By Jana Zoriry
The University of Papua New Guinea last week signed an agreement with Concept Group Limited to roll out the Ascender Payroll System in the hope to improve the University’s HR Function.
The University’s Interim Council identified that the Human Resource Management is the most important and critical cross cutting function in the University.
Last year, the Council led by Chanceller Robert Igara established a Human Resource Committee as part of its order to review and reform the University’s good governance structures.
The HR Committee reported that the HR function has been seriously undervalued and under-resourced due to the lack of an HR Driven Payroll System under the direction and control of the Director of Human Resources.
“Critical areas for having sound management and governance of HR were missing.
“We were not able to receive data relating to HR function on time and so we found it necessary to start addressing the question of ‘how do we develop a sound system?” Igara highlighted.
The Interim Council through the HR Committee established that the Ascender Payroll System would assist the University in raising and monitoring the level of individual staff performance and deliver high academic standards.
The Ascender Payroll System is the most advanced HR Driven System in the country under license to the Concept Group Ltd.
Concept Group Ltd Managing Director Brendan Coombs explains that the system was designed by the Queensland University of Technology to meet the specific requirements of higher education particularly with things like monitoring and managing tutors who are also lecturers elsewhere or might be on study leave.
Chancellor Igara said the Interim Council also took into account that the Concept Payroll Service provides a wide range of modern online Web Based Self Services.
The Implementation Phase has commenced this week and the rollout is expected to be completed by the end of June.
