Segal Company

Job Structure and Evaluation System

An effective compensation program begins with a thorough understanding of the organization's jobs and in particular, the relationships between job functions, titles, and families. This lays the foundation for the development and support of a sound pay for performance system that has accurate and current job documentation information.

Common issues:

  • Our organization has evolved to the point where almost every individual has a unique title. How do we fix this problem?
  • The employees within our communications area are having a difficult time understanding the skills needed to move from one level to the next. Can you help us develop criteria for each of the levels?

Sibson helps companies with the following:

Develop or revise job description process: Sibson helps organizations either develop a new or revise an existing job description framework that accurately reflects a position's primary job responsibilities and the necessary skills, experience, and competencies needed for an individual to perform the basic job duties and functions of his or her position.

Revise titling guidelines and conventions: A consistent set of definitions and titling conventions for common job titles facilitates comparisons against like jobs in the marketplace, and provides alignment of titles across the organization, and a clear progression in determining reporting relationships. Job titles may be broad or specific in nature depending upon an organization's business, its operating strategy, and its desire for an internal vs. external focus.

Develop criteria for key job levels/families: A clear grouping of jobs in which the work performed is of similar nature, is necessary from both an internal and external perspective. Externally, job families ensure that appropriate comparison markets are identified, that an organization's pay position is responsive to market pressures, and that roles and titles are reflective of market practices to facilitate the recruitment and retention of qualified staff. Internally, identifying roles that perform similar work across all areas of the organization help ensure consistency of pay and titling for these positions and clarify career opportunities for staff.