The job classification system: helping you find your way around the company’s various roles

The decision to undertake such a project is often driven by a specific objective: training policy, mobility, remuneration, forward-looking job management, workforce planning, etc. In 2023, for example, many companies in the metalworking sector updated their job reference frameworks to coincide with the introduction of the sector’s new collective agreement-based classification system.

Whatever the reason for establishing a job classification framework, this presents an opportunity to turn it into a project with a broader scope, enabling managers, operational staff and HR professionals to identify the unique job-specific skills that underpin the company’s success.

A job classification framework can be defined as a structured document setting out a company’s business lines, the main roles within each business line, and finally the skills and responsibilities associated with each role. It is neither a catalogue of job descriptions nor a list of roles. Developing it requires an analytical approach to establish a cross-functional and shared understanding of the company’s business lines and skills.

Its main uses are recruitment, development, training, job management and career paths. It forms a foundation for developing classifications and for remuneration policy. Finally, it is also useful for HR analytics, making the available job-related data usable and interpretable.

Projects to develop job classification systems can therefore lie at the intersection of several functions, such as the Talent Department and the Remuneration Department.

Why set up a job classification system?

What are the keys to a successful project? And with AI, in 2024, how and why should a job classification system be implemented?

The job classification system will highlight the conditions for moving from one job to another, and the pathways for progression within a profession.

As the corporate world has evolved significantly with new organisational models and agile organisations, it is necessary to design job classifications that are independent of organisations that change very rapidly. It is also important to avoid overly granular approaches, which risk becoming obsolete too quickly, whilst maintaining a certain level of precision.

The decision to undertake such a project is often driven by a specific objective: training policy, mobility, remuneration, forward-looking job management, workforce planning, etc. In 2023, for example, many companies in the metalworking sector updated their job classification frameworks to coincide with the introduction of the sector’s new collective agreement-based classification system.

Whatever the motivation for establishing a job classification system, this opportunity can be seized to turn it into a project with a broader scope, enabling managers, operational staff and HR professionals to identify the unique job-specific skills that underpin the company’s success.

A job classification framework can be defined as a structured document setting out a company’s business lines, the main roles within each business line, and finally the skills and responsibilities associated with each role. It is neither a catalogue of job descriptions nor a list of roles. Developing it requires an analytical approach to establish a cross-functional and shared understanding of the company’s business lines and skills.

Its main uses are recruitment, development, training, job management and career paths. It forms a foundation for developing classifications and for remuneration policy. Finally, it is also useful for HR analytics to make the available job-related data usable and interpretable.

Projects to develop job classification frameworks can therefore lie at the intersection of several functions, such as the Talent Department and the Remuneration Department.

How does clarifying job roles help to better address all these issues?

Firstly, the job classification system enables the mapping of the company’s jobs and the skills it requires to successfully implement its strategy.
Two companies in the same sector may operate in significantly different ways. The job classification system can reflect these differences in both substance and form, which will also reveal the corporate culture: a centralised or decentralised model, the level of autonomy of roles with equivalent skills, variations in responsibility within a functional area, leadership expectations, and so on.

Like a navigation map, the job framework enables people to find their bearings amidst the diversity of roles and thus to identify ‘landmarks visible from afar’ – the benchmark roles.

The benefits of this map are numerous: for staff, it will enable a better understanding of possible roles and career paths and the ability to envisage themselves in a new role; it therefore facilitates mobility and enables staff to ‘chart a course’ within the organisation; for management, it enables them to shape the future and reflect the organisation’s evolution.

To structure the framework and make it clear, it is necessary to catalogue the benchmark roles. Depending on the size and complexity of the organisation, these account for 10 to 20 per cent of the company’s roles. These benchmark roles will therefore enable everyone to find their place within the organisation.

Like a map, job mapping has two dimensions: a first ‘East-West’ axis and a second ‘North-South’ axis.

