Promotions – Further details

Timetable

In 2012-13, the promotions process has been streamlined ahead of a more thorough review of the University’s Reward & Recognition Strategy. Each Faculty, and the Professional Services Executive can determine their own internal timetable of meetings and activities in relation to promotions during the year, subject to them meeting two key deadlines.

1. The Readerships & Personal Chairs Committee is scheduled for 6 December 2012. Faculties should be ready to present those cases they wish to be considered by the Readerships & Personal Chairs Committee by the end of November 2012.
2. Promotions will be effective from 1 January 2013. All promotions decisions therefore need to be completed and communicated by 21 December 2012 to ensure this deadline can be met.

Where Faculties/Professional Services determine it to be appropriate, a further consideration of promotions can be undertaken in 2013, to be effective from 1 July 2013. Faculties/Professional Services will be able to determine their subsequent internal timetable of meetings and activities in relation to promotions to meet this later deadline, should they wish to consider cases later in the year.

Funding for promotions of externally funded staff

In order to ensure greater consistency between the funding of promotions and exceptional contribution awards for core and externally funded staff the following has been agreed by the University.

The University will create a provision to underwrite the additional costs arising from the award of ECAs and promotions to externally funded staff that cannot be funded from the project budget.

The cost of the ECA and/or promotion should be charged to the project account in the first instance and the project investigator should endeavour, as far as is possible without jeopardising the research itself, to mitigate the additional cost from within the project budget. This may include requesting additional funding from the sponsor where the sponsor is willing to pay for the additional costs.

Where it has not been possible to mitigate the additional cost from within the project budget it will result in an overspend against the direct cost budget of the project. This will be identified when the project is completed and, to the extent that the overspend can be attributed to the ECA or promotion, the overspend will be transferred as a charge against the University's central provision.

The costs that are charged against the central provision will form part of the 'indirect cost' of research and will therefore be included in calculating the indirect cost rate used when undertaking FEC costings. In this way the University will ensure that it has the opportunity to recover all of its costs.

Self-submissions

Self-submissions can be made by staff at all levels of the organisation where the department does not support their case for promotion.

Self-submissions should be made to the appropriate Faculty/Professional Services panel providing any evidence/documentation as determined by that panel.

It is expected that the Head of Department would provide a statement outlining the reasons why the Department does not support the self-submission.

Faculty/Professional Services panels may choose to invite those self-submitting to present their case to the panel, but are not obliged to do so.

Appeals

Appeals are available for all staff on the University of Sheffield Grading Structure up to and including Grade 9 after the final decision on the promotion application has been received.

Appeals against the decision not to confer the title of Reader are not permitted.

The purpose of a promotion appeal hearing is to reassess the original promotion application and to review the decision made by the original promotion panel not to promote. The appeal may result in the original decision being overruled, or upheld.

The appeal hearing is heard by an independent panel who will have had no previous involvement in the promotion application.

After the final decision on the promotion application has been made, written notification will be provided to the unsuccessful candidate. Notification of the decision will be provided as soon as possible after the expected outcome date.

The Head of Department will be able to provide any unsuccessful candidates with feedback as to why their promotion case was unsuccessful. This feedback should be considered carefully by the candidate before s/he decides whether or not to appeal.

If you wish to appeal the decision then this needs to be put in writing outlining the reasons for the appeal and sent to promotions@sheffield.ac.uk by 10am on Monday 14 January 2013.

If the candidate is a member of a Union, s/he may wish to seek Trade Union support and representation at the appeal hearing. The candidate should contact his/her Trade Union representative to discuss this with them. Alternatively, if the candidate is not a member of a Union, s/he may wish to bring a companion or colleague with them to the appeal hearing. The candidate should also inform his/her Head of Department of his/her intent to appeal.

The candidate should inform the Department of Human Resources in writing of his/her wish to appeal and indicate whether s/he will be represented by a Trade Union and which Trade Union will be representing him/her. The candidate may also identify in writing the areas where s/he feels the Panel has failed to identify the job being at the higher level.