Add a new position to an employee

Before assigning positions to your employees, it is important to understand how different positions function, as each position operates differently depending on the type of employment your employees have.

In this section, we will examine how each employment type affects the use of positions, as well as how work patterns impact your full-time and part-time employees.

Please take your time and review each one carefully.
 

Employment Types

There are several key differences between casual, salaried, and full-time or part-time positions, as well as how they operate within your platform.

We will explore the differences between each employment type below, which include:

• Casual employees
  • A casual position can be added at any time and may start anywhere in a pay period, unlike permanent and salaried positions.
  • Like part-time positions and full-time employees, casuals are paid based on hours worked and shifts approved.

  Additionally, casuals can hold multiple positions; this is beneficial for employees who work in multiple roles or have higher duties. Please refer to our guide for further reading on adding multiple casual positions. 

The image below displays a high-level overview of the casual employee process.
 

• Permanent employees (not salaried)
  • Permanent positions refer to any full-time or part-time employees who work variable hours. 
  • These positions can be added at any time, but must be set to start at the beginning of a pay period. 
  • Permanent employees do appear in Approve Shifts; as such, their shifts require approval. 
  • They are paid based on hours worked / shifts approved.
  • A draft payslip will be created when a shift is approved during the pay period.
  • Will have 'Approved shift basis' selected in their position.

The image below displays a high-level overview of the permanent employee process.

• Salaried employees
  • A salaried position refers to any full-time or part-time employee whose hours and pay rate are fixed.
  • These positions can be added at any time, but must be set to start at the beginning of a pay period. 
  • Salaried employees do not appear in Approve Shifts; as such, they will not be paid based on shifts approved.
  • Instead, the pay and leave of salaried employees are paid from the work pattern hours set in their position. Work patterns can be put in recurring cycles up to 8 weeks. 
  • Salaried draft payslips will be automatically created once a week.
  • By default, salaried employees will have the 'Use salaried payslip template' option selected. This will hide the hourly rate and hours from the payslip and instead show an annual wage. 
  • Will have 'Salary basis' selected in their position. This initiates the automatic payment mentioned above.

The image below displays a high-level overview of the salaried employee process.

Work Patterns

An employee's work pattern is a key part of any permanent or salaried employee's position. When applying a work pattern to an employee, ensure that the employee's regular hours are accurately reflected here. 

An employee's work pattern is used in the following ways:

• For salaried employees, it provides a daily breakdown of how they are to be paid and reports.
  
    Hot tip: When shift times are entered, it can also apply shift penalties, loadings or overtime depending on your Award's pay rules. 
   
• Provides a default number of hours when an employee submits a leave application.
• Use to predict leave balances for future-dated leave applications & liability reporting shift times entered, penalty rate loading calculations.
• Work patterns can be set for up to 8 weeks, and then they repeat automatically until you update them. You can also schedule changes in advance.

  For further reading on employee work patterns, please refer to our article on permanent positions here. 

Permanent positions refer to any full-time, part-time, and salaried positions. These positions can be added at any time, but must be set to start at the beginning of a pay period.  

When adding a position to salaried or permanent employees, 2 types of positions can be added, these are:

• Primary Position - This is the employee's main position and is required for payroll processing. Primary positions provide information about the employee's work pattern and is rate at which leave is paid.
• Additional Positions - These are any additional positions an employee may work where they are paid at a different rate. These are commonly used for higher duties. 

  Below, we will walk you through the process of adding a Primary Position to an employee's profile. For more information on adding additional positions, please refer to our article here.
 

To add a new permanent primary position:

1. Navigate to the Employee Profile and select Employee Card > Employment Type.  
2. Select + Add new position and select the employment type Full Time or Part Time. 

