Parramatta Justice Precinct Listening Meeting, Performance Management Framework, 29 July 2015

Parramatta Justice Precinct Bulletin re Listening Meeting held on 29 July (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.

This 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 holding ‘listenings’, where members can identify concerns and have input in addressing them.

Parramatta Justice Precinct (PJP)

Your union, the PSA, conducted a ‘listening’ with PSA members at the PJP on Wednesday, 29 July 2015, giving members unable to attend the first round of meetings a chance to provide feedback.

Thank you to all the participants. Members 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 have:

• training and development programs relevant to the role and which allow for upskilling/advancement
• appropriate budget allocations for training, with equal distribution to all employees
• right of dispute if training budgets are unfairly distributed
• projected training needs and a commitment by management to implement training
• updated and regular training with accredited courses which are widely recognised
• recognition of mandatory qualifications for certain roles and the need to maintain renewals/updates of certain qualifications
• skilled employees with training to the same standards
• consistency for all employees
• expectations which are clearly defined and understood by employees and management, with appropriate training provided to facilitate consistent application
• unsatisfactory performance managed as it occurs, with clear and specific targets for improvement identified, and addressed with support and any necessary training/retraining
• clear definitions of satisfactory and unsatisfactory performance
• regular and constructive feedback and acknowledgement of strengths as well as weaknesses
• an independent reviewer to alleviate personality bias
• restrictions on the release of past performance issues to third parties and access by employee of performance management documentation
• overview facilities by an independent authority of “over” performance management for unsatisfactory performance.

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.