Recruitment in Schools

Workforce profile

Effective workforce planning produces a simple and meaningful tool to assist decision making and to implement good staff management practices. A key element of a school’s workforce plan is its workforce profile which underpins all recruitment, transfer and promotion decisions made within the school. The preferred workforce profile is determined taking into account the school strategic plan, legislative requirements, state-wide curriculum or other guidelines, and funding available in the Student Resource Package (SRP).

The profile should reflect goals and priorities as described in the school strategic plan and may change as goals and priorities alter. The staffing profile must be able to be fully funded within the SRP and will outline the:

• leadership profile, including assistant principal and leading teacher and learning specialist positions
• mix of full and part-time positions having regard to the needs of employees and students
• mix of ongoing and fixed term employment
• mix of teaching and non-teaching staff

As vacancies arise staffing decisions should be made in the context of the school’s preferred workforce profile. The duties of a position may be redesigned on vacancy, or by agreement with the incumbent or when establishing new positions or working arrangements within the school. When doing so, a principal must ensure that the classification level (and range where relevant) of a position is fixed at a level appropriate to the roles and responsibilities of the position.

Where it is proposed to vary the duties of existing employees, local consultation will need to occur within the context of the terms and conditions of employment of the employees affected by the proposed variation.

For guidance on workforce planning, visit Workforce Planning for Schools.

Leadership profile

The leadership profile of a school should represent at least 20 per cent of the teaching staff of the school where practicable having regard to the resources available to the school. This means that at least 20 per cent of the total teaching profile are classified as Principal, Assistant Principal, Leading Teacher and Learning Specialist.