Introduction

This document provides guidance on the usage of Staff Group, Job Role and Area of Work values as determined by the National Workforce Data Set (NWD) and made available in the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and other systems.  These fields are key data items relating to Positions (Posts) in the ESR system.  They have an important relationship, and when linked together provide a detailed classification of the position that an employee undertakes.  These fields provide a flexible means of recording and analysing the workforce, to reflect different ways of working, team configurations and staff mix.

Job Role (and its associated Staff Group) is a significant field on ESR as it is a defining characteristic of a position, and integral to the work structure.  Please note that once saved against a position, the Job Role field cannot subsequently be changed by the user; if a change is required a Service Request (SR) must be raised with the ESR team via the ESR Service Desk and the mass update process will be advised.  It is therefore very important that this field is accurately defined and input from the outset in order to avoid the more time-consuming process necessary to effect changes.

It also looks at the relationship between Job Role, Area of Work and Occupation Codes, and other relevant and linked data fields such as pay scale code (known as Grade code in ESR).

To allow the maximum level of flexibility there is no set relationship between Area of Work and Job Role values.  It is therefore theoretically possible to use any combination of Area of Work and Job Role to best reflect the nature of the position.  Similarly, there is no fixed relationship between Area of Work or Job Role and other fields used to report on the workforce such as Occupation Codes. Users should ensure with the help of this document that combinations of values chosen are compatible.