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Establish or review a role's classification level using the Queensland Shared Services (QSS) Job Evaluation Management System (JEMS).
JEMS is a methodology that facilitates unbiased, consistent, and systematic classification of roles across a wide range of occupational groups (e.g. administration, technical, professional) within the Queensland Government.
Trained evaluators use this methodology to determine a role's work value score. This score is then used to give an appropriate classification level for the role within its occupational group.
If you're unsure whether your agency uses this service or if JEMS is appropriate for your situation, refer to your agency’s policies and guidelines. Find this information on your intranet or check with your HR team. Your HR team may need to approve your request before you submit it to QSS.
You should request an evaluation if it's:
To establish or review a role's classification level, you must provide an approved, current role description (also referred to as a position or job description).
This description must be attached to the Job evaluation request; your form will not be processed without a role description.
In addition to the role description, you may also need:
It can be difficult to select the right language to define objectives and accountabilities. For example, does the position assist, lead, supervise, manage, or oversee others?
Use our glossary of terms and definitions for help.
You do not have to propose a classification. You can leave this for the QSS JEMS team to determine.
If you do want to propose a classification level, consider the classification generic level statements, and ensure they align with your role and the classification you intend to propose.
If you do propose a classification, and our initial evaluation is not meeting your proposal, we’ll contact you and give you an opportunity to revise the proposal or amend the information provided.
Generic level statements provide guidance on the work level description, characteristics of the work, duties and skills for each classification level in the administration and operational stream, as well as employees engaged in the Aircrew stream, Agriculture and Fisheries in the Forestry stream and in the Hospitality stream.
Refer to these statements for help determining your role’s proposed classification level.
Find these under Schedule 1 - Generic Level Statements in the General Employees (Queensland Government Departments) and other Employees Award - State 2015.
Example: Administrative office, level 3 (AO3)
Work at this level usually requires relevant experience combined with a broad knowledge of the agency's functions and activities, and a sound knowledge of the major activities performed within the work area. The work may include preparing preliminary reports, papers and correspondence which usually relate to a specific organisational function or discipline, providing or interpreting information for clients or other interested parties and general administrative support to senior officers.
Supervisory responsibilities may involve some complex operational work and may involve assisting with, or reviewing the work undertaken by, subordinates or team members.
Scope exists for exercising initiative in the application of established work practices and procedures although this level may require expertise to resolve issues within a day-to-day environment for which there may not be clearly established procedures.
Effective judgement and work organisation skills are required which have been acquired through previous experience, demonstrated capacity or post-secondary education or partial completion of same.
The online form will allow you to save your progress as you go, however, if you’re completing a desktop evaluation, there are some long form questions it’s best to prepare your answers for in advance.
Describe the purpose of the position. What the position does and why. Begin each statement with an action verb (for example, advise, coordinate, deliver). Use what is written in the position description as a starting point.
How often is the work performed? For example, always, often, sometimes, rarely, never.
These are:
If the position is either directly or indirectly responsible for financial resources within the current financial year, be prepared to provide details of what resources the position will be responsible for (e.g. operating costs, employee salaries, capital, assets, projects). This includes the dollar amounts (exact or to the best of your estimation based on current budget) for each financial resource impacted by the position.
The position may make decisions or recommendations on tasks, processes, procedures, advice. For example, the manager will set timeframes or negotiate extension of timeframes. Statutory timeframes cannot be shifted. The manager will be responsible for determining how timeframes can be met and then directing the position accordingly.
Think about what it may influence (i.e. the nature or scope of its own work, the work or decisions of others or the direction of the unit or agency).
For example, the position is expected to inform its supervisor if timeframes are unable to be met.
To what degree and frequency is this position expected to analyse and interpret trends or circumstances (e.g. legislation, trends, data analysis)?
How much is the position influenced or constrained by frameworks, policies, guidelines, structures, and the extent of direction provided?
For example, will they be required to read papers or reports, transcripts of hearings, interpret and provide advice on matters relating to the program and broader reform agenda, or interpret if an issue is likely to be a matter of priority?
Is the position expected to manage complexities? Describe these complexities and their degree of difficulty. Is this position expected to resolve issues or solve problems (e.g. is it required to interpret information and analyse situations, and provide recommendations to best achieve outcomes)? Provide examples.
