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Texas Payroll/Personnel Resource

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General Provisions
State of Texas Employment History Application

Background

The Comptroller’s office has developed a secure web-based application to assist human resource officers of state agencies and institutions of higher education in researching state of Texas employment history.

Details

The State of Texas Employment History application (login required):

  • Is only available to human resource officers authorized by agencies or institutions of higher education to access the information and must be used for official work purposes only.
  • Calls data directly from these Comptroller payroll/personnel systems:
    • Human Resource Information System (HRIS).
    • Standardized Payroll/Personnel Reporting System (SPRS) (this includes CAPPS HR/payroll data).
    • Uniform Statewide Payroll/Personnel System (USPS).
  • Only returns historical data:
    • Reported to HRIS, SPRS (includes CAPPS HR/Payroll data) and USPS.
      – or –
    • Provided by the employing agency when these systems first became available.
  • Returns data for viewing that includes:
    • Employee name.
    • Agency.
    • Effective date of hire.
    • Effective date of termination.
    • Termination reason code.
    • Functional description of termination reason code.
    • Salary.
    • Job classification.
  • Requires the authorized requestor searching for an individual to provide one of the required individual identifiers:
    • Nine-digit Social Security number.
      – or –
    • 11-digit Texas identification number.

Status and Limitations of the Information

The state employment record displayed in the employment history application represents the final or current information reported by each entity that employed the individual being searched.

Information on the employment history of state employees is based solely on data reported by Texas state agencies and institutions of higher education to the Comptroller’s HRIS, SPRS and USPS payroll and personnel systems.

The timeliness and accuracy of the information submitted by agencies and institutions is the result of each individual entity’s policies and practices. As employment records may be routinely updated, an “as of” date is provided to record the current status of the employment history.

Limitations of the employment history application’s data include:

  • Exclusion of older employment records that precede the use of the current Comptroller payroll and personnel systems.
  • Lack of salary data for institution of higher education employment.
  • Limited or no reporting for certain data elements and employee classes as allowed by state statute.

Note: The application returns blank fields for data elements that have not been reported to the Comptroller’s payroll and personnel systems.

The application does not present:

  • Promotions.
  • Job reclassifications.
  • Merit increases.
  • Other personnel actions.

Prior State Employment Verification

Due to potentially inaccurate or incomplete information provided by the application, agencies and institutions must still verify employment history with the previous employing agency or institution, or the successor of an abolished agency, to confirm prior state employment for state entitlements including longevity pay, hazardous duty pay and leave accruals.

The information in the application can be used to identify potential prior state employment that an applicant fails to report. However, state agencies and institutions of higher education must continue to review employment data provided by each applicant and document employment verification with any state agency and institution identified.

Important note: As discussed in Status and Limitations of the Information, not all prior state employment is available in the application.

Confidentiality of Retirement Information

Information on retirees or retirement status held by the Comptroller’s office is confidential and may not be released, per:

  • Government Code, Sections 552.0038(c) and 815.503(a) (Employees Retirement System)
  • Section 825.507(a) (Teacher Retirement System)

Requests for this information should be referred to the Comptroller’s Open Records Division at open.records@cpa.texas.gov. To respond appropriately to a request, the Comptroller’s office coordinates with ERS or TRS and, depending on the information requested, the referring entity.

Security Access

Agencies and institutions must determine the appropriate staff to be granted access to the employment history information available in the State of Texas Employment History Application. Access should be limited to human resource officers with a business need to review specific employment-related data.

Appropriate staff members must go through their agency security coordinators to request access to the application.

Note to security coordinators: The State of Texas Employment History Application is listed in the Web Application section of the Security Request form.

For More Information

For questions on an individual’s employment information beyond what is provided in the employment history application, use the agency name link associated with each record in the application to locate the designated human resource officer contact for the appropriate agency.

For questions on the State of Texas Employment History Application, contact your Comptroller’s office HR/payroll contact:

  • HR/Payroll Agency Services — HRIS help desk (512) 463-4008
  • SPRS and CAPPS authorized support staff help desk (512) 463-2277
  • Contact lists: SPRS; HRIS; CAPPS Agency Support