3. Add the relevant position details, then select Next to continue. These details are:

   • Associate with Operation - The primary Operation that the employee will work at. The position you intend to use for the employee must be in the rates book for this Operation. 
   • Location - The primary location where the employee will be working. Locations are a way of limiting on which rosters employees can work. You can read more about locations here. 
   • Additional Locations - Same as above. Adding multiple locations to an employee will allow them to work across multiple rosters. 
   • Position Group (optional) - Specifying a position group will narrow down your selection of positions in the field below. This field will only have options present if you have position groups configured in your platform. You can read more about position groups here. 
   • Position - The position (pay rules and minimum rate) you are assigning to the employee. You can type in this selection menu to identify positions faster. If a position is not in an Operation Rates Book, it will not appear in the list for selection. You can read more about creating and setting up positions here.
   • Custom Position Title (optional) - Add an optional label for the position that will be visible to the employee on payslips and in position documents sent from the document library in foundU. This can be useful if your position naming convention is too complex for employees. 
   • Use Operation rates book - With this toggle selected, the Operations rates book will be used to gather the pay rate details for the position. Selecting this will disable you from editing the salary field below. 
   • Ordinary Hours (Each Week) - The number of OTE hours the employee will work each week. This field will interact with the salary field below. This does not interact with overtime pay for employees.
   • Salary (Annually or Hourly Rate) - The annual salary or hourly rate for the employee. This information will be pulled from the Award configuration, but can be increased above the award rate. You cannot enter a value lower than the award rate.
     
       Hot tip: When entering the pay rate or salary, exclude superannuation; the platform will calculate this on the employee's payslip for you. If superannuation is required for your documents, e.g., sending contracts, use the 'Annual Salary (with Super)' placeholder.  
      
   • Cost Code / Purchase Order - The cost code or purchase order assigned to the employee position. The cost code assigned here is one of several places that can affect the costing of an employee. You can read more about cost codes and purchase orders here. 
   • Position Start Date - The effective date of the position. This determines when an employee can be rostered and paid with this position. For permanent and salaried employees, this start date must be the start of a pay period. This is a system date and does not necessarily reflect the employment start date. 

   

4. From here, apply the work pattern, then select Next to continue.
   
   When setting up a work pattern, you have a few options: 
   • In the 'Weeks' field - Work patterns can be set for up to 8 weeks, and then they repeat automatically until you update them. In this field, select the number of weeks.
      
   • The 'Include shift and break times' toggle - Allows you to provide a more detailed breakdown of the employee's work pattern.
     • When toggled off - This is the default option, you will need to specify the total hours per day. 
     • When toggled on - In addition to the total hours per day, you will need to specify the shift start time and total unpaid break durations. 

   • The 'Schedule a work pattern change' toggle - You can also schedule an upcoming change to your work pattern. You'll be able to read more about this here. 

     

5. Next, review and apply the relevant Position settings, which will impact items such as payslips, leave and public holidays.
   • How are hours approved for this position?
     • Salary basis - Once selected, the employee's payslip is automatically created based on the work pattern hours set. Hours rostered and clocked will not impact the pay for a salaried employee. You can read more about salaried positions here. 
     • Approve shift basis - Employees' payslips and hours will be created when shifts or leave applications are approved. 
   • Require timesheet submissions - This setting is optional and available only for employees with Salary basis enabled.
     • When the Require timesheet submissions setting is active, employees must upload a timesheet through the Employee App.
     • However, enabling this will also prevent draft payslips from being automatically generated based on the work pattern. You can learn more about this setting by reading more about it here. 
   • Use salaried payslip template - This setting automatically activates when you engage the salaried toggle and will alter how the view of payslip PDF. With this setting turned on, there will be two changes:
     • It will display the annual salary for the employee's active primary position at the top left of the PDF.
     • The line item breakdown will no longer include the hours worked or the rate, just their pay period amount (leave hours and rate will still show as normal).
   • When calculating leave, does a rostered shift overrule work pattern - Once enabled if the employee has a rostered shift on the day that a leave application covers, the hours of the shift will be the default leave value selected for that day. 
   • Pay ordinary rates on public holiday hours worked - With this setting enabled, the award configuration will be overruled and the employee will be paid their standard rate when working a public holiday. 

