Writing a recommendation
The ECA recommendation should normally be started by the SRDS reviewer as he/she will have identified that the contribution made by the member of staff went beyond expectations.
All ECA recommendations should be written on the ECA form, which is given as a download from the box on the right. All parts of the form should be completed, and the recommendation should be limited to the one side of A4 provided. Below are some guidelines about specific elements of the form, and what sorts of information to include.
If the Departmental Review Panel agrees that the recommendation should be made to the Faculty ECA panel, the Head of Department should approve and sign the final draft of the recommendation. ECA recommendations must come from the Head of Department; there is no self-submission. The deadline for submitting ECA recommendations is 7 October 2011. Recommendations should be submitted electronically to promotions@sheffield.ac.uk. Hard copy recommendations will not be accepted.
Brief outline
This is an important section of the form, as it tells the panel what is expected of the job and is best taken from the member of staff´s job summary or About the Job document.
Recommendation
Whether the recommendation is on the basis of exceptional contribution or sustained excellence, there are key principles to follow. The recommendation needs to explain what the contribution is, give some evidence of the contribution, and explain why it is exceptional or excellent based on a comparison with the expectations of the grade, job role, SRDS objectives or the context and circumstances in which the contribution was made.