Why Developing a Job Leveling System is Worthwhile

 
Division of Labor and Growing Pains

Organizations aren’t born into existence as large and complex constellations of purpose, people, processes, and projects. They often start small, with the seed of an idea which is then tended to as it grows and is supported by its ecosystem. At some point during an organization’s growth and development, a clear division of labor becomes necessary over and above simply organizing tasks and responsibilities into individual jobs. This is where defining job levels and how all jobs work together in an organization, commonly referred to in whole as job architecture, can create a scalable blueprint for additional organizational growth.

Putting It Into Practice

Let’s illustrate a scenario.

At Kenny’s Kittens, a staff of four currently works to support this nonprofit clinic for rescued kittens. The current jobs are Executive Director, Program Manager, Administrative Assistant, and Development Manager. A recent donation has expanded the budget, and there are new plans to both double the events held onsite in the next year and build a new addition to the current shelter/visitation space. The Executive Director believes that at least four new hires are needed in total to manage the additional work, plus a contract project manager to assist specifically with coordinating the construction work.

A constellation of decisions must be made in preparation for this growth. Some immediate questions come to my mind for exploration:

• What specific jobs need to be created based on the new, expanded work to be performed?
• How complex will these new jobs be?
• How will the new jobs impact currently existing jobs?
• What tasks will they absorb from other roles?
• What tasks will be newly developed for serving the goals and mission of the organization?
• How will the reporting structure change/who will have direct reports who didn’t before?
• What are the expected qualifications or experience needed for a role to directly manage another role?
• How does this organization-wide growth influence internal compensation practices?
• What new positions could be considered positions of comparable character to existing positions?

All these questions and more will need to be addressed, and they may not have quick or simple answers.

Without a Scalable System

It can take a significant amount of time and frustration to renovate a house while you are also trying to live in it. Similar sentiments can be expressed regarding trying to develop a job leveling framework while simultaneously trying to hire and meet business objectives, while also redesigning the entire flow of how jobs work together based on their tasks and relationships. Changes to one job may have a significant impact on the duties of another, and general confusion of who is supposed to be doing what can cause unnecessary stress and anxiety.

With a Job Leveling Framework

With a predetermined framework, many necessary decisions can be made simpler, faster, and overall more informed. For example, what separates the Executive Director’s job from the Administrative Assistant’s job at Kenny’s Kittens? A job level framework answers that question. It also gives a point of reference for what should be included in any new jobs that would be intended as a peer job for existing jobs. Job classes or Classifications are used to explain groupings of similar jobs by their common attributes. Classification can also show how job levels change as the classification/job class gets closer to the top of the organization’s hierarchy. Separately from a framework, specific job duties would be assigned to individual jobs within a classification. The individual duties or day-to-day work is where differentiation takes place within a classification.

A framework for Kenny’s Kittens might look a little like this:

In the chart, a Program Manager and a Development Manager are both in the Manager job class. These roles likely have very different duties day-to-day, but they are considered the same “class” based on the attributes they have in common (i.e., responsibility, impact, experience, education, and pay grade).

Make a System You Can Use

By defining each element that contributes to an individual job, a system is created. This system can also include codes and labels to further differentiate roles within an HRIS or other platform for documentation purposes. However, a key part of this work is identifying and defining what comprises each level of jobs in your organization’s hierarchy.  Some benefits of having a system like this in place include:

• Increased agility to respond to audits and/or regulatory requirements (e.g., equal pay analyses, wage complaints, etc.)
• Pre-defines levels for new jobs to be developed
• Brings clarity to internal relationships and who is accountable at what level for what specific outcomes, behaviors, etc.
• Helps to ensure fairness in other internal practices (e.g., one standard, common bonus target for all jobs in specific classification)

Making informed decisions quickly is a significant business advantage in our current environment, where saving time can often mean saving money (and stress!).

Want to learn even more? Join us on November 5 from 8:30-9:30 am for our newest webinar, What Do You Do For Work? The Importance of Accuracy in Job Titling, where we’ll focus on one aspect of job architecture: job titles. We hope to see you there!

Need help managing through a project like this? Our Compensation Team has your back, let’s tackle this together!