Professional and scientific (P&S) employees -- or their managers -- have another week to reflect on the accuracy of their job profiles in the new P&S classification and compensation system. Requests for a title review must be submitted online by Friday, July 24.
Local HR service delivery teams will evaluate the requests for a review and send managers' final decisions to the classification and compensation team in university human resources (UHR) for a final review and resolution. UHR will email decisions to employees; managers and HR partners receive a copy, too. The project is on target for completion by late August.
On the fence about your new job title? This 16-minute presentation in CyBox on the new P&S classification structure may add clarity. Other resources on the project website also help explain it.
For those who are uncertain about the "fit" of their new job title, UHR classification and compensation director Emma Mallarino Houghton offered a few suggestions about what is -- and isn't -- a good reason to request a job title review. It's important, she noted, to not make comparisons between the new market-based classification system and the 28-year-old system the university will retire at the end of August. The new system reflects best practices in classification and compensation and will help Iowa State as an employer adapt to job market changes, she said.
Observation: The education and experience requirement in my job profile doesn't match my experience and skill set.
The minimum qualifications on the job profile are just that: the absolute minimum required qualifications (lowest level of acceptable education and/or experience) to successfully perform the job duties. It may not have any bearing on the person who ends up in the title, and it's likely their qualifications exceed the minimum qualifications. We also use preferred qualifications on a job posting to find the right candidate. Preferred or desirable criteria enhance a person's capacity to do the job. For example, in some fields, 10 years of valuable work experience better equip a candidate to be successful in a job than a bachelor's degree could. If the degree is not part of the minimum requirements, the manager still has the option to prefer it.
Requirements shouldn't be so restrictive they present artificial barriers or exclude candidates who reasonably have the ability to do the job. They need to be practical and obtainable in the general labor market.
Observation: The job description section (summary, examples of duties, level guidelines) addresses less than half of the work I do.
If the job summary, duty examples or level guidelines match just a small portion of your work, this is a valid reason to request a job title review. The appropriate job profile (as a whole) should reflect 50% or more of the work you do and the responsibilities you have on a day-to-day basis.
Observation: My new job title doesn't go far enough to describe MY job.
In Workday, the job profile is not intended to be like a position description in the old system. From a classification perspective, we don't need to know everything you do at the granular level. The job profile is a very, very high-level description of a job and reflects the essential functions of the job, but it doesn't lay out everything you do. It should reflect a 50% fit -- or more -- with the work you do.
The "examples of duties" listed in a job profile are just that: examples that help describe what it means to be in that classification. However, an employee doesn't have to do everything on the list.
We want employees to understand that they will grow through the levels of their job series. The growth takes time, experience and an ability to acquire the skills that define the next level.
If a manager and an employee want a document that lays out expectations in greater detail about day-to-day responsibilities, we have a template, called the position description responsibility document, that looks similar to the old position description in which percentages of duties are spelled out. But in the new system, no one needs that document to classify or promote an employee. Contact your HR service delivery coordinator to request the document template.
Observation: My job title isn't helpful and provides no insight to what I do.
When we built this system, we developed job profiles that better describe the work P&S employees do, but we never intended to create job profiles for individual employees -- and that's actually a good thing. We don't want a system with 3,200 job profiles.
For those who are interested, we are allowing P&S employees to use business titles -- also called working titles -- as long as the proposed working title doesn't misrepresent the level of an employee's job or duplicate an actual job title in the system. If a group of employees all do the same thing, it's appropriate for them to have the same working title for some consistency across the organization.
It's up to unit leaders to approve working titles, which then go to the HR service delivery team for final approval. We're trying to be quite flexible with working titles. The aid we created helps P&S employees decide if they need one.
Observation: The examples of duties in my job profile (level II) match what I do; however, I've worked here a long time and feel I should be at level III.
A job title includes the job level; they don't live separately. For example, grants specialist II identifies a grants specialist at individual contributor level II. If you want to be at the next level (grants specialist III), you have to be doing the work described for that level and your unit must have a need for that level of work. Simply working at the university for a long time doesn't guarantee the next level. In this scenario, if the summary, duty examples and level accurately reflect the work the employee does, it's the right job profile assignment. Grants specialist III should be the aspirational, promotion opportunity as the level of responsibility grows.
