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Career Development Days and PDR

Career development days policy for researchers

All Research staff at Queen's University Belfast, including postdocs, are entitled to up to 10 days per year to spend on activities benefiting their career development. This is a university Policy and applies to all research staff, whatever their funding source is.

These days can be used to:

  • attend PDC or QUB training courses or events
  • attend external courses
  • be involved in committees
  • contribute to the organisation of events
  • undertake a placement or work shadowing
  • generate preliminary data for a fellowship application
  • write a fellowship application
  • prepare for/attend a job interview

Etc.

These 10 days are not meant to be used for activities that are necessary or already part of the postdoc's work, for example attending relevant conferences, technical training used in the project (i.e. personal licence training), meeting partners and collaborators and attending local events the postdoc is meant to attend (i.e. PhD students symposium, School's seminars etc.).

Staff on part-time contracts (or contracts running for only a part of the year) have access to the relevant pro-rata number of days.

These days can be used when seen fit by the research staff, provided it doesn't "clash" with their contracted duties (e.g. a planned stakeholder meeting or conference they need to attend) and that their contracted work is up to agreed standards.

These days can not be carried-over to the next year in order to encourage staff to pro-actively develop their careers. These are not annual leave.

Staff should record how they use their development days, for example by using this form and discuss their development during their annual Personal Development Review (see below).

References:

  • Policy extended to all research staff (AC1 to AC3) and to all Faculties at QUB: agreed by the University Executive Board on 3 September 2019 (See P&C website).
  • Policy originally developed for postdocs in the MHLS Faculty: discussed at the MHLS Faculty Executive Board meeting of the 26th April 2017 and communicated to all postdocs on the 26th May 2017 via an official letter from Pr Aaron Maule, Dean of Research.
Personal Development Review (PDR)

All staff at Queen's undertake a Personal Development Review (PDR) once a year with their line manager. The PDR is an opportunity to have a conversation with your PI about your professional and career development. While a short part of the discussion is dedicated to looking at progress and setting objectives for the year ahead, the PDR shouldn't be focused on your research project, but on your development, skills, experience and career. It is a great opportunity to look back on how you have used your development days (see above) in the past year, and how you plan to use them in the next.

You are expected to fill a PDR form and share it with your line manager at least a week before your PDR meeting. The aim of the form is to enable self-reflection, structure the conversation and constitute a record. The conversation is the most important part of the process.

Bespoke PDR resources for research staff:

Research staff with permanent appointments or those on an established academic career track (e.g. Illuminate fellows) may find it more beneficial to use alternative PDR forms designed for Professional Services Staff or Academic Staff respectively (found on the People and Culture page, see link below).

How were the bespoke PDR resources for research staff designed?

The new form and bespoke PDR guidance rolled-out for all research staff in summer 2024 are designed to embed planning and reporting on 10 development days usage in the process, move the discussion away from research planning, and overall improve the benefit of the PDR for researchers.

They were developed by the PDC in 2023, following feedback from research staff and surveys indicating that engagement with the PDR process was low and that a significant portion of researchers found it was not beneficial and not enough focused on development and career. The PDC representatives and PROG provided useful feedback and resources were piloted in summer 2023 with by a group of volunteer postdocs and their PIs from across Faculties. Anonymous feedback was collected via a survey and focus groups were held.

Overall research staff participating in the pilot welcomed the opportunity to reflect on their career and development, felt better prepared to bring up topics their managers could help them with, and found that the new form helped focus the conversation on what was important and useful to them. They also found the instructions on the form clearer and benefitted from the examples and information provided on the guidance. Line managers participating in the pilot reported that their research staff were better prepared coming into the PDR meeting, found the process more useful, and found the clarification of what was expected from them and the guidance examples and prompts reassuring and helpful.

Here are some findings from the pilot survey:

  • 11 postdoc participants had a better experience than with the previous form (and 1 had a similar experience; 0 found it not as good)
  • Line managers also found the experience better (13) or similar (6)
  • Out of 23 postdocs, 16 found the self-reflection required to prepare very useful, and 5 found it useful; similarly, 18 found the resulting conversation with their managers very useful and 4 useful
  • Out of 22 line managers, 17 found the self-reflection required to prepare very useful, and 4 found it useful; similarly, 19 found the resulting conversation very useful and 2 useful
  • Example of postdoc feedback: "I really found it beneficial to have a dedicated time slot to discuss career options and opportunities. These are topics that my line manager and I make regular reference to, although it was useful to work through things in a more formal setting. The guidance provided was great, especially the prompts that helped to guide our discussions."
  • Example of PI feedback: "The guidance and the form itself was extremely helpful in guiding conversation and also allowing a focus on training and career goals, very important in particular in the context for PDRAs. It also provided structure around conversations on other career options, contracts etc."

The resources were refined based on feedback from pilot participants and are to be used by research staff from Summer 2024 onwards.

General PDR resources for all staff:

The People and Culture intranet provides additional general information, guidance, forms and training sessions around the PDR process.

Visit the People and Culture PDR page

Frequently Asked Questions (specific situations)

The FAQs below are meant to help navigate situations in which the timing of the PDR is not ideal (e.g. close to the start or end of a contract), as well as the transition from using the 'Research and Professional Services Personal Development Review' form (used for research staff until 2023) to the 'PDR Form for Postdocs and Research Staff' introduced in 2024.