Mortgage support award classification: describe the work behind the title

Before finalising pay for an Australian mortgage-support employee, describe the work behind the title. Record what the person prepares, which process decisions they make, what supervision they receive and whether they direct colleagues. A statement that the broker approves lending decisions leaves several of those questions unanswered.

This guide prepares an award-coverage and classification discussion with your employment adviser or Fair Work. It does not assign a legal level or wage rate. The three work profiles and completed offer-input example are fictional; they concern a proposed directly employed, onshore role.

Establish coverage before comparing levels

Start with the employing entity, what its business actually does, the proposed employee's duties and any applicable agreement. Ask the responsible reviewer to establish the workplace system and instrument before selecting a classification. Do not apply Australian award rules automatically to an overseas supplier's employee.

The Banking, Finance and Insurance Award covers employers in the defined industry and employees performing work within its classifications, subject to its exclusions. Clause 4.2 includes broking among related services. Clause 4.7 addresses employees where an employer is covered by more than one award. These provisions require examination of the actual arrangement; a brokerage's name is not a complete coverage assessment.

Nor should a clerical-sounding title automatically send the role to another instrument. Clause 4.4(f) of the Clerks—Private Sector Award excludes employers covered by the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award with respect to employees covered by that award. Resolve the coverage question before comparing pay tables.

Describe process discretion alongside broker review

In each fictional profile below, the broker retains product recommendations and substantive lending decisions. That common boundary does not describe the whole support job. One worker follows a fixed receipt process; another organises their own preparation queue; a third directs colleagues and maintains service standards.

Use two separate descriptions: what must return to the broker, and what the support employee is expected to decide within their own work. The second might include sequencing requests, identifying process exceptions, explaining an established procedure or allocating tasks. Record the actual limits rather than treating every decision as either lending advice or simple data entry.

Fair Work's classification guidance says to read the full definitions and consider the factors together, including duties, skills, experience and supervision. The main purpose and substantial work matter, including the nature, circumstances and time spent on duties. It recommends considering the role as a whole and comparing nearby classifications. This is not a points test.

Compare three jobs carrying the same title

All three fictional vacancies initially say “Mortgage Broker Assistant”. The differences below belong in the review record. They are not three legal classifications or a progression ladder.

Work profile	Actual decisions and supervision	Evidence and unresolved question
Receipt and appointment support. The employee logs documents against a supplied list, records appointments and sends approved reminders. The manager sets the queue and resolves mismatched information.	The worker follows the agreed sequence, checks receipt and refers uncertainty. They do not choose what evidence will satisfy the broker or direct other staff.	Take the task list, reminder wording and an escalation example. Confirm whether this describes the continuing job or only a restricted first-week training period.
Application preparation. The employee assembles broker-approved packs, reconciles supplied facts and tracks the outstanding requests assigned to them.	They plan their own work sequence and draft factual exception correspondence within guidelines. The broker reviews conflicting evidence and substantive decisions; the manager is not choosing every next administrative step.	Take a preparation example and identify which process exceptions the employee can resolve. “The broker checks the file” does not answer how much direction the employee needs while preparing it.
Preparation with team coordination. The employee prepares files, allocates ready tasks to two support colleagues, reviews preparation quality and coaches recurring errors.	They are expected to maintain the support queue and service standards within agreed limits. Broker lending decisions remain separate. Describe who directs colleagues and who approves process changes.	Take an ordinary week's duty mix, allocation examples and the coaching responsibility. Establish whether staff direction is incidental assistance or a continuing, substantial part of the job.

The award's Schedule A uses progressively different descriptions of skills, knowledge, discretion and responsibility. Its Level 3 indicative list includes “loans processing officer”. Use that as a reason to inspect the full definition and surrounding levels, rather than assign a level from a matching phrase. The table above supplies facts for that assessment; it does not override the award.

Correct the offer inputs in a worked example

Suppose the owner chooses the third profile but sends payroll a brief saying “assistant, basic administration, all work supervised by the broker”. The budget copies a minimum-rate assumption from a previous receipt-only vacancy. The owner has not yet obtained a classification review for the new work.

In this constructed week, the proposed role contains 15 task hours of preparation, nine of allocation and queue coordination, four of coaching and quality work, and two of operational reporting. These 30 hours are illustrative duty observations, not paid-hours rules, productivity benchmarks or a formula for classification. They expose work omitted from the original brief.

The manager replaces the misleading inputs with this completed record:

• Role purpose: Prepare assigned mortgage files and coordinate the support team's daily delivery. Both contributions are recurring.
• Process decisions: Sequence own requests, allocate ready work within agreed priorities and organise coaching on approved procedures. Escalate unresolved priority conflicts and proposed process changes.
• Retained broker decisions: Product recommendations, conflicting evidence requiring substantive assessment and the agreed file-release decisions. These do not describe all day-to-day supervision.
• Evidence supplied: The proposed weekly duty mix, a fictional allocation example, the coaching remit and the exact points requiring manager direction.
• Employment-review question: Confirm the applicable instrument and assess the whole role against its classification definitions. The old receipt-role assumption is marked unverified for this vacancy.
• Offer owner and next action: The brokerage principal obtains the review outcome and updates the pay calculation and offer inputs before finalising the offer.

Completed decision: Keep the actual coordination duties visible and hold the unsupported pay assumption. Do not select a convenient level, remove responsibilities from the paperwork while retaining them in practice, or describe the result as an approved classification. The unresolved item is now a specific employment question rather than a vague instruction to “check the award”.

Keep the record aligned with the work

For a new vacancy, label duties as proposed and distinguish normal work from supported onboarding. For an existing employee, ask what they actually do and compare that with the written description. Record a discrepancy instead of selecting whichever version supports the preferred budget.

Fair Work also recommends reviewing classifications when duties, responsibility, relevant training or qualifications change. A recurring coordination responsibility therefore belongs in the review conversation, even if the title stays the same. That recommendation does not mean every additional task produces an automatic level change.

If the discussion reveals a possible existing classification or pay problem, take it promptly through the appropriate employment-advice and correction process. Do not treat this prospective hiring exercise as a back-pay calculation or use a future offer review to defer an existing concern.

Carry the outcome into recruitment

Retain the confirmed coverage and classification outcome, its basis, the duty-description version and the date with the responsible employment record. Then use the staff-cost worksheet to budget the confirmed arrangement, rather than asking the worksheet to determine it.

Keep the candidate-facing duties consistent with the reviewed work. The processor hiring brief can hold the inputs, outputs and working windows. Use the separate support activity and authority guide for the licensee's task assessment; an employment classification does not supply that answer.

When you discuss your support hiring brief, bring the actual work profile and identify any employment questions still awaiting resolution. Confirm the service scope directly; this guide does not state that a recruitment service provides employment-law advice or determines your award classification.