Theseguidelinesdetailwhatyouneedtoconsiderwhencomprehensively designing,documentinganddescribinganewpositionatSydneyWater.

WhydoIneed guidelinestodesigna position?

/ People are one of Sydney Water’s greatest investments.
Applying comprehensive job design principles ensures the best chance of success when the organisation creates new positions or/and invests in new employees. It is good governance and will contribute to our transformation to a High Performing Culture, whichoperates as One Team, putting the Customer at the Heartofallwedo.

Whycan’tIjust writetheposition description?

/ The old position description template alone does not capture allaspects of a job, or challenge you to think comprehensively aboutthe job’s requirements.
Poorly designed positions or structures do not benefit the organisationand may actually cause more inefficiency. They will not drive the changes we require and will also make your own role, as MoR or manager, much harder.
Sydney Water routinely requires a business case for any kind of contract or expenditure. Hiring a new employee can cost as much or more over a number of years as a capex or opex contract. SydneyWater’s current positions were created on average8years ago. Creating an average-level new position commits Sydney Water to an expenditure of more than $1,100,000over the 8-year life expectancy of the role.
To put things in perspective, if you decided to contract the same work to external providers via a professional services contract rather than hire a new employee, every case would require Managing Director approval.
The job design process is your business case to spend on average$1.1m on a new position.

HowdoIusethis workbook?

/ Think about the questions in the workbook and answer them as you go through. Choose the options that match the position most closely; use it to help define the position clearly.
Once the workbook has been completed, it can be easily convertedinto a position description.

Poorlydesignedjobs willmakeyourrole harder

/ Some of the effects of poor job design, and effective job design, on managers’ positions are shown below.
Poor job design / Effective job design
  • Job designed to meet the needs of a person or people
  • You cannot adequately answer questions from job evaluators, from recruiters and from candidates
  • Candidates do not self-select, meaning there are more unsuitable candidates to sift through
  • Poor hiring decisions are more likely
  • Inaccurate relativities to other positions
  • The position’s “fit” within the organization is unclear
  • There is no clear and consistent understanding of the position between manager and employee, leading to potential conflict from the outset
  • Performance expectations are unclear
  • Management or recognition of performance is subjective, inconsistent and hard to defend
  • No customer interactions
  • The position’s authorities are unclear
  • Position is “stand-alone”
  • No scope to choose how to perform position
/
  • Job designed to meet the organisation’s needs
  • You are able to answer questions fully, accurately describing the job and the expectations of it
  • You will have to review less applications for a well-described position due to candidate self-selection – and they will be a better fit
  • Matching of applicants to the position will be easier and more objective
  • Positions will be accurately graded and paid appropriately
  • The reason for the position, and the potential career paths for it, are much clearer
  • There is a better mutual understanding of the position, leading to better working relationships
  • Expectations are clearer and management or recognition of performance is more objective and easy to measure
  • Customer touchpoints and accountabilities are clear
  • Authorities are clearly defined
  • Team and broader interactions are inherent to the position
  • Incumbent has flexibility to plan how their work is carried out

WhendoIneedto analyseaposition?

/ The following flowchart outlines the options for getting the work required done. Creating a new position is only one option, and should be considered only when other options have been discarded.

Organisational consistency

ASK
  • Isthe position still needed?
  • Do any similar positions exist elsewhere in the organisation?
  • Ifso,how does this position interact with them?
  • Isthere a centralised corporate function you need toconsider before designing this role, toavoid creating shadow functions?
  • Have you considered if the position is a duplicate ofanother existing role?

Describingtheposition

DO
  • Describe the position required by the business
  • Be accurate
  • Be clear
  • Use plain English
  • Be clear about accountabilities, using strong verbs such as achieve, deliver,design, lead etc
/ DON’T
  • Describe the needs ofa potential incumbent
  • Be inconsistent
  • Be ambiguous
  • Use jargon
  • Use weak verbs such as assist,ensure, facilitate, guide, help, initiate, input, participate etc

Abouttheposition

/ This information is essential to describe the position accurately and for record keeping.

Jobtitle

  • A job title should use appropriate terms, considering the VAR3I of the position.[1]
  • Manager should only be used for positions with at least 3 staff, and manager authorities.
  • Once the position has been evaluated, the title should not be changed without good reason. Changing position titles makes record keeping and tracking very difficult.

Position Description

Metering Officer,

Created: 15 September 2017
Group: Customer Delivery / Job family: Other
Position number: 37582 / Hours worked per week: 35
Manager’s title: Manager, Meter Reading / Manager once Removed’s title: Manager, Customer Metering
Status of PD: Draft / Work location: Parramatta
Does the employee need to drive a vehicle as part of the role? Yes / Does the employee have to provide a car for work purposes (budgeted in their TRP?) No
Number of direct reports: None / Number of indirect reports: None

LevelofRole

StafforSpecialist

☐Manager

☐ManageronceRemoved

Tobecompletedafterevaluationbyjobevaluationcoordinatoronly:

Evaluated grade: EA 11

Section1: Purposeandcontext

Nowyou’veestablishedyouneeda newposition,youcan start documenting exactly whatitneeds toachieve. Summarise the mainpurposeofthe position below. It may help to flesh out the accountabilities of the position more first (use Section 2), and return to this point later.Ask yourself:

Whatisthepurposeoftheposition?

