The University's continued focus is to embed a performance culture in which staff are empowered to act responsibly, be held accountable for their actions, and be rewarded for performance excellence. This is a key component of ACU's Strategic Plan 2015-2020, which aims to sustain ACU's reputation as a University of excellence, where the goals and objectives of the University, including student, stakeholder and regulatory outcomes, are met.
For further information on the Strategic Plan 2015-2020 can be accessed via this website.
A range of strategies, frameworks, processes and systems have been developed to support staff and supervisors achieve optimum performance.
The Academic Workload Policy became effective on 1 January, 2015. This Policy outlines information about academic availability, academic work, Academic Career Pathways (ACP), and, the management of academic workload allocation. The Policy also implements the [relevant] provisions of the ACU Staff Enterprise Agreement 2017 – 2021.
The Policy introduced changes to the process for the allocation of a research workload and establishes the basis for requesting and being allocated a research workload allocation from 2015 onwards. The Policy is used in association with the Research Performance Review and Plan (RPRP) Guidelines.
Supporting processes, such as the Academic Performance Review and Planning program, have been implemented to enable the planning and assessment of an individual's work performance in the context of Academic Workload arrangements, and to ensure continuous improvement.
There may be times when it is not possible to provide additional work to an Academic Staff member who has the capacity and capability to take on additional work – i.e. the staff member is not able to be assigned a complete annual workload – resulting in them being under load.
It is important to clarify what is meant by under load – this normally occurs when a staff member is not able to be allocated a full annual workload allocation of 1595 hours.
The Consultation/Conversation Guide assists supervisors and Academic Staff by providing a range of options for consideration as well as information about the people management processes - how to prepare and approach the discussion, who is involved, options to explore, approval processes and how discussions and decisions are recorded and implemented.