.



Group Reports - Staff Pay Parity

Reports > Group Reports > General 

Print Mode: Staff Pay Parity
This report will provide a summary of all staff and their details about their pay step progression.


Report Options:

  • From (date) - Include active staff within this period.
  • Until (date) - Include active staff within this period and reported hours until this date.
  • View By - Define a single service or multi-service report.
  • Sort Order - Order of shown staff
  • Print Mode - Must be Staff Pay Parity


The report will show the following details:

  • Staff Name
  • Qualification Group - Recorded group ('P1, P2, & P3', 'P3+', 'P4', & 'P5'
  • Relevant Work Experience Credited Hours - Total 'Prior relevant hours' and current 'uncertified hours' (capped at 4160 hours or 2 pay steps).
  • Recognised Service Credited Hours - Total 'Prior recognised service' and 'Recorded worked hours as certificated  teacher'. 
  • Total Credited Hours Worked - Total of all credited Hours + the Calculated credited worked hours prior to Effective date (if used).
  • Current Pay Step - Calculated pay step
  • Previous Pay Step Increase Date - Last date the staff member reached a pay step change. This will be blank if the system has not seen the change occur.
  • Hours Until Next Step - From the reports 'Until' date, how many hours are needed to achieve a new pay step change.