Civilian Section 34 managers: Don’t forget to carefully review requests in Phoenix before approving!

September 27, 2022 - Defence Stories

As a civilian section 34 manager, you have many responsibilities within the Phoenix Manager Self-Service module that can impact your employees’ pay. One important task includes reviewing and approving pending transactions. Make it a regular occurrence to check the system for any pending requests and make sure to action them before the Phoenix pay system cut-off dates, so your employees can be paid correctly and on time.

Before approving requests in Phoenix, you must:

• Review and understand the request: When reviewing requests, whether it be for Leave without pay (LWOP) 5 days or less or for payable time, you must make sure you understand what your employee is requesting. Approving requests without understanding them can lead to pay issues. If you are unsure, HR Connect RH is there to help you!
• Ensure your employees understand their requests: It’s important that you discuss these requests with your employees to verify that the proper request was submitted. You are supporting your employees by helping them understand their payable time and leave requests.

Once the transactions have been reviewed, you can approve, correct or deny the request within the prescribed Phoenix pay system cut off dates associated with each pay cycle. This cut-off is typically the Monday of a non-pay week. Delayed approvals result in delayed payments and, in some cases, will trigger problems in Phoenix.

A new automated process is now in place that notifies civilian section 34 managers on a biweekly basis, after pay day when transactions greater than 14 days from date of entry are pending in Phoenix. This will flag any pending transactions which require your immediate action to ensure timely and accurate pay for employees.

While the notifications are bi-weekly, managers are encouraged to check regularly for pending transactions in Phoenix to ensure timely and accurate pay for employees. A best practice is to schedule some time for this responsibility by blocking your calendar on a weekly basis to process your employee pay transactions in Phoenix. For example, from 8:00 am to 9:00 am every Friday morning.  Consult with the Manager’s Pay Responsibilities Calendar (accessible only on the National Defence network) to continue improving pay outcomes for employees.

Finally, if time is not entered within 6 months of its occurrence, the transaction cannot be processed by a DND Time and Labour Compensation Assistant and the civilian section 34 manager will have to submit a Pay Action Request (PAR) for processing by the Pay Centre through the Human Resources Services and Support (accessible only on the National Defence network).

To access and approve transactions, follow the instructions in the How to Approve Payable Time Training Aid (PDF, 290 KB) (accessible only on the National Defence network).

For questions about HR, access HR Connect RH online (accessible only on the National Defence network) or by calling 1-833-747-6363 (for Defence Team use only).