DEC Corporate Shared Services Restructure update – May 2016 (PDF version)

Thank you to everyone who responded to our call for feedback on the proposed Corporate Shared Services Transition and People and Services Realignment. The PSA wrote to the Department on 18 February to voice your concerns, and received a written response on 24 February.

Read the PSA’s letter HERE and the Department’s response HERE.

In addition, delegates and PSA staff met with management on 7 March and 21 March, and wrote to the Department again on 26 April to provide further feedback. Read that feedback HERE.

As a result of our discussions during the consultation phase, the PSA was able to secure changes to some of the proposed Role Descriptions and organisational charts. We have also received clarification on a number of points as outlined below.

Stage 1 of the restructure has now commenced, and will impact members in Finance Shared Services, Business Services Operations, Policy, Improvement and Transition, IT Services, Teacher Approvals, and Systems Implementation.

If you work in one of these areas and believe you are affected, but have not been notified, please speak to your manager.

The recruitment process will consist of a number of steps:

1. Direct assignment – only where the role is the same grade, remains ‘substantially the same’, and there are more positions than ongoing employees
2. Suitability determination conducted by either:
3. Director – where there are more available positions than staff; or
4. Panel – where there are more staff than roles
5. Self-matching EOIs
6. Opportunity for excess staff to submit EOIs
7. External advertisement.

As a result of our discussions, we can confirm:

• Where there are more positions than staff, it should be possible to fill these via direct assignment or matching

• There is no percentage or threshold for determining whether a position can be direct-assigned. The Department says the old role descriptions were very generic, whereas the new ones are specific, which makes matching difficult

• There is an independent ‘Change Coordination Team’ responsible for determining which roles can be direct-assigned, rather than individual Directors

• You will be able to submit a single application to cover multiple roles during the suitability determination stage

• There will be one Suitability Panel convened for each functional area. The Director/s (or their delegate) will sit on these

• If you are matched to more than one role, you will be asked to give your preference

• If you are not placed during the first two stages, you will be able to self-match via EOI in stage 3

• There will be no option for early VRs. Staff will not be declared excess until all stages of the placement process have been completed

• There is no formal change document. The PSA has been chasing the Department to provide us with one for months now.

In the meantime, the role descriptions, organisation charts, placement process, and FAQs available on your intranet contain all of the information about the restructure and how it will impact staff.

What can you do?

Encourage your colleagues to join the PSA and/or members’ meetings at every opportunity.  Issues of concern should be raised with your workplace delegates or through the PSA’s Member Support Centre on 1300 772 679.