2016

eProbation

LINE MANAGER GUIDE

OGCIO eSYSTEMS

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Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 2

2 Logging in, initial display, logging out ............................................................................................. 3

3 The ‘My Probation’ tab ................................................................................................................... 5

3.1 ‘Personal details’ section ........................................................................................................ 5

3.2 ‘Own probation’ section ......................................................................................................... 5

3.3 ‘Staff probation tasks’ section ................................................................................................ 6

4 ‘My Staff Probation Tasks’: view, edit, reassign manager .............................................................. 8

4.1 ‘View Probation’ button .......................................................................................................... 8

4.2 ‘Edit Probation’ button ........................................................................................................... 9

4.3 ‘Reassign Manager’ button ................................................................................................... 14

5 The ‘My Staff’ tab .......................................................................................................................... 18

6 The ‘Help’ tab ................................................................................................................................ 23

6.1 My actions ............................................................................................................................. 23

6.2 Manager guide ...................................................................................................................... 24

6.3 Contact us ............................................................................................................................. 25

6.4 Logout ................................................................................................................................... 25

6.5 Language Preference ............................................................................................................ 25

7 Email notifications......................................................................................................................... 27

8 Printing .......................................................................................................................................... 28

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1 Introduction

The eProbation system provides online support for the probationary process that applies to new

recruits in government departments and offices, and to newly-promoted employees. The core

element is the employee’s electronic probation form which is reviewed and updated by the

employee’s line manager at quarterly intervals during the probationary term. The last review is

performed by the employee’s local HR manager and constitutes a sign-off on the probation process.

The sign-off decision adopted by the local HR manager is based on the line manager’s assessments.

There are three classes of user: line manager, local HR manager, and administrator (PeoplePoint user).

This document details the operation of the eProbation application from the viewpoint of the

employee’s line manager.

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2 Logging in, initial display, logging out

The eProbation application is accessed through a web browser using the URL

probation.peoplepoint.gov.ie. Access is controlled by your PeoplePoint username and password. Note

that the password field is case-sensitive. The log in screen appears as:

The initial screen appears as:

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Here, Daniel Quilp is a Higher Executive Officer and line manager. He is not on probation, thus no

probation form exists for him. Furthermore, while some of his staff may be on probation, currently

there are no assessments for Daniel to complete at this time. He sees a menu bar showing three tabs:

The My Probation tab is activated by default when any user logs in to the system.

The My Staff tab displays a screen showing the members of staff who report to the person

logged in.

The Help tab displays a menu with options allowing Daniel to read the Line Manager guide to

the eProbation system, view a history of his activities within the application, and set his

language preference. There is also an option allowing him to exit the system.

Logging out of the system is simply a matter of selecting the ‘Logout’ option from the Help tab on the

menu bar:

Having logged out of the system, the original log in screen is redisplayed.

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3 The ‘My Probation’ tab

When a user logs in to the eProbation application, the ‘My Probation’ tab is selected by default. The

resulting screen contains three sections:

Personal details.

Details of the user’s own probation if he/she is on probation.

A list of probation forms for his/her staff that require assessment.

3.1 ‘Personal details’ section The personal details section shows the line manager’s name, department, grade, manager, and line

manager’s email address:

3.2 ‘Own probation’ section The ‘own probation’ section consists simply of a ‘no probation form’ message if the line manager is

not on probation:

If the line manager is on probation, the ‘own probation’ section will show something like:

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In this particular case, the current status field indicates that the line manager’s probation has reached

the 3 month assessment stage. The form is assigned to her own line manager for assessment, but the

user may view the form by pressing the ‘View Probation’ button. A user may not edit her own

probation form, so there is no ‘edit probation’ facility.

3.3 ‘Staff probation tasks’ section The section containing the list of staff members’ probation forms consists only of a ‘no assigned tasks’

message if the line manager has no staff on probation, or if there are no assessments due for

completion for staff members who are on probation:

If the line manager does have staff on probation, and if there are assesments to be completed, the

staff members’ probation forms section looks like:

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Here, the line manager sees a list of his staff members’ probation forms that require attention. In this

case, there are two staff members on probation and the line manager is required to complete the 3

month assessment for both. A form is updated by pressing the corresponding ‘Edit Probation’ button,

but the line manager can opt to view a form by pressing the ‘View Probation’ button. The line manager

may also reassign the form to another manager by pressing the ‘Reassign Manager’ button. Such

reassignment is temporary: it applies only to the probation form’s current assessment stage.

