Anti-Discrimination Board Listening meeting – Bulletin – 8 July 2015

Anti-Discrimination Board bulletin re listening meeting – 8 July 2015 (PDF version)

Background

The Government Sector Employment (GSE) Act (Section 67) requires all NSW public sector departments and agencies to implement performance management systems.

Your union, the PSA, sees the value in agencies basing performance management systems on the prerequisites of the PSC’s Capability Framework which would provide members with a common foundation to negotiate performance agreements and engage in performance reviews. However, as not all agencies have introduced new role descriptors based on the Capability Framework, there is potential for unfair and inequitable performance management systems to be created within and across agencies.

The PSA is consulting with members through ‘listenings’ so that you can identify concerns and have input into addressing them.

Anti-Discrimination Board – Listening

The PSA, conducted a ‘listening’ with PSA members at the Board on 30 June 2015. Members from the Wollongong and Newcastle Offices participated in the Listening through telephone hook up.

Thank you to all the participants who considered the following questions:

•How can we ensure learning and development is undertaken in a fair and effective way?
•What does a fair and reasonable performance management system look like?
•To successfully resolve unsatisfactory performance, an employee must have…….(finish this sentence).

Outcomes

In summary, members determined that a fair and equitable performance management system must:

• be relevant to the role and transparent;
• have a direct link between the role and skills set;
• be a safe and respectful system – not antagonistic;
• incorporate training and development opportunities which are consistent for everyone with adequate budget funding and ensure baseline training is fundamental;
• provide recognised training courses;
• must make provision for access to training for regional employees;
• provide training opportunities to enhance advancement;
• take the “fear” out of such systems – rather than performance “management” use assessment/appraisal system;
• be specific in the expectations for the role both from management and the employee;
• be developed with transparent consultation with the role holder;
• require unsatisfactory performance to be managed as it occurs, with clear indications of what unsatisfactory and satisfactory benchmarks are, well-defined targets for improvement identified, addressed with support and any necessary training/retraining and an independent assessor involved for cases in dispute;
• incorporate an appeals mechanism;
• provide training for managers/supervisors for their roles and how to implement the system;
• feedback should be regular and constructive and acknowledge strengths as well as weaknesses.

The information collected will be used in the development of the PSA’s position paper on the Performance Management Framework. The PSA’s position paper will be provided to all members when it is completed.