'Override Position Data' and 'Use Position Data' Option in Job Data Page

Almost everyday we see this option on the Job data page but not everyone of us know the functionality associated with this button especially if one is entry level PeopleSoft Analyst.

Well, to begin with, I would say this option is applicable only when our company is using full or partial position data management system and it has a significant impact on Employee's Job information when it's in 'Use Position Data' mode.

This button toggles between two labels 'Override Position Data' and 'Use Position Data' and both have specific significance. This button works as a switch, if the switch is on i.e the label turned to 'Override Position Data' then the changes done in the position through Position Data Page (Navigation: main > Organization Development > Position management > Maintain Positions/Budgets > Add/Update Position Info) will be fed into Job Data page for all the incumbents of that position.
But if the switch is off i.e the label turned to 'Use Position Data' then the changes done in the position through Position Data Page will not have any impact into Job Data page for any of the incumbents of that position in which case the incumbent's data in the Job Data page has to be updated manually to maintain the data integrity.

The button becomes available only on the new rows of data or when the page is in correct history mode.

The first time when the details are opened in Job Data page for an employee, the label of button is displayed as 'Override Position Data' and all the other fields such as Department,  Business Unit, Location etc... are unavailable for entry which indicates that the page is in 'Use Position Data' mode (Switch is on) and the changes made in Position data will be fed into Job Data page. When the button is clicked, the label is changed to 'Use Position Data' and all the fields such as Department,  Business Unit, Location etc... are available for entry which indicates that the page is in 'Override Position Data' mode (Switch is off) and the changes made in Position Data page will not be fed into Job Data page until the button is clicked again.

But why do we have such a button in the first place ?

There are scenarios when all the incumbents of a position might have different salary grades than the standard grade that is associated with the position. Hence the Grade field need to be overridden at employee level  So, when the position is assigned to a worker, most of the fields including Salary Grade in Job Data page are defaulted but the HR can still click on Override Position Data button and can override the Grade field to select the new grade.

Understand how the changes done in Position Data page Impact Employee's Job Data

So far it all looks theory and might be bouncing off your head hence I have to explain it in such a way that even someone who just started their career in PeopleSoft could understand this entire theory. we will take an employee for example and do a transaction to understand how the changes done in Position Data are fed into Job Data.Lets assume that your company is using fully position data management, Now follow below steps:

Step 1:  Pick an employee and their position

Pick any active employee and open their job details from Job Data page (Navigation: Main > WFA > Job Information > Job Data). Copy the position number assigned to this employee. Be default, the button's label will be 'Override Position Data' which means the switch is on.

Step 2: Make some changes in the Position Data

Open the position details from Position Data page (Navigation: Main > Organizational Development > Position Management >Add/Update Position Info) of the above copied position. Add a new row in this page, change the salary grade then click on save.

Step 3: Check if position data changes have been fed into Job Data

Open the employee's job data again from Job Data page and see if a new row with the same effective date as of Position Data has been added here with a particular Action and Action Reason.

Above exercise has been done while the switch was on i.e button's label was kept as 'Override Position Data' but, what if this switch was off while doing the above exercise ? 

The Answer would be, If the switch was off i.e button's label was kept as 'Use Position Data then after making changes in Position Data (Step 1 & 2) when you open the Job Data page to see if the changes have been fed into Job Data (Step 3), You would have found that the changes have not been fed into job data