Position Descriptions
Position descriptions are documents which describe the duties and responsibilities of a position at the University and follow a common general format to ensure uniformity, ease of job evaluation and to assist in recruitment, selection, employee development and performance management activities.
The University provides a position description to all employees to ensure that they have a clear understanding of work objectives and position requirements; and to ensure that a sound basis is provided for recruitment, selection, employee development and performance management purposes. Employees are entitled to have access to the most recent copy of the approved position description for their position.
Position descriptions are drafted in faculties or sections and forwarded to Human Resources for editing. Once a position description has been edited by Human Resources it is returned to the faculty/section for confirmation by the Category 4 Delegate or nominee. The Category 4 Delegate or above is accountable for ensuring that position descriptions in their area of responsibility are current and accurate. When any aspect of a position has changed significantly, the position description should be amended and forwarded to Human Resources.
Academic employees
For Academic Levels A to E, generic position descriptions will normally be used, and may be supplemented by additional documentation. For research or other unique positions, a specific position description may be prepared and must be in line with the generic position description.
Professional employees
When a professional employee position is to be filled or reviewed, the position description will be developed in the faculty or section using the standard template provided by Human Resources developed in accordance with the University's functional job stream framework.
Functional Job Stream Framwork
A 'job function' is a grouping of the major corporate functions across positions at the University involving work that is functionally of the same nature, but requiring different skill and responsibility levels across roles within the particular grouping. Within an identified function, there is normally a number of 'job streams' to recognise discipline/professional specialities. Where applicable, each professional staff position at USQ is identified as belonging to a specified job function and stream with clearly defined knowledge, skills and abilities required at each level within the particular grouping.
In relation to position descriptions, the functional job stream framework recommends that selection criteria for positions at USQ will be constituted of four elements:
- Required selection criteria (1 criterion)
- Job function selection criteria (no more than 2 criteria)
- Specialist/technical (job stream) selection criteria (no more than 2 criteria)
- Core/generic selection criteria (no more than 5 criteria)
The mix of selection criteria between job function, specialist/technical (job stream) and core/generic may vary depending upon the individual role, however should not exceed a combined total maximum of 8 criteria for any position, with an ideal range of 6-7 criteria. The key selection criteria framework (DOC 156kb) contains the description of the expected level of knowledge, skills and abilities at each classification level for required, job function, job stream and core/generic criteria.
The position description template (DOC 72kb) for professional employee positions indicates the standard USQ format and statements for all position descriptions.
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