   • Deduct leave balance if leave falls on a public holiday - With this setting enabled, if a leave application falls on a public holiday, the leave balance is still deducted on that day. 

     

6. The next step is to manage anything on the review menu. The following options will be typical for an employee who already holds an existing position with your business that may have shifts, timesheets, or leave attached. 
   • Rostered shifts
   • Timesheets
   • Leave applications
     
       You can read more about managing issues on the position review menu here. 
7. Once the conflicts have been resolved, select Confirm to continue. 

You'll now be prompted to optionally add Entitlements to this employee as a part of the position's workflow. Select 'Yes' to do so. Refer to the section titled 'Add leave entitlements to employees' in this guide below. However, entitlements can be added at any time from the employee profile.

Casual positions are primarily used for your casual workers but can also include contractors or volunteers who need to be rostered. Unlike permanent or salaried positions, casual positions can be added at any time and may begin at any point during a pay period.

Just like part-time positions and full-time employees, casuals are paid based on hours worked and shifts approved.

To add a new casual position:

1. Navigate to the Employee Profile and select Employee Card > Employment Type. 
2. Select + Add new position and select the employment type Casual. 
3. Add the relevant position details:
   • Locations - The location/s the employee will be working at. Locations are a way of limiting which rosters employees can work. You can read more about locations here. 
   • Position Group (optional) - Specifying a position group will narrow down your selection of positions in the field below. This field will only have options present if you have position groups set up in your platform. You can read more about position groups here. 
   • Position - The position you are assigning to the employee. You can type in this selection menu to identify positions faster. 
   • Custom Position Title (optional) - Add an optional label for the position that will be visible to the employee on payslips and in position documents sent from the document library in foundU. This can be useful if your position naming convention is too complex for employees. 
   • Rate - The base hourly rate for this position, including casual loading. This rate is pulled from the Award configuration and will include casual loading if applied. 
   • Cost Code / Purchase Order - The cost code or purchase order assigned to the employee position. The cost code assigned here is one of several places that can affect the costing of an employee. You can read more about cost codes and purchase orders here. 
   • Position Start Date - The effective date of the position. This determines when an employee can be rostered with this position. This is a system date and does not necessarily reflect the employment start date. 
   • Position End Date (optional) - The end date for this position.
     • This field is useful when setting up future changes in positions (e.g. ending a junior 16-year position & starting a junior 17-year position the next day).
     • You can read more about this in the 'Add upcoming positions' section below. 
4. Select Add & Review Position then Next. 
   
   
5. The next step is to manage anything on the review menu. The following options will be typical for an employee if they already hold an existing position with your business that may have shifts, timesheets or leave attached. 
   • Rostered shifts
   • Timesheets
   • Casual Entitlement Position
     
       You can read more about managing issues on the position review menu here. 

You'll now be prompted to optionally add Entitlements to this employee as a part of the positions workflow, select 'Yes' to do so. Refer to the section titled 'Add leave entitlements to employees' in this guide below. However, entitlements can be added at any time from the employee profile.

  Please note: To understand how casual employees are automatically sent the CEIS (Casual Employment Information Statement) at regular intervals to ensure your business remains compliant with the Casual Legislation laws, please read here.

Some businesses will recruit and hire casual employees in bulk. This can occur for:

• Seasonal bulk casual hire in hospitality or retail
• Bulk hiring for a specific job/contract in labour hire

In this case, to save yourself some time, you can apply positions to your employees in bulk. There are 2 methods that casual positions can be assigned in bulk, these are:

• Assigning positions directly from the Approved People page
• Importing positions in bulk

We will review both options below. Please read each and choose the best option for your business. 
 

