Uni payment backlog left staff crying - report

Staff at Edinburgh University felt blamed for a payment backlog after a new finance system was introduced, a report has said.

There were reports of staff crying at their desks and long-term employees leaving the university as the impact of the IT problems escalated, it said.

The 41-page report, produced for the university by an external consultant, said the challenges that arose during the introduction of the new system had a "profound impact on staff wellbeing".

The university apologised in November last year after 2,000 people signed a letter describing how the backlog had left students, suppliers and staff unpaid, affecting all areas of the business.

The People and Money (P&M) IT system is a centralised HR, payroll and finance system which the university first introduced in November 2020. It was then rolled out completely in 2022.

However, issues in this final phase of the project meant thousands of invoices issued to the university were left outstanding.

The report into the failings noted the "excessive stress" on some members of staff at the university, due to having great volumes of workload.

It said staff faced the challenge of becoming accustomed to a new system while in parallel dealing with a large backlog.

Some members of staff who tried to raise constructive feedback with management felt they were considered disruptive and ignored, the report said.

There were also members of staff dealing with multiple complaints from suppliers, who were not paid due to the IT error, with little guidance on how to deal with the situation, it added.

According to the report, this damaged the university's reputation and led to some suppliers refusing to provide further goods or services.

Legal action was also threatened in some cases.

Lack of trust

The report found that even before the roll out there was division and lack of trust between staff and senior university management, which was "exacerbated" by the new system.

In interviews with staff, it found insufficient training in the lead-up to its roll out was a "constant theme".

"The time available for training was compressed and the content was too narrow to be effective," the report said.

It also found the issues and challenges which arose during the P&M programme still remain.

And it warned there was still a significant amount of work needed to win back trust.

"Staff are unclear if and when things will be resolved causing further concern," the report said.

The University of Edinburgh’s senior leadership team welcomed the report's findings and its recommendations.

It acknowledged that the programme was not implemented in a way that took sufficient account of its responsibilities to staff, students, external partners and suppliers.

"We knew that the programme would be challenging: we did not anticipate the level of difficulty we ultimately had," it said.

It added the third phase of the rollout had been the source of considerable frustration and distress for the university community.

The statement said: "We very much regret this and we are committed to avoiding similar mistakes in future."

In the aftermath of the backlog in 2023 the university paid the IT systems supplier, Inoapps, an extra £8m.

The initial contract advertised in 2017 was worth £14m, which later rose to £25.3m in 2020, before soaring for a third time this year to £33.5m.