In accordance with the University's commitment to social inclusion and in recognition of the growing diversity within its workforce, Monash incorporates the principle of ‘assessing achievement relative to opportunity' within all employment-related policies and processes.
The University recognises that staff contribute to its vision of excellence in diverse ways. It also recognises that many staff today have a range of personal circumstances, required working arrangements and career histories that challenge our ideas of the traditional academic worker. Many academic staff:
- have carer responsibilities for children, elderly parents or family members with a disability or illness;
- experience ill-health or have a disability or ongoing medical condition;
- have experienced career interruptions relating to parental leave, time out for work in another field and/or late entry to academia.
Achievement relative to opportunity is an evaluative framework in which there is a positive acknowledgement of what a staff member can or has achieved given the opportunities available to him or her. The approach gives more weight to the overall quality and impact of achievements rather than the quantity, rate or breadth of particular achievements which in many instances are directly related to time available rather than talent, merit or excellence.
Assessing achievements relative to opportunity involves calculating the overall time available for a given period and then measuring the performance of staff in light of this time. This approach enables a more nuanced and contextual assessment of achievements rather than placing undue emphasis on the quantity, rate or breadth of achievements over a defined period. This approach applies to:
- Recruitment
- Confirmation of an appointment following a period of probation
- Performance development
- Promotion
During recruitment, confirmation of appointment, performance development and promotion, staff should be encouraged to disclose any personal circumstances, working arrangements and career histories that may have reduced opportunities (time available) to achieve. These disclosures should allow for a calculation of overall time available. Once this is calculated, appropriate consideration can then be given to:
- The quantum or rate of productivity
- The opportunity to participate in certain activities, and/or
- The output produced over a defined period.
Assessing achievement relative to opportunity involves considering productivity relative to the actual time and specific opportunities available to the individual while maintaining a focus on pertinent performance standards, especially those relating to the quality and impact of the work. In this way, the candidate can be assessed on an individual basis in terms of how well they meet the relevant expectations and not on a comparative basis with other individuals in the pool, where the tendency may be to privilege the person with the "most merit".
Example (Family Responsibilities)
Table 1 provides information on a staff member's employment between March 2008 and March 2011. This includes appointment type and equivalent months worked. During this period, the staff member worked a total of 13.2 months. Table 2 provides information on the number of publications produced during the same time frame. The supervisor was able to assess achievement relative to opportunity by comparing the relevant faculty or discipline-specific research performance standards and the staff member's output on a pro-rata basis.
Table 1
Period | Appointment | Working Months |
March 2008- August 2008 | Maternity Leave | 0 |
September 2008- September 2010 | 0.5 Fractional Appointment | 0.5 x 24 = 12 |
October 2010- March 2011 | 0.2 Fractional Appointment | 0.2 x 6 = 1.2 |
TOTAL | 13.2 |
Table 2
Year | Books | Journals | International refereed | National refereed | Total publications |
2008 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
2009 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
2010 | 3 | 3 | 6 | ||
2011 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
Other examples
- A member of staff works part-time because of caring responsibilities (he has a teenage son with a mental illness). In his annual performance development review and planning discussion, he and his supervisor negotiate ways in which he can continue to be involved in a number of committees, teach on a pro-rata basis and develop his research profile consistent with his academic level and part-time status. It is acknowledged that the quantity of work produced will be less than a full-time staff member and he is not penalised for the reduced breadth of activities.
- A staff member with significant caring responsibilities for a son with a physical disability develops an exciting research proposal as the basis for an Outside Study Programme application with the work to be undertaken in Melbourne. The OSP Committee agrees that her application is strong and that her research and the work of her department would be significantly enhanced without travelling overseas.
- A female staff member returns to work after 12 months maternity leave. Her research productivity declines during and in the 12 month period after this leave. Upon her return to work, she is actively supported to re-establish research projects and networks through such things as teaching relief and child care support for conference attendance. In her promotion application a few years later, the leave time and the 12 month period following leave is taken into account when her overall productivity for the past 7 years is assessed.
- A staff member with a chronic health condition is limited in her capacity to attend and present at international conferences. This staff member lists a small but appropriate number of publications in good quality journals and has a high citation rate. When being assessed for promotion, the academic promotions committee determines that the applicant has demonstrated the appropriate quality and impact of performance in the overall criterion of "research" and the staff member is not penalised for having a relatively lower output of conference presentations.
- A staff member experienced a significant illness for two of the seven years they spent at senior lecturer level. In his application for promotion to associate professor level, the academic promotions committee takes a ‘whole of career' approach and assesses the application favourably, acknowledging that the candidate has demonstrated performance of a requisite quality although output during the two years of ill-health had been reduced.
- A part-time professional staff member applying for a position at a higher HEW level demonstrates that her achievements are consistent, on a pro rata basis, with the expectations of performance that apply at that level to full time members of staff.
- A professional staff member competes for a higher level position. They more than meet the selection criteria and have highly relevant employment experience, despite having had significant time out of the workplace for caring responsibilities and some periods of working part time. The panel takes the applicant's employment history into account when assessing their achievements and relevant experience and determines they are the best person for the role, despite the fact that another applicant with an unbroken career path on full time hours had a greater opportunity to accrue merit.