Job Catalogue: the silent force behind a decisive and efficient HR policy
When making the transition to a (new) HRIT system, companies operating at an international level cannot ignore a job catalogue. What exactly is this, why is standardization a must and what do job catalogues offer organizations? Hassan Shakeri, Business Consultant at SuccessDay, answers all these questions in this blog.
The implementation of an HRIT system is often a big step for a company, especially when it comes to replacing numerous (older) systems or setting up a new system from scratch. There are many different aspects to take into account during the implementation of an HRIT system. Read our other blogs too. If you want to ensure that everything runs smoothly and that the system seamlessly meets your company’s needs, drawing up a job catalogue is something that is definitely worth considering, emphasizes Hassan, who has already done just this for several internationally operating companies on behalf of SuccessDay.
But what exactly is a job catalogue? Essentially it is a list of all positions and duties within a company, along with information about the responsibilities, requirements, level of authority and salary scale relating to each position. Hassan: “It is an essential tool for HR departments to be able to determine what expertise they already have in house and what talent is still missing, but also what is expected of each employee and how their performance can be measured. Moreover, a job catalogue can also be useful for employees. It can help them to understand what is needed to perform their job well, how they can grow within the company and which steps and additional training may be necessary for this.”
One central location
Compiling a job catalogue is an important aspect in the implementation of an HRIT system because it ensures that all the essential information relating to the job positions within the company – both at home and abroad – is gathered in one central location. This makes it easier to search through and access this information when necessary. Furthermore, the job catalogue can be managed and updated using an HRIT system, which ensures that the information is always relevant and up to date.
A job catalogue can also be a useful tool during the recruitment process. It can help identify the right candidate for a certain position. “If a job catalogue clearly defines what is expected of an employee and what skills and experience are required for a particular position, it helps HR departments to recruit and select the right candidates for job vacancies”, explains Hassan. A job catalogue can also be used to quickly and easily compile job descriptions, because all the necessary information has already been collected and recorded.
According to Hassan, other advantages of a job catalogue are that you can benchmark whether the remuneration you offer is in line with market standards and whether there are any major differences in salary between employees performing the same job. “It makes it much fairer and more transparent.”
A job catalogue also helps if you want to compare different countries, factories or business units. Financial reports or the organization structure are often not enough. As such, SuccessDay recently helped a client where in one country all the secretaries had been entered under one category (HR). Another client reported the number of people from the Warehouse department, which in this case also included the cleaning staff. “This quickly gives a distorted impression. Categorizing based on job catalogue means that people performing the same activities are grouped together, regardless of where the expenses are booked or who reports to who. This gives much clearer insight.”
Furthermore, automatic role-based access control is easy with the help of a job catalogue, which takes your identity and access management (IAM) to a higher level. Finally, a job catalogue can provide insight into possible career steps that support an integrated talent development policy.
A job catalogue in eight steps
So, the advantages of a job catalogue are evident. But how do you go about putting one together? SuccessDay has compiled a step-by-step plan for this and can of course provide support and advice where needed. “Generating a uniform job catalogue is a job in itself, for which organizations often have insufficient in-house capacity or knowledge. We can relieve organizations of this burden”, explains Hassan. The amount of work this requires depends on the level of maturity of the organization. Some organizations already use more standardization and structure than others. The more data-driven an organization is, the less work it will be.
The eight steps for creating a job catalogue are described below:
Step 1: Make a list of all jobs and describe them
Provide correct information about each employee and add a description. SuccessDay can provide a template for this list. Check the data. A distinction is made between must have and nice to have data. The more information you provide, the better the job profiles can be analyzed and defined. For each employee, this can include name, country, department, parent department, job title and job description, the job family and family group, skills, salary scale, currency, salary range and annual salary.
Step 2: Weigh the jobs
The weighting of each job helps organizations to compare these job positions and to define the different levels within the organizational hierarchy. The organization can use this for talent development and succession planning. Benchmarking is usually done by external consultancies such as Hays, Mercer or Korn Ferry. They use various characteristics to weigh a job, including working conditions, problem solving skills, responsibilities and knowledge. Hassan: “My advice is always to start with your core jobs.”
Step 3: Determine which elements of compensation apply
It is important to have a good understanding of the annual salary. This can be achieved by determining the compensation elements for each position and understanding how the annual salary is calculated. For example, are bonuses involved, is there a 13th month, holiday pay or allowances? The local cost of living can explain differences in the same job in different countries. SuccessDay has compiled a template for gathering the correct data per country. The more information you provide, the better the annual salary can be determined.
Step 4: Connect classifications to benefits
This step is necessary for creating a starting point for the global job level. The model for this depends on the method used by the external benchmark. You combine step 1 (jobs) with step 2 (classifications) and step 3 (annual salary). This defines salary ranges and their allocation to certain jobs.
The four aforementioned steps apply to the current situation (as-is), the following four steps apply to the future, desired situation (to-be):
Step 5: Create job hierarchy
To create a global structure for the execution of HR processes, HR policy and reports, it is necessary to create job hierarchy within the organization. If a Global Job Hierarchy already exists, no further action is necessary. If a global job hierarchy does not yet exist, or if there are several different local job hierarchies, you should start by analyzing all jobs and looking for similarities. In doing so, it is important to group jobs with the same kinds of activities and not to look at how costs are categorized or who employees report to.
Jobs/activities can then be grouped together to create job families and ultimately job family groups. SuccessDay has developed a template and method for creating the job hierarchy and can complete this step for organizations if desired.
Step 6: Move from local to global jobs
Using global job titles simplifies the execution of HR processes, HR policy and reporting. It provides insight into the essential job positions within the organization. You can do this by allocating global job titles to local job titles. SuccessDay has developed a template (table) for analyzing and aggregating jobs. Of course, the local job titles will continue to exist, so that employees can continue to associate with them.
Step 7: Fill in the translation matrix
To create the new job catalogue, you can use level definitions to assign the correct job classification to a job position. This is done by creating an overview (matrix) containing the Global Job Names, local job titles, Job Families and Job Family Groups based on steps 4, 5 and 6. You can then search for similarities based on the role descriptions of the local job titles. This generates definitions per level.
Step 8: Link salaries to salary scales
Assign salary scales to compensation packages for each global job title and transform the table from step 6 into an overview of all job titles. This creates a standardized process for awarding compensation to job positions, which in turn contributes to an honest and transparent remuneration policy. Now you can fill in the compensation package column in the Translation Matrix template from step 7.
How SuccessDay can help organizations
There are different ways that SuccessDay can help organizations compile a job catalogue. As well as consultancy and temporary support with interim HRIT professionals, the Eindhoven-based company can also assist its clients by helping them compile a job catalogue. The templates it provides can help HR departments to gather the right data about jobs within the organization in a structured and consistent way. SuccessDay can also share additional resources, such as examples of job catalogues that have been used by other companies, that will help HR departments to compile their own job catalogue.
Compiling a Job Catalogue for an HRIT implementation process is a tool that provides structure and gives more insight into your HR data and organization. This enables organizations to better shape their HR strategy. It answers questions like: which talents and competencies do we already have in-house and which competencies and jobs do we still need to fill? Which training courses are needed to enable employees to grow from junior to medior and from medior to senior? How do the various salaries compare with each other, but also with those of competitors? If you develop targeted policy for this, you will be able to improve employee satisfaction and increase employee retention figures. And that’s something we all need in the current labor market.
