Position Lifecycle & Workflows

Understanding the Position Lifecycle in UCPath

What is Position Management?

Position Management in UCPath is the oversight of positions from creation to inactivation, ensuring they remain aligned with funding, job codes, and employment structures. Position Management is part, but not all, of a position's lifecycle!

Position Management is completed in different modules in UCPath depending on their status:

Vacant Position Management – Creating and updating positions before they are filled.
- UCPath Roles: Position Management Initiators & Approvers; Position Administrators
- UCPath Modules: Position Control Request; Position Administration
Filled Position Management – Managing employee-related position updates, such as promotions, reclassifications, and supervisor updates.
- UCPath Roles: PayPath Initiators & Approvers; Position Administrators
- UCPath Modules: PayPath; Position Administration

Why is this distinction important?

Most departments only have access to Vacant Position Management via Position Control Requests (the Position Management Initiator and Approver roles).
Eligibility for Filled Position Management (PayPath and Position Administration) is limited to specific roles (ex: Regional HR teams).
Errors at any stage can have downstream impacts, including to hiring, payroll, benefits, and policy compliance.

Understanding Position Management in the broader Position Lifecycle helps ensure data accuracy and smooth transitions between stages.

Position Lifecycle

The image is a circular flowchart illustrating the Position Lifecycle in UCPath. It consists of four interconnected circles, with a central circle labeled Position Funding that connects all stages.

At the top, a gold circle labeled Vacant Position Management represents the start, covering creating, updating, and inactivating positions. An arrow leads to Hiring into a Position, shown in a lighter shade, representing hiring, rehiring, and concurrent hires. Another arrow moves to Filled Position Management, where employee position and job data updates, such as promotions, and reclassifications occur. The final stage, Separating from a Position, involves transfers, terminations, and retirements, leading back to Vacant Position Management to determine if the position remains active.

Definition

The Position Lifecycle represents the journey of a position in UCPath, from vacant to filled, then back to vacant. Different UCPath modules manage different stages, and users may not have visibility into or access to all stages.

Stages in the Lifecycle:

Vacant Position Management – Creating, updating, reusing, or inactivating positions.
Hiring into a Position – Hiring, rehiring, or concurrent hires.
Filled Position Management – Updating employee position and job data, including promotions, reclassifications.
Separating from a Position – Transfers, terminations, retirements.
Position Funding (Ongoing) – Funding is active throughout the lifecycle.

Why It Matters:

Position data impacts payroll, benefits and reporting.
Errors in earlier stages cause problems downstream.
Understanding how each stage connects ensures more accurate data and processing.

Position Management Workflows: Who Owns Each Stage?

Ownership of the lifecycle stages varies significantly based on the department and regional structure. Factors that influence ownership include:

Whether the department has direct UCPath access or must submit requests
The complexity of the transaction (e.g., academic vs. staff positions)
Resource availability within departments and regions

To illustrate these differences, we highlight four common workflows below. However, these are not exhaustive, and you should check with your unit to confirm your specific workflow(s).

Hybrid Workflow - Department and Region Collaboration #1

Who This Applies To:

Departments manage Vacant Position Management and Position Funding.
Regions manage hiring, filled position updates, and separations.
- Departments must request updates with their Regional HR Partner through ticket or email (ERSO).
Common for staff-heavy or mixed departments where regions provide transactional support.

Hybrid Workflow #1 - Department & Region Collaboration. Read image description for details.

The image is a circular flowchart labeled Position Lifecycle - Hybrid Workflow #1, showing how responsibilities are split between departments and regions.

Department Owns: Vacant Position Management (Creating, Updating, Inactivating) Position Funding (Assigning Chartstrings).

Region Owns: Hiring into a Position Filled Position Management (Job Data Changes, Reclassifications) Separating from a Position

Hybrid Workflow - Department and Region Collaboration #2

Who This Applies To:

Regions manage the entire position lifecycle except for Position Funding.
This workflow may apply when positions require centralized oversight due to complexity or limited department resources.

Position Lifecycle - Hybrid Workflow #2. Read image description for details.

This image is a circular flowchart labeled Position Lifecycle - Hybrid Workflow #2, showing that regions manage all lifecycle stages (Vacant Position Management, hiring, Filled Position Management, terminations) except for position funding, which departments own.

Regional End-to-End Workflow

This image is a circular flowchart labeled Position Lifecycle - Regional End-to-End Workflow, showing that regions own all lifecycle stages from Vacant Position Management to Separations.

Who This Applies To:

Units where the Region fully owns Position Management from start to finish.
This may include certain Academic positions with restricted funding, and support for departments with limited resources.
Departments submit requests via ticket or email rather than managing positions directly.

ERSO AP Analysts Workflow

This image is a circular flowchart for ERSO AP Analysts Workflow, showing that AP Analysts in certain ERSO departments own all stages of Position Management, except Payroll Requests and Additional Compensation.

Who This Applies To:

AP Analysts in ERSO who handle all Position Management stages except for Payroll Requests and Additional Compensation.
Provides higher autonomy for ERSO departments with trained analysts.
This is not available for departments in Regions other than ERSO.