Summary

The Position Control feature is used to limit the number of employees that can be assigned to each position and the number of positions in each department. For example, if you have a department titled Meter Readers, you can set up each position in the Meter Reading department and then assign those positions to employees. If the Meter Reading department is set up to have four Meter Reader positions, only four employees in the Meter Reading department can have that position. If you have less than four meter readers in the Meter Reading department, one of the Meter Reader positions will stay unfilled. When a new employee is hired, or applicants are evaluated, they can be attached to the open position.

The Position Maintenance feature is enabled using the Human Resources setup window (HR> Utilities> Setup). Check the Use Position Control toggle if you would like to use the position control feature and the Position Control option will display on Human Resources Maintenance palette. Checking the Use Position Control toggle will clear the position set up on every employee record. After the positions have been cleared, create the positions in each department using the Position Control Maintenance window and then assign those positions to employees using the Employee Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Employee> General tab> Position field).

The Position Control Maintenance window is used to create and maintain the positions in a department, it is not used to assign employees to a position/department, create departments or create positions. Departments and positions must be set up before you can use the Position Control feature. Departments are created and maintained using the Department Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Departments). Positions are created using the Position Maintenance window (HR> Maintenance> Position). Use the Employee Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Employee) to assign employees to a department or position.

Step by Step

1     View the positions that have already been created.

• Open the Position Control Selection window (HR> Maintenance> Position Control). The Position Control Selection window will display a list of departments and a summary of the positions and control points set up in each.
  • The Positions column will display the total number of unique positions in the department. For example, if you have an Accounting department with a Controller, two Senior Accountants, one Budget Analyst and two Accounting Clerks, the Positions column will display 4 because there are four unique positions in the department.
  • The Control Points column will display the total number of positions in the department. For example, if you have an Accounting department with a Controller, two Senior Accountants, one Budget Analyst and two Accounting Clerks, the Control Points column will display 6 because there are a total of six positions in the department.
• Highlight a department and click the Modify icon or press ENTER to add or modify the positions in a department. This will open the Position Control Maintenance window.
• You cannot create departments from the Position Control Selection window. If you would like to create a new department, use the Department Maintenance window (SS> Maintenance> Departments). The Departments Maintenance window is in the System Setup module because the department table is used in more than one module.

2     Create or modify the positions in a department.

• The Position Control Maintenance window will display a department and all of the control points in that department. Each control point in the department will display as a separate line item in the window.
  • A control point is a specific position in the department. Control points allow you to have multiple employees working a single position in the department. For example, the Customer Service department can have multiple employees working the Customer Service Representative position.
  • If you would like to generate a report of all the control points in a department, right click on the data in the window and select Export grid contents to Excel. This will create an MS Excel spreadsheet of all the information that displays in the window.
• Click the Create icon or press INSERT to create a new control point. This will open the Position Selection window in order to select the position you would like to add to the department. For example, if you would like to add a new Accounting Clerk position to the Accounting department, open the Accounting department in the Position Control Maintenance window and select Accounting Clerk from the Position Selection window.
• The Position column will display the position of each control point. Positions cannot be created using this window. Use the Position Maintenance window if you would like to create a new position (HR> Maintenance> Position).
• Each time you create a new control point for a position that has already been added to the department, the Point column will populate with an incremented index number. For example, if you have three Accounting Clerk Positions, the Point column will display a 1, a 2 and a 3 next to each Account Clerk control point.
• The FTE column will display the full time equivalency of each control point. For example, if you have a Billing Clerk position that is a half-time position, the FTE column will display 0.5.
  • The FTE column must be between 0.1 and 1.
• The Description column displays the description of the control point. This is a user-defined field and does not have to match the description of the position. For example, the position title may be Clerk, but the position control description may be Billing Clerk. This applies if you have set up generic positions that apply to multiple departments.
• The Closed toggle is used to keep a control point from being assigned to an employee. If the Closed toggle is checked on a control point, that control point cannot be assigned to an employee. This allows you to add a control point to a department but not make it available or remove a control point from a department.
• The Employee column will display the employee attached to a control point. If an employee has not been assigned to a control point, the field will be blank. This means the control point can be assigned to a new employee (as long as the Closed toggle is not checked).
  • Only employee records with an active status will display in the Employee column. If an employee record has a pending status (PR> Maintenance> Employee> General tab> Status field) and has been assigned to a position control point, the employee will not display in the Employee column.
    • You can attach as many Pending status employee records to a single position control point, but you can have only one Active status employee attached to a position control point.
  • If an active status employee has been attached to a position control point but that employee has been changed to a terminated or purge status, that employee will no longer display in the Employee column.
  • You cannot attach an employee to a control point using the Position Control Maintenance window. Use the Employee Maintenance window (PR> Maintenance> Employee) to assign an employee a department and a position.
• The Location column will display the location associated with the employee selected in the row.
  • The Location is set on the Employee Maintenance window but can be overridden here.
• Click the Save icon or press ENTER to save the changes to the department.