Assigning positions from Approved People

This method of applying positions in bulk may be preferable for businesses with seasonal workers, and often these new employees will all be doing the same position, at the same location, with the same start date. In this case, it will save time by using the Bulk Assign Casual Positions option.

However, before using this method to add positions, please consider the following:

• All employees assigned to the position will need to be casuals.
• All chosen employees will be assigned the same position group, position, location and position start date. Should any of these need to be different, please use the bulk assign feature multiple times.
• This process will only assign the primary location; if the employee is to work across multiple locations, please assign additional locations by editing the position on the profile.

  Hot tip: This process will not assign leave entitlements to the employees as part of the workflow. Should these employees require leave entitlements such as Long Service Leave or LWOP, please assign this to the employee via the profile.
 

To add a position to casuals in bulk:

1. Navigate to People > Approved People, then apply a filter for Employment type and select Casuals. This is to ensure that you only have casual employees available. 

2. Once your selected group of employees is ready, select Bulk actions and 'Assign Casual Positions to Selected'.

   

3. Add the relevant position details:
   • Position Group (optional) - Specifying a position group will narrow down your selection of positions in the field below. This field will only have options present if you have position groups configured in your platform. You can read more about position groups here. 
   • Position - The position you'd like to assign to this group of employees. 
   • Location - The primary location where the employee will be working. Locations are a way of limiting which rosters employees can work. You'll be able to read more about locations here. 

   • Position Start Date - The start date of the position. This determines when an employee can be rostered with this position. This is a system date and does not necessarily reflect the employment start date. 

     

4. Once your selections are complete, you'll be able to review the position information, select Save Positions once reviewed.

This position will now be added to all selected casual employees. Navigate to their employee profiles should you need to assign additional locations or assign leave entitlements. 

 Warning: The above process is only suitable for casual employees as they do not require a work pattern to be assigned. If you accidentally select permanent employees in this process, they will not be assigned the position.
 

Import positions to your Casual Employees

If your business has a large rotating casual workforce, finding quick ways to save time is key. One way to manage this is by controlling the amount of time you spend assigning positions.

The casual position import can help you achieve this, and is particularly beneficial if you have:

• All your employees work multiple different positions and need more than one assigned
• When transferring from your previous software to foundU, update your casuals in bulk

  For more information on importing casual positions, please refer to our article here. 

Positions can be added to employee profiles with a start date in the future. Setting up future-dated positions allows you to plan for known workforce changes and automate some of those changes. 

This is commonly used for: 

• Junior positions (e.g. starting a junior 17-year position to commence on their 17th birthday).
• Time-based level increases (e.g., moving to a level 2 position from a level 1 position after 6 months of employment).
• Promotions (e.g. an employee has been promoted to a new position that starts 5 weeks from now).
   

To set up a future-dated position:

1. Navigate to the Employee Profile and select Employee Card > Employment Type. 
2. Select Add new position and select the appropriate employment type.
3. Fill in the position details, referring to the above sections as needed. 
4. In the Position Start Date field, select the appropriate date in the future. 
5. Continue with the rest of your position set-up. 

  Hot tip: A quick way to visually distinguish future-dated positions from a current position is by colour. Future-dated positions appear in a white box, whereas current positions will be in a blue box. 

Depending on the type of position you are adding, there are some slight variations to the process. We will explore each of these below.

• Permanent employee positions
  • For permanent employees, the start date must be the start of a pay period
  • When your new position is created, an end date will automatically be applied to your existing position
  • The upcoming position will be visible under your existing primary position
• Causal employee positions
  • After creating your new position, you should edit the existing position and add an end date to it. This date should be the day before your new position starts
  • The upcoming position will be visible under your existing position
     

As the last part of the position workflows, you will be asked if you would like to add any leave entitlements to the employee's profile.

• When 'Yes' is selected - Once confirmed, you will be placed in the leave workflow, allowing you to add and edit leave entitlements on the employee's profile.
  