What makes this position challenging in the organisational context, not what is challenging for the incumbent, and how does it manage these challenges?
These may be short or long term and must be related to the position (not the person).
Challenges may involve client demands, changes to legislation, new procedures, technology, developing new approaches, variations in workload etc. For example, needing to maintain technical expertise; geographical spread of program or service delivery or staff.
List as many knowledge types as required. For each one, you must provide 3 parts to your answer:
List as many skills as required. For each one, you must provide 3 parts to your answer:
List as much experience as required. For each one, you must provide 3 parts to your answer:
What communication, influence, support, persuasion, care, counselling, motivation, negotiation, coaching, mentoring, managing and problem-solving skills are required?
What internal and external skills are required when interacting with clients, suppliers, customers, general public, non-English speaking people or culturally diverse groups? For example, superior written skills to prepare a range of ministerial and other correspondence which communicates technical and complex issues effectively.
When you submit a job evaluation request, you’ll be asked to select one of four options:
Once you’ve determined the option that suits your situation, visit the QSS Self Service Centre to complete the form.
Refer to the Submit a job evaluation request work instruction (government log-in required) for guidance on how to use the online form and its functions.
Use the online form to submit your request.
How we evaluate a position is determined by what evaluation type you selected.
We’ll evaluate the position based on the documents you have provided. We may need to liaise with the nominated contact person to clarify information or request additional information to accurately evaluate the position.
We'll contact the nominated interviewees to arrange a time to speak. We’ll advise them how to prepare and usually allocate 1 hour for each interview.
We'll ask questions about the knowledge, judgement and accountability required of the position.
The supervisor of the role is usually the best person to complete the interview. This ensures accountabilities and responsibilities within the hierarchal structure are appropriate.
We’ll compare the role against a similar position we’ve previously evaluated. If you’re using a position from another agency, get their permission first.
If we conclude that benchmarking is suitable, we’ll assign the role the same classification level. You won’t need to request a formal evaluation. We’ll provide an evaluation report based on the benchmarking comparison.
JEMS use a points-factor system that examines eight sub-factors shown by empirical research to be common across all roles. The sub-factors used to evaluate a position are grouped together into three broad factors: expertise, judgement and accountability.
The combination of the work value points aligns to a classification level within the Queensland Public Sector classification framework.
The required inputs—the knowledge, skills and experience needed to perform the role:
The complexity of the role's requirements—the organisation's environment and the application of expertise in planning, managing and solving problems:
The outputs of the role—the scope and impact, influence, responsibility and authority of the position:
We also use the supervisors work value profile to evaluate the position and consider the impacts on subordinate positions. If we are not able to obtain the supervisors profile for the proposed role, we use a similar profile as a guide. The supervisor profile can limit the level that the subordinate position can be evaluated at when determining its work value score.
Consideration of a supervisor’s profile ensures the relevant accountabilities and responsibilities within the hierarchy are appropriate to each level.
Provided we have all the information required, we'll send the evaluation report with a classification level and our reasoning within the following timeframes:
Once you receive the report, contact your agency's HR team. They'll advise the appropriate action you need to take. You may need to:
See the Submit a Job evaluation request form or contact us.
No. The position description provides a high-level overview of the requirements of a position. Using only the position description would not be enough to fully understand what the role actually does, as well as how, why, where, when the role is needed to meet your unit’s or agency’s objectives. Only a completed Job evaluation request or an interview can give us the comprehensive information on all the methodology factors we need to recommend an appropriate work value.
No. Our evaluation focuses on the position itself and its relationship with other positions. It does not measure, evaluate or consider the performance of the incumbent.
When completing your Job evaluation report or preparing for an interview, keep in mind the full scope of the position’s duties and responsibilities, its required inputs and expected outputs or outcomes. For example, what the position does, as well as how, why, when and where the position is needed to meet your unit’s and agency’s objectives. Consider the position as it really is, not as it may have been in the past or could be in the distant future, and not as the incumbent’s capabilities.
Only positions in the professional or technical streams include qualifications as an essential requirement in a position description. For administrative positions, qualifications should be referred to as being ‘highly desirable’ for the role.
In accordance with the Directive 12/20: Recruitment and Selection (the directive):
It’s important to be precise if you include a condition or qualification to ensure positions are appropriately evaluated in the correct stream.
