What is: Employment Conversion

Maximising permanent employment

To maximise permanent employment, casual and fixed term employees can be “converted” to permanent employees.

What is Employment Conversion?

A long-term casual or fixed term employee can be converted to be permanent employees. This is called “conversion”.

Eligible employees will be reviewed for possible conversion. Employees may request a review after one year of continuous service. Employees will be reviewed automatically after two years of continuous service.

At the end of the review an employee who meets the criteria will receive a conversion offer. The employee may accept the conversion offer or choose to keep their current employment type.

Employees can be converted even if there is no vacant permanent role (see Establishment). If there is no vacant permanent role the employee is placed in the Metro North Health “Talent Pipeline” (see Talent Pipeline) (NB: Medical Officers use a professional specific process and are not placed in the Talent Pipeline).

Why is this important and what’s my role in this?

Casual and fixed term employment is not the preferred employment method of the Queensland Public Sector. Casual and fixed term employees should only be used when permanent employment is not appropriate.

What do I need to do?

When undertaking a Review

You must:

Follow the Metro North Health Business Rules on employee conversions.
Undertake a review for conversion when an employee becomes eligible.
Apply the eligibility criteria for conversion of fixed term and casual employees. Your local HRBP can assist you.
Offer conversion to eligible employees. The employee may accept or decline the offer.

When advertising a vacant position

If contacted by the Metro North Health Talent Pipeline you must:

Apply the Metro North Health Business Rules for assessing Talent Pipeline employees.
Consider any nominated the Talent Pipeline employee before you can advertise the role.
Offer the role to any suitable Talent Pipeline employee.

When creating new Roles

You must consider if the role:

will be ongoing or required for a fixed period; and/or
is a training position

When you manage a training or developmental position

Some roles are designated “training positions” or “training programs”. These roles are permanent but cannot be permanently appoint to. They are only ever occupied by fixed term employees to develop skills. Training positions include:

Nursing and Midwifery Graduates
Resident Medical Officers
Apprentices

Employees cannot be permanently appointed to a training position (i.e. there are no “permanent apprentices”). If a fixed term or casual employee is eligible for conversion but occupies a training position, they will be appointed to the Metro North Health Talent Pipeline.

The Metro North Health Talent Pipeline will work with you and the employee to locate a suitable role that they may be permanently appointed to which is not a training position.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is merit determined in conversion?

All permanent employees are appointed on the “Merit Principle”. Merit is demonstrated when a casual or fixed term employee has been continuously employed for more than a year and there is no documented history of performance issues. (See https://www.forgov.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/casual-conversion-checklist.docx?v=1602826149 )

Merit is considered met unless the answer to all three questions below is “yes”

Is the employee currently the subject of a formal performance improvement process?
Is the employee currently the subject of any unresolved performance concerns?
Have the unresolved performance concerns been raised with the employee in writing?

What is a “continuing need” for the person to be employed in the role or a role which is substantially the same?

An employee may have their employment converted even if there is no available vacant permanent role. There may not be a continuing need for the person to be employed in their current position, but their skills might be required in another similar position.

Managers must decide if the employee has skills the organisation requires.

E.g.: A graduate nurse is fixed term appointment to Nurse Grade 5 (NG5) level. NG5 is the same level as a Registered Nurse/Midwife. It is not possible to appoint a person permanently to a graduate role. However, there is an ongoing and continuing need for permanent NG5 Registered Nurses and Midwives.