The operation of the ‘View Probation’, ‘Edit Probation’, and ‘Reassign Manager’ buttons is explained

in the next chapter.

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4 ‘My Staff Probation Tasks’: view, edit, reassign manager

4.1 ‘View Probation’ button Pressing the ‘View Probation’ button associated with a staff member’s probation form in the

‘probation tasks’ section of the ‘My Staff’ screen displays the form history screen:

Here, Nell Trent’s probation has reached the 6 month assessment stage: her probation is now in the

third (months 7 to 9) assessment period. Pressing the ‘3 Month Assessment’ button allows the line

manager to see the form as it stood at the end of the 3 month assessment period. Similarly, pressing

the ‘6 Month Assessment’ button lets the line manager see the form as it stood at the end of the 6

month assessment period, while also showing the earlier 3 month assessment. For conciseness

however, the 3 month assessment details are hidden:

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Sections of the form that are hidden may be displayed by pressing the ‘Show/Hide’ button on the

appropriate heading. Conversely, sections that are visible may be hidden by pressing the same

button. A red bar across the bottom of the screen emphasises the fact that the form cannot be

edited. The entire form as it currently stands can be browsed using the vertical scrollbar to the right

of the form.

4.2 ‘Edit Probation’ button Forms are updated by pressing the ‘Edit Probation’ button. As far as the line manager is concerned,

this is the most important function in the eProbation application. Each probation form comprises three

assessment sections that are completed by the line manager (after 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months

of the staff member’s probation) and a sign-off section that is completed by the local HR manager.

The three assessment sections that the line manager completes are broadly similar, with the same

questions being asked at each stage. Only the 9 month assessment section differs, and this only to the

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extent that the ‘final’ nature of the third assessment is emphasised rather than the fact that it is the

9 month assessment. While this change of emphasis highlights the seriousness of the 9 month

assessment, there is no functional difference between the 9 month assessment and the two earlier

assessments.

This is the view of Nell Trent’s probation form that her line manager Daniel Quilp sees when he fills in

her 3 month assessment:

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The heading section shows the employee’s name, grade, department and manager.

The actual assessment section consists of a set of standard questions relating to performance, sick

leave, attendance and punctuality, and general conduct. The answers to these questions are, for the

most part, a straightforward ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and can be selected from the drop-down list accessed by

clicking the arrow located beside the answer box:

The drop-down list that appears in answer to the question regarding compliance with flexi-time

requirements features a ‘not applicable’ response:

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Apart from those questions whose answers can be selected from drop-down lists, several fields

require data to be entered by the line manager. These questions relate to certified and uncertified

sick leave absences, and time-keeping infringements.

The answers to the two sick leave questions are pre-populated with data from the HRMS system. As

the tooltip explains, however, these values may not reflect the full amount of sick leave taken:

Clearly, HRMS may not be updated with the latest sick leave absence for a staff member and the two

values may consequently be lower than they should be. A further complication arises if a historic sick

leave absence spanned the start date for the employee’s probation. In such situations, the eProbation

system does not break the spanning sick leave absence in two: the fraction of the spanning absence

that followed the start of the employee’s probation is not included in the pre-populated figures. This

latter consideration, of course, is relevant only in the cases of probations arising from promotions.

Note also that the pre-populated figures are cumulative: they reflect the number of certified and

uncertified sick days taken since the start of the employee’s probation, not the start of the 3 month

period being assessed. The pre-populated figures may be overwritten if the line manager thinks it

appropriate to do so.

The ‘number of infringements’ field accepts whole number values only. If fractional numbers are

entered, they will be deemed invalid when the probation form is submitted.

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The final three fields in each assessment section are critical. The line manager summarises his or her

assessment by giving an opinion on the employee’s performance during the assessment period under

review. Probation policy requires that the line manager discusses the assessment with the staff

member on probation prior to completing the relevant assessment section of the eProbation form.

The line manager should indicate she has complied with this requirement by selecting ‘Yes’ from the

drop-down list associated with the question ‘Have you discussed this assessment with the staff

member?’.

The drop-down list associated with the statement regarding the jobholder’s performance contains

two possibilities:

The meaning of each option is self-evident. Note however, that selecting ‘Unsatisfactory and needs to

show improvement’ has the effect of flagging the probation form for the attention of the local HR

manager.