  • Whatis the purpose ofthe position?
  • Whatare the major challenges forthe position?

Purpose of the Position

Deliver all aspects of Multi Level Individual Metering operations from site creation to billing. This will include providing water metering related technical and operations advice and services which provide accurate and timely information for billing and exceed customer expectations. /

Thestructuralcontext fortheposition

/ Itmay be helpful tosketch the position, who it reports toand who reports toit,below.Include the EApay level/ICE band forthe manager,peers and direct reports where you can.

Whatarethedirectandindirect(dottedlineorstaff-once-removed) reportstotheposition?

None /

Section 2:Key accountabilities andoutcomes/tasks

Answer the following questions in the fields provided. You don’t necessarily have to answerthem all – they are there to make you think about the role.

Please refer to the Appendix for standard manager accountabilities.

  • Does the position have people management accountability with full managerial authorities?
  • Does the position assign and monitor work, but not review work or ContributionDevelopment Plans?
  • How many reports does the position have?
  • Is this role responsible for more than one functional area?
  • Whatdecisions can the position make, in what areas, and what will it need torefer toits manager?
  • Whatlevel ofautonomy will the incumbent have todetermine how they will perform the position?

Click here to enter text. /

Technicalaccountabilities

  • What are the technical accountabilities of the position?
  • Are there any guidelines thatprovide the parameters forthe position?Ifso,are they internal policies, or external standards or legislation?
  • Whatis the time span forthe longest continuous taskforthe position (eg 1day,3months, 2years?)

Provide technical support/assistance for Automated Meter Reading and Advanced Metering Infrastructure systems.
Provide input to metering related strategy and assessment of issues and decisions.
Provide investigation and analysis of metering related data to improve customer services.
Participate in and promote Heath and Safety improvement initiatives.
Assist in the development and implementation of business plan initiatives and business improvement opportunities.
Undertake field trials and testing of new meters and metering systems.
Assist in the development and implementation of metering technology and smart metering.
Provide data analysis using specialised systems.
Prepare reports on testing of metering hardware and software.
Provide input and support to process mapping work in Customer Metering.
Work with Customer Direction Experience on metering related improvements.
Deliver work as agreed by CPQQRT.
Support other teams with metering analysis or issues.
Provide input into CxP and BxP programs as needed.
Develop and maintain capability to use metering related systems including MLIM Asset Tracking System (MATS), ACCESS billing system, Data Anomaly Workflow System (DAWS), Business Intelligence (BI), SevenX meter reading system etc.
Develop and maintain capability to use AMS Head End Systems (HES) for troubleshooting and performance management of MLIM meters.
Participate in CxP planning, testing, implementation and improvement to ensure seamless change over to CxP platform for metering.
Assist in troubleshooting file transfer or system failures when needed.

Systemsaccountabilities

  • What systems does this position own?

Position does not own any systems.

Processaccountabilities

  • What processes is this position accountable for?

Position may have some operational process accountabilities (such as MLIM management, AMR service requests etc) as part of overall work mix. These will involve managing the end to end process while developing Standard Operating Procedures and training packages to migrate operational processes to other operations teams.

Internal working relationships

  • What positions in the organisation does this position get critical input from?
  • What positions in the organisation does this position provide critical input to?
  • What positions does this position need to interact with?
  • What is the most difficult internal communication the position must engage in?

Key interfaces for this role are with:
  • Customer Accounts (exception management)
  • Digital Services (who manage the meter reading collection system and HES)
  • Business Customer Services
  • Billing and Revenue
  • Contact Centre
/

Customers(external)

  • What competitors will the position need to be aware of?
  • Who are the customers and stakeholders forthis position?
  • Whatcustomer accountabilities and deliverables does the position have?
  • What is the most difficult external communication the position must engage in?

Customer, Stakeholder and Supplier management
  • Liase and develop strong relationships with the Accredited Metering Suppliers (AMSs) to provide goods and services as per agreements
  • Provide technical support for hydraulic consultants during design phase of new buildings.
  • Liaise with customers on service requests and enquiries for technical issues related to metering.
  • Support operational managers on supplier performance and compliance with contracts standards and conditions.
/

Impactofposition

  • How does the job add to the capability of the immediate work area?
  • How critical is the position from a unit/group/organisation perspective?
  • How does the position contribute to achieving our Lifestream strategy?
  • What major business improvements will the position be accountable for and what will the impact of them be?
  • Whatis the position expected toachieve in 3 months, 6 months, 1 year,2 years and 5years’time?
  • How will the position’s performance be measured?
  • Indicate the level or range of the position on the contribution spectrum (see footnote).
    Please outline your reasons below:
Contribution Spectrum[2]

DeliveryOperational☐Tactical☐Strategic

Metering drives Sydney Water’s billing process and is therefore a critical business activity. Accurate and reliable billing is very important to maintaining good customer relationships.
The role could have a mix of technical and operational work at any one time.
The role provides support and advice on metering technology (AMI/AMR) issues and improvement.
The role creates SOPs for new technology and processes for others to deliver. /

Financial

  • What$ annual budget does the position control – and what is it for(excluding labour)?
  • What$ annual labour budget does the position control?
  • What other financial accountabilities does the position have?

