Academic Development and Performance Review Procedures

This document applies to all permanent and fixed-term academic staff members who are employed for more than 0.2 FTE.

To outline the process that applies to the conduct of the Academic Development and Performance Review (ADPR).

1. Development and performance review meetings must be conducted at least annually as outlined in the ADPR policy.

Note: New permanent staff members will have objectives agreed for continuation purposes within six months of appointment. These objectives may be amended if necessary at subsequent ADPR meetings. Fixed-term staff should have objectives agreed at their first ADPR meeting if they have not been agreed prior to this. For more information on objective setting see the ADPR Practice Notes.

2. ADPR meetings should be held no later than 12 months after the last review. Staff members who are eligible for a salary review through the Associate Professor, Professor and PTF4 Salary Review process must be reviewed in the three month period prior to the AP, P & PTF4 process commencing (currently this means these staff must reviewed in the period December-February).

3. At each ADPR meeting, the academic head or delegate should discuss with the staff member:

• The staff member’s immediate and longer term career aspirations and how the development and review process can positively assist the professional development of the staff member
• new objectives proposed for the coming year/s and how these meet the staff member’s career aspirations and the strategic goals of the academic unit/faculty/University
• progress against the agreed objectives set in the previous ADPR meeting and any matters that may have arisen in relation to achievement of those objectives
• when/if they wish to apply for promotion/research and study leave
• workload ratio
• what support may be available in order for the staff member to be successful in the implementation of objectives and/or career goals
• actions to be agreed on for the coming year (these are actions the staff member or the academic head will take in order to support the achievement of objectives and career goals)
• actions to be taken should performance not be deemed to be satisfactory

4. The staff member may bring another person with them to the meeting (mentor, support person). Should a staff member wish to do this they must notify the academic head or delegate of their intention prior to the meeting.

5. The outcome of these discussions should be captured in Career Tools*. More information on conducting effective ADPR meetings can be found in the ADPR Practice Notes.

6. Academic heads are responsible for ensuring that all eligible academic staff members have a development and performance review meeting.

7. Deans will conduct the reviews of academic heads, and provide input into the reviews of academic staff in other faculty leadership roles where appropriate.

Delegation

8. Academic heads of large units may choose to delegate the ADPR process for some staff under the following conditions:

• academic heads must conduct the reviews for all pre-continuation staff
• delegates must be willing to undertake designated development activities prior to becoming delegates for the first time
• in order to ensure consistency it is desirable that delegates are assigned to the same staff member/s for a period of at least two years
• academic heads and delegates must discuss any potential conflict of interest
• in the case where academic heads are not conducting the ADPRs for research fellows and senior research fellows who are funded by research grants, or are on any other form of short term funding, the principal investigator should not be the default delegate
• academic heads need to meet with delegates once the ADPR meetings assigned to delegates have been completed to ensure they have an understanding of the outcomes of all the ADPR meetings in their unit.

9. More information on effective delegation and the role of the delegate can be found in the ADPR Practice Notes.

Fixed term agreements

10. Staff members on fixed-term agreements are entitled to meet with their academic head or the head’s delegate to discuss their development and performance on an annual basis.

Past ADPR discussions

11. For reasons of consistency and to ensure that agreed actions are implemented, information from past ADPR discussions will be available to academic heads or their delegates.

* Staff will be able to use the University’s electronic learning and performance management system, Career Tools, for this purpose rather than Word forms

The following definitions apply to this document:

Academic head covers heads of departments, schools and other teaching and research units at Level 3 (and level 4 for FMHS) in the University Organisation Structure.

Staff member refers to an individual employed by the University on a full or part time basis.

University means the University of Auckland and includes all subsidiaries.

Include the following:

• Academic Staff Collective Agreement or Individual Employment Agreement as applicable
• Academic Standards for Research Fellows, Senior Research Fellows, Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Associate Professors, Professors, Professional Teaching Fellows, and Senior Tutors
• Academic Development and Performance Review Policy
• Associate Professor and Professor Salary Review Policy
• Continuation Policy and Procedures
• Academic Staff Professional Development Policy and Procedures
• Equity Policy
• Merit Relative to Opportunity Policy
• Conflict of Interest Policy

Content manager: Associate Director; HR Advisory

Owner: Director of Human Resources

Approved by: The Vice-Chancellor

Approval date: 16 February 2024

Review date: 16 February 2026