Academic Staff - Annual Performance and Development
Performance development at The University of Queensland strives to support all staff in their development journey in the pursuit of excellence.
Provided below is a message from Professor Deborah Terry AO, Vice-Chancellor and President, launching the Annual Performance and Development (APD) process.
Click on the following to learn more about the different elements of APD.
In this video Professor Deborah Terry AO (Vice-Chancellor and President) and Professor Aidan Byrne (Provost) explain the Academic Annual Performance and Development process.
At UQ, performance and development is an ongoing process between a staff member and their Supervisor that includes:
- goal setting
- regular conversations, and
- a formal annual review process.
All continuing and fixed-term academic staff employed for more than one (1) year are required to participate in the APD process.
Please note, continuing academic staff on a three-year probationary period will continue to use the legacy process until further advised.
The process supports you in your performance and development by:
- Focusing on your career and professional development goals and needs.
- Clarifying work priorities and expectations aligned with the Criteria for Academic Performance.
- Reflecting on your performance and academic contributions through a range of different mechanisms.
- Exchanging of feedback.
- Recognising your contributions and efforts.
Anticipated benefits of APD include:
- Improving the quality of performance and development conversations with a view to supporting broader recognition of academic activity.
- Providing tools and prompts for longer-term career advice.
- Ensuring the process is fit for all academics, irrespective of level and job family.
- Providing mechanisms to support supervisors to make informed and consistent performance evaluations.
- Capturing performance and career development information consistently over time.
- Providing visibility for Heads/EDs/IDs over outcomes in their organisational unit: including goal setting, developmental commitments and career aspirations.
- A streamlined and user-friendly process.
The key dates and actions required for academic staff (Level A-E) are:
Prior to APD process | Conclude the 2021 appraisal using the existing annual process (forms below) against the legacy Criteria for Academic Performance:
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October 2021 – January 2022 | APD process commences - staff receive a notification to start this process via Workday.
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~ May 2022 | A mid-year check in is encouraged to review progress against goals and development areas. This is an informal process and provides opportunity to update and add goals or record progress via Workday. |
October 2022 - January 2023 | Full APD process commences including the 'year in review' and 'year ahead' process
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For further information on APD, read the Academic Annual Performance and Development Policy and Procedure [5.70.15].
The Individual Activity Profile (IAP) is a 'one-stop-shop' that provides each academic staff member with a suite of data articulating their academic contribution and output relevant to academic achievement.
From 2020 onwards, it is expected that continuing and fixed-term academic staff will use their IAPs in their APD reviews where practical.
View your Individual Activity Profile (staff login required)
Training videos
Detailed training videos have been developed to help staff members and academic supervisors understand the IAPs and how they can be used in the performance development process.
Role of the staff member
Each person is responsible for driving their own development journey at UQ. To get the most from the APD process, it is recommended that you:
- Draft your goals (PDF, 119.3 KB) and gather the relevant material ahead of the APD conversation with your Supervisor. Submit this via Workday ahead of the conversation.
- Proactively book time with your Supervisor to discuss and plan next year’s goals.
- Consider the development opportunities or career aspirations you might wish to discuss with your Supervisor.
- Reflect on opportunities to contribute to the broader organisational unit or University strategy (PDF, 75 KB).
- Enter into the APD conversation with a Growth Mindset ready to share and listen.
Role of the Supervisor
The role of the Supervisor is critical in the Annual Performance and Development (APD) process. As a Supervisor you will:
- Prepare for the APD conversation by reviewing the staff member's goals for the year and considering alignment (PDF, 75 KB) with broader organisational unit / University objectives.
- Schedule the APD conversation with your staff.
- Jointly reflect on the past year's achievements in the context of identifying priority areas for the year to come.
- Plan for the coming year through goal setting (PDF, 119.3 KB) to align with the Criteria for Academic Performance domain areas.
- Use coaching questions to draw out development areas.
- Connect regularly with your staff member throughout the year (noting that one mid-year check-in is the minimum number of recommended connections outside of the formal APD conversation).
Use these discussions to:
- Track the achievement of goals and refine as needed.
- Share, request or discuss feedback.
- Provide support or guidance on career and development objectives.
Policy and Procedure
Performance Toolkit
Performance
Preparing for the APD conversation module (PDF, 116.5 KB)
Conducting the APD conversation module (PDF, 130 KB)
Feedback module (PDF, 137.1 KB)
Difficult conversations module (PDF, 116.7 KB)
Development
Coaching module (PDF, 128.9 KB)
Academic Goal Library (PDF, 619.8 KB)
Executive Goal Library (PDF, 405 KB)
SMART goal module (PDF, 141.1 KB)
Goal planning module (PDF, 119.3 KB)
Goal alignment module (PDF, 140.3 KB)
Frequently asked questions
APD Support
APD Process
Leadership Development
The Leading Annual Performance and Development course is available either online or face-to-face (at St Lucia, Herston, Gatton, TRI, PACE, and Long Pocket) across two cohorts of UQ supervisors:
Cohort 1 | Cohort 2 | |
| Target Audience | Managers and Supervisors including:
| Managers and Supervisors including:
|
| Enrol today |
Workday training
2022 Goal setting in Workday (4:32)
2022 Goal setting in Workday including Supervisor review steps (6:09)
How to update supporting APD documents in Workday (PDF, 1 MB)
APD Roadshow Materials
Latest news
Leading Annual Performance and Development is here!
All supervisors can now join Leading Annual Performance and Development either online or face-to-face. To enrol, please visit Workday and search ‘Leading Annual Performance and Development’ to find the workshop under the Learning category. Then select the cohort relevant to you and whether you would like to participate online or in person. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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