There is no direct financial accountability in this role. /

InnovationandComplexity

  • What are the typical, day-to-day challenges the position will need to deal with?
  • What are the most complex problems the position will need to deal with, that require deeper thought and understanding, affecting business operations, people,and finances?
  • What ambiguity does the position deal with?
  • Indicate the level or range of the position on the Innovation spectrum: Please outline your reasons below.
Innovation
☐Make/recommend minorchanges / Developimproved daytoday processes / ☐Makemajor improvementsor changestoways ofworking / ☐Leadinnovation andchange
This role involvesinvestigation and review of systems and technology for metering. Current innovation is around using radio frequency communications such as the Internet of Things to enable smart metering. The incorporation of this into a fleet of 1.4 million meters and existing billing system is complex and challenging.
This role is also expected to understand the data and processes both upstream and downstream of the business unit and make suggestions and/or changes to improve performance. /

Safety

  • What are the safety accountabilities of the position?
  • Will the incumbent be exposed to or impacted by high risk environments or activities?
  • Are there any pre-employment medical requirements?[3]
  • Are there any health surveillance requirements?
  • Does the role requires a high-risk work licence?
  • Are there any specific PPE requirements?

  • Ensure compliance with Occupational Health & Safety (OHS) legislation and Health & Safety consultation and communication.
  • Ensure all incidents are reported to manager within timeframes.
  • Participate and help implement Health & Safety improvement plans.
  • Act on all safety concerns.

Section 3:Knowledge/skills/experience

  • What specific skills are required for the position?
  • What specific competencies are required for the position?
  • Whatis the experience (in years) and the basic knowledge or formal education/qualifications required for the position –as if you were recruiting externally for it?
  • What is the location of the role (eg office/field/plant) and the physical requirementsthatresult from it,if any?

Relevant University Degree in an Engineering or Business relatedfield with at least 3 years work experience and/or at least 5 years relevant experience.
Proven high-level analytical, forecasting and contract performance monitoring skills using information systems.
Proven ability to use clear, concise language in correspondence as well as including content fitting for the purpose and audience when preparing written briefs and reports.
Demonstrated ability to understand the technical aspects of Automated Meter Reading (AMR) and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters, metering networks and communications systems.
Demonstrated ability to research, investigates, analyse and provide practical solutions to business issues.
Ability to deal with ambiguity and make recommendations and suggest policy changes.
Desirable knowledge of the property development process and its interface to Sydney Water meter to cash process.
Desirable advanced analytics or spreadsheet skills to analyse data for performance assessment and reporting.

Additional notes:

Sydney Waterexpects all stafftodo other projects and perform additional duties as required. /

Section4: Review the jobdesign/positiondescription

It is worthwhile reviewing the design of the job for completeness before seekingapproval for it or requesting an evaluation. Consult any stakeholders before finalisingthe position.

While doing so, consider whether the position you have designed will align with our Lifestream strategy and contribute to a High Performance Culture that keeps the Customer at the Heart by checking it against the criteria below.

Incorporate these job factors – for effective design

If you can’t tick every item here, you should rework the position.

☐It is clear how the position is responsible for identifying and understanding the needs of customers/clients

☐The position can be clearly articulated

☐Goals can be developed for the position that are clear and specific, fairlychallenging and easy to measure

☐Goals can be set jointly by the incumbent and the manager

☐The incumbent in the position will be able to see how well they are performing even if no one tells them

☐Inter-relationships (contacts, communication frequency and information flow) are clearfor the position

☐The position requires cooperation and teamwork with others in the organisation(who, when, how often, what)

☐The position has the appropriate authority and influence to make decisionscommensurate with its level

☐The incumbent can decide how specified aspects (eg priorities, resources used) ofthe job is done and plan how the work is carried out

☐The position requires a variety of identified skills to perform a variety of identifiedtasks

☐The position involves performing a “whole” piece of work from a defined beginning to defined end

☐Other people can be affected by how well this position is performed; they can beidentified and the impact known.

Avoid these job factors – for effective design

If you cantick any item here, you should rework the position.

☐There is no customer or client interaction

☐The position is difficult to describe

☐Only easy goals, difficult goals, or unclear goals can be set for the position

☐No real measures of performance are available

☐The position itself does not allow the incumbent to see how well they are doing

☐The incumbent may receive inconsistent expectations or incompatible requests about tasks or behaviour

☐The position will be stressful

☐The position will compete with other positions rather than cooperate

☐There is no teamwork – the position is stand alone