1. The first axis, East–West, corresponds to job categories (also known as domains or job families). To structure the reference framework and make it clear, the job families and sub-families must be listed. The complexity of the framework and the hierarchy can take many forms, depending on the sector, the size and complexity of the organisation, and also its culture.
   For example, one might refer to a single sector for IT, or to numerous families centred around IT, or to a single large ‘Support’ family encompassing all support functions, including IT.
2. The second axis of analysis, North–South, relates to the scale of responsibilities. It enables us to measure progression within a profession from the entry level to the highest level in terms of complexity, demands and skills. This will enable us to identify the various steps involved in progressing within the career path: for example, in a logistics career path, from a warehouse operator to a Supply Chain Director. We will then define the conditions for progression within the profession. At this stage, a job grading methodology can be used to define the level of responsibility associated with a job as precisely and objectively as possible, and to enable comparisons to be made between different career paths. This approach is particularly useful when discussing roles of equal value.

Once these two axes have been defined, it is then possible to position a post according to which career path it belongs to (east-west axis) and its level of responsibility (north-south axis). The process of mapping will be all the simpler if the framework has been defined in a way that is clear to everyone, with an appropriate level of detail.

What about the level of detail of the framework’s axes?

The current trend is towards relatively broad frameworks that are easy to maintain, reflecting a need for agility and ease of system maintenance in constantly evolving environments.
A more narrowly defined system with a very high level of granularity will allow for more precise management of skills and/or remuneration, but will be more demanding to maintain and update. Suitable for ‘functional’ and stable organisations, it will not be appropriate for highly dynamic environments.

The framework will therefore enable better navigation within the organisation and provide a much clearer, shared view of roles, career paths and pathways.

Internal mobility can then be assessed by analysing the conditions required to move from one point to another on the map. How closely aligned are the roles, skills and aptitudes between these two points?
This analysis of alignments from a mobility perspective can therefore be carried out along these two axes: North–South and East–West; an analysis of the proximity of skills within a sector, a broad family of roles or beyond, and also higher requirements in terms of contributions, know-how and behavioural skills linked to an increase in the responsibilities entrusted.

The framework will also serve as a valuable resource for assessing and taking stock of the current and future organisation, enabling a forward-looking approach to strategic workforce planning: growing roles, critical roles, etc
. The organisation will thus be better placed to consider its recruitment and training needs in order to plan and define them.
It will also be able to capitalise much more effectively on existing skills and identify new pathways between roles that it might not necessarily have identified without having carried out this preliminary work.

Furthermore, the structuring of career paths and sub-paths, as well as the analysis of what drives progression within roles in terms of responsibility, are also extremely valuable, as they enable a better understanding and characterisation of the assumption of responsibility within the organisation.

And what about recognition and remuneration?

This approach will also help to explain pay gaps between similar roles by drawing on objective factors such as differences in the job content between the two roles, and the resulting difference in classification. This shared classification structure enables fairer decisions to be made and explained.

At a time when skills shortages and inflation are two major areas of concern, this ability to have a remuneration policy that is understood, fair and motivating is critical.

What information should be included in the descriptive section of the framework? Tasks? Skills? Key figures? It is important to focus on the ‘why’ of the job – on the role’s objectives rather than its specific tasks.

Is this project worthwhile? I think everyone who has carried it out can attest to that!

What is certain is that the quality of the mapping will have a direct impact on how we understand the roles within the organisation and how we manage to find our place within it.

Mapping experts know that a map is, first and foremost, a perspective: the choice of axes, the quality of the legend, the choice of locations to include, and the scale: to ensure the map’s readability and longevity, it is vital to ask the right questions before embarking on this fundamental, long-term project.

Of course, with AI and digitalisation, a vast amount of information is now available on jobs. Whilst this can significantly reduce the time taken to draft the content, it does not, however, eliminate the need to consider the realities on the ground, otherwise the reference framework risks being completely ‘out of touch’.

So, happy browsing! And please do not hesitate to contact us regarding your mapping and business reference framework projects!