The comments box, as the tooltip indicates, should be updated with additional notes concerning the

employee’s performance during the assessment period under review:

In particular, it is a good place to record reasons for negative answers to the assessment questions.

The comments box expands as you type: there is no effective limit to the amount of text you may

enter.

While completing the assessment, the line manager may at any point press the ‘Save Draft’ button to

save a copy of the probation form for later editing. The form may be incomplete, but any values

entered are validated. Saving a draft copy has no effect on the status of the form or the overall state

of the probation process for the employee. The line manager may continue editing the form

immediately after saving a draft, or may return to it later. All updates made to the form when the draft

was saved are preserved.

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Pressing the ‘SUBMIT’ button saves the form and moves the probation process forward to the next

stage. When Daniel Quilp, as Nell Trent’s line manager, submits Nell’s probation form with the 3

Month assessment section filled in, it marks the end of her 1-3 month assessment period and the

beginning of her 4-6 month assessment period. When the ‘SUBMIT’ button is pressed, the system

checks that all the assessment questions have been given valid (though not necessarily correct)

answers. Invalid responses are flagged:

Correcting all such validation errors allows submission of the form. Once a probation form has been

submitted in this way, the line manager’s initial ‘My Probation’ screen is redisplayed, but now the list

of staff probation tasks has been reduced by one: in Daniel Quilp’s situation he now sees Michael

Willmore’s form listed as before but not that for Nell Trent. In addition, an email notification is

generated automatically and sent to Nell informing her that Daniel has completed her 3 month

probation assessment and that she may now view it on the system. If Daniel had given Nell an

‘unsatisfactory’ assessment, an email stating this would also be generated and sent to the local HR

manager.

4.3 ‘Reassign Manager’ button Pressing the ‘Reassign Manager’ button permits the line manager to temporarily assign the form to

another manager. The effect is temporary to the extent that, once the assessment has been

completed by the new manager, the form will be reassigned to the original line manager afterwards.

When temporarily assigning the probation form for his staff member Michael Willmore to another

manager (Samuel Weller), Daniel Quilp sees the following screen:

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He is invited to enter the name or PeoplePoint user ID of the temporary manager. The probation form

may be assigned to Samuel Weller either by typing the name ‘Samuel Weller’ or entering the

PeoplePoint ID ‘WELLERS’:

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In either case, it is only necessary to type as many characters as are necessary to generate a sufficiently

small set of matching names. Daniel presses the ‘Choose’ button associated with the entry for Samuel

Weller and responds to the resulting confirmation box:

Daniel’s initial (My Probation) screen is then redisplayed with a message stating that Michael

Willmore’s form has been reassigned to Samuel Weller, while the section listing the probation forms

for Daniel’s staff no longer includes the form for Michael Willmore:

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5 The ‘My Staff’ tab

Selecting the ‘My Staff’ tab on the menu bar allows a line manager to see a list of his staff members

whether they are on probation or not. For those staff members who are on probation, the status of

their respective probation process is displayed:

The screen shows that Daniel Quilp has 3 staff members reporting to him. The first of these, Abel

Magwitch, is not on probation: no probation status is shown and there is no ‘View Probation’ button

associated with his entry on the list. Both Michael Willmore and Nell Trent are on probation, as

indicated by the presence of probation status values and corresponding ‘View Probation’ buttons. The

status ‘3 Month Assessment Started’ means that Michael Willmore has completed the first 3 months

of his probation and that an assessment is now due for that period: completing the assessment is a

task for Daniel. The status ‘3 Month Assessment Completed’ indicates that Nell Trent has completed

the first 3 months of her probation and that an assessment for that period has already been

completed, in this case by Daniel.

Pressing the ‘View Probation’ button associated with a staff member’s probation form displays a

history of the form at the various stages of its probation process to date. Since Michael Willmore has

not been assessed yet for any stage of his probation, the form history only shows that the probation

process was kicked-off automatically:

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Nell Trent, however, was assessed following completion of her first 3 months of probation, and the

history of her probation form shows:

The form history shows that a copy of the form as it stood after the 3 Month Assessment was

completed by Daniel Quilp (the assigned user at the time was QUILPD) is available for viewing. Pressing

the 3 Month Assessment button displays the form as it then was:

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The fact that the form cannot be edited is indicated by a red bar across the bottom of the display

showing the message ‘You do not have access to these buttons’.