    Please note: Some entitlements are automatically selected for employees in this workflow. Certain leave types are only available to permanent or salaried employees and won't appear for casuals, depending on their set up. You can learn more here.
   
• When 'No' is selected - Once confirmed, this will conclude the workflow. 

It is optional to apply leave entitlements to the employee at this stage, and they can be added to the profile at any time.

We recommend adding any accrual leave types (e.g. Annual, Personal and Long Service Leave) at this stage or before their first pay, as they will only start accruing from the pay period in which they are added. 

  For more information on adding leave entitlements to employee profiles, please take a look at this guide for permanent or salaried employees or this guide for casual employees. 

One method for applying a recurring allowance is to add it directly to the employee's profile; however, this is usually done on a case-by-case basis (for example, adding Director's Fees).

  Before doing so, we strongly advise you to read the article Understanding Allowances, so you gain a clear understanding of how allowances work for your platform.

There are many ways to add allowances, each depending on your specific business needs; as such, this method may not be the best for you. 

If your business uses this method, best practice is to add these allowances immediately after you have added the employee's position, so they can match, and you don't forget.

Do I need to start all new positions at the start of a pay period?

That depends on the employee's employment type.

Permanent and Salaried employees - Must commence at the beginning of a pay period.

Casual employees - Can commence at any time during a pay period.

I need to change the pay rate of an employee for the current pay period and I'm unsure how to do it. Do I need to create a new position for the employee or edit the existing position to affect pay rates for this pay period? 

If you'd like to update the employee's rate of pay for the current pay period, for example, the employee is being given a pay rise, you'll need to edit their existing position. 

If you'd like to change the employee's rate of pay for future pay periods, for example, the employee is moving to a new level under the award, it is best practice to setup a new position for the employee with the new pay rate details. 

Please note, in both instances as the employee will likely have existing future shifts, a review screen will ask you how you'd like to update rostered shifts or timesheets, or approved leave with the new position.

If you'd like to update the pay rate as a result of the Annual Minimum Wage Increase, please refer to our article on the Rate Rise tool, as this feature can process all of your increases all at once. 

I have already configured my employee's position and have made an error, can I delete it and start again?

You can delete any position and start again provided that this position has not yet been paid.

  Please note: This process will remove the employee from any rostered shifts. Once a new position has been added, you will need to update and republish your roster for any shifts the employee was removed from. 

I want to add a second position to one of my permanent employees but I have noticed 2 different add position buttons; 'Add New Position' and 'Add Additional Position'. Which one do I use? 

For permanent employees, you'll see both of these button options available to you. Please use them in the following circumstances.

• Use '+ Add Additional Position' - To add an additional position to supplement the primary position of the employee.
  • For example, a higher duties position.
  • This will allow 2 positions against the employee to be worked concurrently. Both positions will be available on the roster. 
• Use '+ Add New Position' - To replace the primary position on this permanent employee.
  • For example, the Store manager position is being replaced by an Area manager position.
  • Creating the new position will automatically add an end date to the existing Store manager position.

 It should also be noted that the '+ Add Additional Position' button will only show on permanent employees, this is not an option for casual employees as they don't have primary and additional positions.

  Learn more about this process in the Adding & working with multiple positions guide.

Why is the employee's position white? Why can't I roster it?

When setting up an employee's position, you can choose the start (effective) date of the position. This can either be a current date or future-dated. 

Current Positons - An active positon will appear in a blue box on the employee's profile and can be rostered.

Upcoming Positions - These are future-dated positions and appear in a white box. Employee's are unable to be rostered for any date prior to the start date of a position. 

My employee works 9-day fortnights, can this be set up in their work pattern so I don't have to edit their leave application?

Yes! Work patterns can be set for up to 8 weeks, and then they repeat automatically until you update them. You can also schedule changes in advance.

  For further reading on employee work patterns, please refer to our article on permanent positions here.