Managers, Supervisors and Team Leaders
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Managing changes to existing members of staff's terms and conditions

1. Getting started

  • If you are considering making changes to existing members of staff's terms and conditions we recommend you first contact your  HR Advisor team for advice and support. 
  • The following changes require specific steps to be undertaken and eSR1 approval must be obtained before these changes can be agreed:
    • Acting up allowances/secondments: this opportunity should normally be advertised internally via the Recruitment Team.  If you consider this to be a specialist role that can only be filled by someone within your own team/service/directorate due to their skills and experience, you should ensure that all eligible staff are made aware of the opportunity and request expressions of interest to consider for selection.
    • Additional responsibility allowances: this is where an existing member of staff takes on additional duties as well as their own role (as opposed to an acting up allowance/secondment).  This opportunity should be discussed with the team and expressions of interest considered as appropriate.
    • Decrease in hours: if requested by the employee these should be processed via the flexible working policy and not an eSR1.  If the reduction is as a result of reduced workload/funding, this change to an employee's terms and conditions will need the employee's prior agreement.  An email outlining the circumstances and confirming the employee's agreement should be submitted.
    • Increase in hours: this opportunity should be discussed with the team and expressions of interest considered as appropriate for selection.
    • Extension of a fixed term contract:
      • As part of the Fair Employment For All initiative and in line with our agreement with trade unions on the use of fixed term contracts, the normal expectation would be that fixed term contracts are converted to open ended (permanent) if they are extended beyond 4 years.  This means that a further fixed term contract will only be appropriate by exception.  Your employee's length of service can be found on People Manager.  Please choose "Change to Fixed term to permanent" instead.
      • GBP appointments are restricted to 23 months.
      • Extensions must be for the same role, if you are making changes to the original duties/responsibilities the position may require advertisement - in which case you should change the type of eSR1 required to "New".
      • Please contact your  HR Advisor team for advice.
    • Change from fixed term to permanent:
      • If the position is linked to temporary funding please include the end date in the "Give Details of Request" box in the eSR1.
      • If you are making changes to the original duties/responsibilities the position may require advertisement - in which case you should change the type of eSR1 required to "New".
      • Please contact your HR Advisor team for advice.
  • Small minor changes such as the change of a line manager or location can be notified to HR via an email.
  • Some changes have their own processes which do not require an eSR1:

2. What is the eSR1 system?

The eSR1 system is the University's approval system for changes to staffing such as recruiting for new or replacement positions, as well as for changes to existing staffing such as increasing hours, extensions of fixed term contracts, changing fixed term to permanent and for payment of allowances.

3. Request an eSR1

  • Complete the eSR1 request form.
  • As you will be aware we are carefully managing our budgets so one of the measures we’re taking is an additional approval process for all resourcing requests. For all Professional Service roles this form will now go for approval to your Divisional Director and then to the Registrar before an eSR1 can be set up/ your request is taken forward. For any questions please speak directly to your Divisional Director.
  • On receipt of the request the HR Operations team will set up the eSR1 for you and you will receive an email with a link to the system.

4. Complete the eSR1

Complete the eSR1 form and submit it for approval. 

See our  The eSR1 system key tips for users and step by step guide and our FAQs for detailed guidance.

If you have any queries please refer to your HR Operations team contact for advice. 

5. Approval

Once an eSR1 is submitted the following will happen:

  • For externally funded posts: where the appointment will be wholly financed through external funding, the form will proceed to the Research Finance Cluster to approve the change.
  • For University funded posts: the form will proceed to Finance and final approval will be made by budget holders within the faculty/service.
  • For mixed funded posts: the form will proceed to the relevant Research Finance cluster, then to Finance and then on to the budget holders within the faculty/service.

The system will email you updating you after each approver actions the eSR1, you can also view all your eSR1s on the eSR1 Listings page.  If you feel there is a delay in your eSR1 being approved you should contact the approver who it is sitting with.

6. After approval

  • The eSR1 will be received by the HR Operations team for action.
  • We will contact you if there are further things to discuss or if there is any missing information, otherwise we will proceed with actioning the change.