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More or less form history is available for viewing depending on the stage of the probation form. This

is how Daniel Quilp’s list of staff members appears when one of them, Nell Trent, has reached the

point where her local HR manager is due to sign off on her probation:

Pressing the ‘View Probation’ button now for Nell’s form shows the following history:

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Pressing the ‘3 Month Assessment’, ‘6 Month Assessment’, or ‘9 Month (Final) Assessment’ button

displays a copy of the form as it stood when the corresponding assessment was filled in by Daniel

Quilp.

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6 The ‘Help’ tab

The Help tab at the right-hand end of the menu bar (see below) contains options for displaying the

line manager’s activities within the eProbation system, viewing the Line Manager’s guide to the

system, contacting PeoplePoint through the PeoplePoint portal, and logging out of the system. Also

present is an option allowing the line manager to set her preferred language for viewing the

application.

6.1 My actions Selecting the ‘My actions’ option displays a summary of all the activities performed on the system by

the line manager. In the screen image below, Daniel Quilp has processed a 3 Month Assessment for

Michael Willmore together with the 3 Month and 6 Month Assessments for Nell Trent.

The probation forms may be viewed as they were when Daniel submitted them by pressing the

appropriate button in the ‘View Form (Status)’ column. When the ‘6 Month Assessment Started’

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button associated with Nell Trent’s form is pressed, for example, the usual probation form view is

displayed:

None of the fields is editable – the red bar across the screen of the display confirms this – and sections

of the form may be hidden or displayed by pressing the ‘Show/Hide’ buttons on the assessment

section headings.

6.2 Manager guide Selecting the ‘Manager guide’ option displays the eProbation Line Manager guide. The document

opens in a separate browser window.

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6.3 Contact us PeoplePoint provides first-level support for the eProbation system. Selecting the ‘Contact us’ option

displays the PeoplePoint portal in a separate browser window.

6.4 Logout Selecting the ‘Logout’ option exits the eProbation system. The original login screen is displayed.

6.5 Language Preference By default, all headings and labels in the eProbation system are shown in English. To change the

language to Irish, select ‘Irish’ from the language drop-down list and press the ‘Go’ button:

This results in the translation of the various labels and headings on the screen:

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7 Email notifications

The proper functioning of the eProbation system is dependent on a series of automatic and manual

interventions. The initiation of a probation process for an individual is automatic, and is triggered by

HRMS data. The scheduling of the 3 month, 6 month, and 9 month assessment stages is also

automatically controlled, as is the timing of the local HR sign-off step. Nevertheless, the system cannot

work without the manual assessments of line managers and the manual sign-off of the local HR

manager. To facilitate the manual processes involved, the system sends a set of email notifications to

the various users of the system at relevant points in the process. The notifications are summarised in

the table below.

Stage of probation Who is notified Comments

Kick-off Line manager

Local HR manager

Staff member on probation

Start 3 month assessment Line manager

3 month assessment completed Staff member on probation

Local HR manager Only for ‘unsatisfactory’ assessments.

Start 6 month assessment Line manager

6 month assessment completed Staff member on probation

Local HR manager Only for ‘unsatisfactory’ assessments.

Start 9 month (final) assessment Line manager

9 month (final) assessment completed

Staff member on probation

Local HR manager Only for ‘unsatisfactory’ assessments.

Start local HR sign-off Local HR manager

Local HR sign-off completed Local HR manager For records purposes.

Line manager

Staff member on probation

Reassign manager New line manager Miscellaneous.

If assessments or sign-offs are not completed in a timely manner, the eProbation system will also send

reminder emails to the appropriate line manager or local HR manager. Reminder emails are generated

automatically, and each overdue assessment or signoff stage causes up to two reminders to issue. The

first of these is sent 10 days after the assessment or signoff first fell due while the second is sent 20

days after the due date.

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8 Printing

Any screen in the eProbation system may be printed using the <Ctrl+p> key combination i.e. hold

down the ‘Ctrl’ key and press the ‘p’ key. The following print dialogue screen is displayed:

The print parameters may be adjusted in the normal manner by selecting the appropriate options in

the panel on the left-hand side of the screen. Of course, the ‘Print’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons in the top-left

corner of the screen print the screen or cancel printing of the screen respectively.

It is important to remember that, when printing a probation form, only the visible parts of the form

are printed. If you wish to print hidden sections, then first display those sections using the ‘Show/Hide’

buttons on the section headings.