ANU Focus - performance

ANU Focus

The ANU Focus performance cycle has been developed to replace the Performance Development Review (PDR) system. Focus will be housed within HORUS, and launched from 2 December 2024, for the 2025 annual cycle. 

The annual Focus cycle will apply to both professional and academic employees. All eligible employees, those that are continuing and fixed-term, are expected to use the Focus system from December 2024 onwards. 

Any existing PDRs that haven't yet been completed should be completed by 31 December 2024, for whatever stage the PDR is in at December 2024. 

The goal is for all eligible employees to commence their Focus document for the 2025 cycle. For example, goals can be copied to the Focus document from an existing PDR if they're still relevant to be achieved during 2025. 

Moving to the ANU Focus performance cycle

Focus is an online tool that, from 2 December 2024, is accessed via your HORUS account. 

Employees are encouraged to close off any existing PDRs (within eForms) or Focus Word documents by 31 December 2024. Note the Focus Word document was an interim tool used in 2024 while the Focus online tool was being developed during 2024. 

For those who have used the Focus Word document during 2024 you’ll notice that the Focus online tool in HORUS is similar – we’ve recreated wherever possible the concept of documenting ongoing discussion between employee and supervisor, as well as the cadence of ‘Goal Setting’, ‘Checkpoint’ and ‘Final Evaluation’, over the course of 12 months during the calendar year. 

Approach

For existing academic employees, moving to an annual cycle will be a shift in the overall timing, relative to previous academic PDR documents. 

The overarching principle for the annual cycle for everyone is that all employees (except for casual employees) are to have an equal experience of role, performance and career discussions, and frequency of how these are recorded. Focus is a tool to record discussions and progress at least every 6 months, with emphasis on regular discussions outside of the tool. 

Career goals and deliverables are often in the making over several years, which is the case for both academic and professional employees, but an annual cycle for everyone will help drive a culture of meaningful conversations, development and accountability.

This decision is informed by results from engagement surveys (more on this further below), other avenues of employee feedback on the performance evaluation process, as well as benchmarking against other Australian universities.

The ANU Focus performance cycle has been designed around the following principles, informed by current best practice in performance development and evaluation:

• Emphasis on regular feedback rather than once or twice-yearly performance discussions.
• Forward-looking with a focus on future development, in addition to reflecting on progress against goals.
• Emphasis on goal-setting with support for how to do this effectively.

The aim is to keep the process as simple as possible, and emphasise equipping supervisors and employees to have effective feedback and development conversations. Training and other resources are provided to support employees to effectively manage their Focus discussions and process.

Information and Resources 

Probation

Existing employees who are on probation as of 2 December 2024 will fall into one of two categories:

1. Those probationary employees who have a probation end date of 31 March 2025 or earlier will have a standard annual cycle Focus document created (either academic or professional as relevant); or
2. Those probationary employees who have a probation end date of 1 April 2025 or later will have a Focus probationary document created (either academic or professional as relevant), in place until their current probation end date. If the probation end date is confirmed during: 

• April-August 2025 the employee would then go on a standard Focus document until 1 December 2025; or
• September-November 2025 the employee would prepare to join the next standard annual Focus cycle from 1 December 2025.

New employees that have commenced at ANU post 2 December 2024:

• Employees that have commenced at ANU (not an internal transfer) will be on probation, and in the onboarding process will be allocated the relevant probation template (created in their HORUS account) for their type of employment. This probation template will be the same content and approach for the standard Focus annual document, with the only main difference being that the duration of the employee's template will be aligned to their specific start date until the end of their probation period. 
• Once the employee has their probation confirmed, during December-August, they would have a standard Focus template created on the 1st of the month following their probation date. If the probation end date falls within September-November the employee would prepare to join the next standard annual Focus cycle from 1 December 2025. 

Why this change?

The March 2023 ANYOU survey highlighted opportunities to improve our performance development and evaluation approach. In the survey:

• 65% of respondents agreed that their job performance is evaluated fairly;
• 58% of respondents indicated that they receive appropriate recognition for good work; and
• Only 28% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘When it is clear someone is not delivering in their role we do something about it’.

Survey respondents also provided relevant written comments, highlighting issues such as never having completed a PDR at ANU (or not for several years) and supervisors not being equipped to provide useful feedback. This feedback is consistent with findings and recommendations from an external review of the Performance and Development Review (PDR) undertaken in 2019.

Additionally, eForms, where PDRs are housed, will be discontinued at ANU from 2025 onwards.

Questions can be directed to HRD.Development@anu.edu.au or your local HR Business Partner.