Create or review a role

A vacancy or newly created role may present an opportunity for you to consider the design of a role. Through high-quality workforce planning and application of the principles underpinning recruitment and selection, each vacancy should present an opportunity to support a high performing, apolitical and representative public sector workforce.

Consider how you will:

• ensure the vacant role complements your team and addresses what’s missing to enable you to deliver your short and long-term objectives
• confirm you cannot distribute the work to existing roles
• refer to your agency's strategic workforce plan and service delivery objectives. Your role should fill a critical gap at a team or organisational level
• decide if the work is temporary in nature or ongoing. The Queensland Government is committed to maximising permanent employment where possible. See our Employment Security policy
• identify any specialist skills the role requires. Consider if outsourcing the work would be more appropriate, noting that clause 4.1 of the Employment Security policy states that labour hire engagements should only be used in limited circumstances where direct employment is not viable or appropriate and is the least preferred option. Agencies are encouraged to utilise workforce planning and management strategies to assist in determining the appropriate workforce mix for current and future needs
• decide if the role should be offered as a relieving, secondment, graduate, contract, or fixed term temporary opportunity.

When creating or reviewing the role, consider how you will reflect the:

• responsibilities under section 21 of the Public Sector Act 2022 (the Act) and the directive relating to recruitment and selection regarding supporting a reframed relationship with Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people
• obligations in relation to equity, diversity, respect and inclusion under chapter 2 of the Act.

Matters to think about when considering these responsibilities and obligations include:

• the diversity of your team, and whether it is representative of people from diverse backgrounds. For example, people with disability, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people, women, people of linguistically diverse backgrounds, and young or older people
• whether the role needs to be an identified role due to genuine occupational requirements
• whether targeted recruitment is appropriate to increase representation of a diversity target group/s in your agency, subject to evidence of underrepresentation, such as an equity and diversity plan or audit
• the availability of all suitable flexible work arrangements as this will increase the appeal to candidates and can significantly increase the diversity of candidates who apply. Understand before you recruit if the role can be performed flexibly, or from a different location.

Role analysis documents are designed to reflect the ongoing context of the role and responsibilities and the full suite of capabilities required to succeed in the role. The role analysis can be used for job evaluation (e.g. JEMS) and long-term workforce planning. It is not designed for the job advertising process. Preparing/updating the role analysis when workforce planning is undertaken will help ensure currency of the document and maximise its use for other purposes.

When writing a role analysis:

• ensure the role purpose and context is current. Align the role’s knowledge, skills, experience and personal attributes to your business and agency objectives
• list any mandatory requirements of the role (e.g. any mandatory qualifications, or required attributes an applicant must possess for an identified role)
• detail the capability profile for the role. See the Leadership competencies for Queensland for help creating the competencies included under the Capability profile
• detail the duties and accountabilities of the role
• outline the key relationships that the role will regularly interact with and the purpose of such interaction
• list the delegations the role has, including whether there are any human resource, financial or operational delegations
• describe the supervision or management responsibilities of the role
• outline any formal or structured training occupants of the role are either required or have the option to undertake, and any potential career paths
• identify the employment instruments applying to the employee
• describe the identified risks associated with the role and the employment screening to be undertaken to mitigate against such risks
• provide any additional information that assists in providing a holistic picture of the role and its context.

Use your role analysis to develop your role description.

For further help in developing or updating a role analysis, talk to your HR team.

Your role description should be clear, concise, and provide candidates with realistic information about the work, team environment, benefits, and challenges. If the role description is too different from the real job, you’ll quickly lose your recruit and have to start all over again.

Role descriptions should be accessible and inclusive, and must reflect the holistic set of skills, capabilities, qualities and attributes required to undertake the position (with or without reasonable adjustments). Role descriptions can also describe how a person may be able to contribute to the agency’s equity, diversity, respect and inclusion obligations.

To find out more about best practice recruitment and selection, see our Recruitment and Selection summary guide (PDF, 832.4 KB) , and speak to your agency’s HR team for help.

Your role description must include:

• the duties
• the key requirements of the position, such as the set of skills, abilities and qualities required to undertake the position
• any mandatory qualifications (e.g. must have a Bachelor of Laws degree) and/or conditions (e.g. must hold a valid open drivers’ licence)
• any required attributes an applicant must possess for an identified role
• the location
• the type of vacancy (e.g. permanent, temporary, flexible working)
• any pre-employment checks (e.g. disciplinary history, criminal history)
• the probationary period (if applicable)
• the obligation to disclose previous employment as a lobbyist.

Avoid using jargon or 'public service speak'. Consider whether the terms you're using will be equally understood by internal and external candidates.

Ensure you use gender neutral language and inclusive themes. Women may respond differently to men when presented with certain language for example, ‘dominate the marketplace’, ‘aggressively meet targets’, and ‘drive teams to achieve'. Research shows that women may overlook a role if its role description has gendered wording.

For help with gender neutral wording, you could speak to your HR team, a recruitment agency or specialist organisations and can ask them to review the role description.

Talk to your HR team for further help creating or updating your role description.

Once your role description is approved, if it is a new role, or the role has been updated to include new skills or capabilities, you need to determine the role’s classification level.

For help, see your agency’s intranet or speak to your HR team.

Use Queensland Shared Services

If your agency uses Queensland Shared Services for role classifications, see Establish or review your role’s classification level (JEMS) for more.