INTRODUCTION
Our company acknowledges that professional development is integral to personal job satisfaction, workplace productivity, reward, and recognition, and is critical to the achievement of the organisation’s mission and continuous improvement in the quality of its programs and services.
Our company is committed to providing a supportive and rewarding environment for employees and recognises that the quality, responsiveness, and professionalism of its workforce are linked to the further development of their skills and competencies.
Our company is, as far as is feasible within its available resources, committed to providing employees with
- The opportunity to plan and develop skills, knowledge and attributes that complement organisational and work unit goals
- The opportunity to participate in career development activities that extend and enhance their capabilities and capacity for advancement within the organisation
- Equity of access to professional development opportunities.
PURPOSE
This policy seeks to balance the needs of staff for professional development, the needs of the organisation for properly qualified staff, and the need to staff the organisation’s services.
The purpose of this policy is:
- to encourage and support employees in their professional and career development as part of their employment with the organisation;
- to provide administrative guidelines to facilitate fairness and equity in the application of these general principles.
POLICY
Position-specific professional development
Where the CEO decides that it is necessary for a staff member to acquire a particular skill, to learn specific material, or to acquire specific qualifications in order for them to carry out the duties attached to their existing position, the organisation shall be fully responsible for all costs incurred in acquiring that skill, that learning, or that qualification, and the staff member shall, where necessary, be given permission to attend any such course within working hours.
It would normally be expected that any such requirements would have been taken into account in the drawing up of a position description and set out in the criteria for selection; it would thus seldom be the case that continuing employees would be required to acquire new qualifications.
Non-position-specific professional development
In its performance review procedures the organisation shall in every case encourage the person concerned to explore their available professional development options. Where an employee wishes to pursue further education or training but the CEO has not required that person to acquire a particular skill, to learn specific material, or to acquire specific qualifications to carry out the duties attached to their existing position, the organisation shall endeavour to facilitate such education or training through
- permitting (at the discretion of the CEO, and taking into account the efficiency of the workplace) any rearrangement of working hours that would assist such development
- permitting (at the discretion of the CEO, and taking into account the efficiency of the workplace) any use by the person of the organisation’s equipment or services that would assist in that development
- permitting (at the discretion of the CEO, and taking into account the efficiency of the workplace) any annual leave or unpaid leave arrangements that would assist in that development
- granting up to two days study leave as necessary to attend examinations.
Educational or training requirements involving reimbursement of fees or provision of paid study leave may also be negotiated as part of the contract of employment between the employee and the organisation.
RESPONSIBILITIES
It shall be the responsibility of the Board to authorise an appropriate expenditure budget to facilitate appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.
It shall be the responsibility of the CEO to ensure that staff are offered and permitted appropriate professional development opportunities, taking into account the needs and of the individual as well as the organisation.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development programs shall be taken to include orientation, induction and on-the-job training, career development and transition programs, internal or external courses, support for undertaking research or project work, support for participation in internal or external governance processes, attendance at conferences or seminars, and networking, coaching and mentoring programs.
PROPOSALS FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Employees shall be encouraged as part of the performance review process to take an active role in their own ongoing professional and career development and to apply their learning to its most effective use.
Any proposal by an employee for any change in their existing conditions of employment (hours of work, taking of leave, use of equipment, etc.) to facilitate their professional development shall be considered by the CEO subject to:
- the policy of the organisation to encourage such development where possible;
- the overall training needs and priorities of the organisation;
- satisfactory assurances from that person’s supervisor that the business of the organisation can be carried on satisfactorily in those circumstances; and
- equity in the provision of such facilitation between employees.
Any such agreement shall be fully documented in that person’s personnel file.