Academic Employee Career Development

Supervisors should meet with staff regularly throughout the year to provide informal and constructive feedback on progress towards goals, objectives, and outcomes and discuss career progress. Supervisors and staff should agree on the regularity of their meetings.

At a minimum, academic supervisors and staff should meet at least once per year in addition to the annual review meeting (the mid-year check-in) to review progress, establish new or revise existing goals or objectives and to recommend development activities where required. Formal documents are not required for this meeting unless requested by the supervisor.

At any time during the year the supervisor may request a review meeting where the supervisor considers there may be performance issues. In this case, the staff member and supervisor will meet to discuss those concerns and agree on a reasonable period for improvement. Similarly, at any time a staff member may request a meeting with their supervisor to discuss career goals, progress, plans and request professional development.

A probationary staff member’s progress through the specified probationary period and the goals that are to be met are managed through the Academic Employee Career Development (AECD) cycle. 
There may be specific conditions related to a Letter of Offer and individuals should reference this as part of this process.

See  Academic Employee Probation Procedure

The academic supervisor is expected to provide ongoing, regular, and constructive feedback to staff, advise on development options and relevant career support, and provide overall comments on the staff member’s performance.

The academic manager, usually a Head of Element or Research Centre Director provides clear direction to staff and supervisors on expected deliverables and annual indicators for the School/Department/Centre/Institute, including communicating Group-specific requirements, and support staff for high performance. The academic manager approves work profile changes, recommendations on performance assessments, and provides comments on staff members’ overall performance.

This is no longer a requirement for your AECD conversation. However, the Academic Portfolio document is used for Academic Promotion and Academic Studies Program and therefore it is important to keep up to date.  You may wish to discuss the development of your Academic Portfolio with your supervisor as part of your development planning.

Yes, your Academic Supervisor will not have access to your individual Dashboard. To download a copy:

Click Download > Choose PDF > Choose Specific sheets from this workbook > Select all workbooks. (Ensure the page size is set to A4 and Landscape.)

Details regarding your SET and SEC are available in your Academic Dashboard.  Please provided a PDF copy of your Academic Dashboard to your Academic Supervisor.

This form aims to focus and plan for successful performance. If poor performance arises, or early signs of performance or career derailment are evidenced, this needs to be discussed and managed directly with the employee (with support and guidance from the HR (Human Resources) Business Partners if required).

Performance concerns need to be directly raised and addressed with the employee as they arise, which means there should be no new or additional performance concerns or data introduced at the mid- or end point reviews.

Actions, outcomes, and progress can be noted in the mid-point review or the end-of-year summary comments but the template itself is not the vehicle to raise and reflect performance concerns, only to summarise them if they arise.

If you have concerns regarding a staff members performance, please consult with your Head of School, Dean (Academic), or HR Business Partners.

Performance concerns need to be directly raised and addressed with the employee as they arise, which means there should be no new or additional performance concerns or data introduced at the mid- or end point reviews.

Unsatisfactory performance will be managed in accordance with the Academic Staff Enterprise Agreement.  At all stages of the processes, the principles of procedural fairness shall apply.  Staff are entitled to be represented by a nominated representative or support person at any stage of the process.

In addition to the supervisor’s comments on the AECD form, a staff member may provide their own comments on the AECD form.

Where performance is assessed as unsatisfactory, the process will be managed in accordance with the Clause 33. Unsatisfactory Performance Management in the Academic Staff Enterprise Agreement.