Step 1 – Initiating the Project

You have landed here because you believe there is value for your M&P IS&T staff to align to the IT Career Framework.  There are four things that you need to cover to initiate the project:

  1. Contact Jenny Mackay, Organizational Development & Learning Specialist at 604-827-1659 to help step you and your HR representative through the process and get you started on the right foot
  2. Engage your HR Coordinator/Manager and/or Advisor to let them know of your desire to align to the IT Career Framework and to ask for their assistance
  3. Determine who will lead the project within your group.  This person would be responsible for ensuring the various steps are completed to align to the IT Career Framework.
  4. Provide an overview to your staff on the IT Career Framework and Competencies

Preparatory Work

There are a couple of things you can also do at this stage to get a feel for the amount of work to be done in aligning to the IT Career Framework.

  1. Collect all your current job descriptions for staff within the M&P IT&S job family.  For staff who have been at UBC for a number of years in the same position, this may be difficult to locate.  You may also find that job descriptions are out of date, and do not accurately reflect the tasks that individuals are performing.  This will help you to determine whether you will be starting new, or are able to leverage information which already exists.
  2. Take a quick look at the positions within the career framework.  Can you easily find the position that most relates (>50%) to the individual’s current role in the organization?  If you can, then you have a headstart with a standardized job description.  If you can not locate a job description that applies, you may need to create a unique job description that may be a blend of 2 or more positions.  We can help with that.
  3. Do you currently have a formalized performance review approach and form that you follow?  If you do, then it may be just altering it slightly to accommodate the competencies and career development conversation.   If you don’t, we have several alternatives for you to consider and find the one that will work best for you.
  4. Consider how you currently support your employee’s growth either within their current position, or potentially towards their career goal.  This may or may not be a new task for you, and if so, you will likely need some education/coaching on how to do this.

We encourage you to create a project plan, whether in MS Project or an Excel spreadsheet to ensure you cover all the applicable tasks, have the appropriate resource to deliver and have a set timeline in which to accomplish the alignment to the Career Framework.  To make it easy for you, we have included a sample MS Project plan template which you can use as a baseline and alter according to your needs.

Career Framework Alignment Project Template
(Requires Microsoft Project)

Once you’ve created your plan, brought together your project team, its time to engage your M&P IS&T staff by delivering an overview to the Career Framework and the project.   Here you will find a presentation which you can use and tailor to your specific needs.

Introduction to the IT Career Framework

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