The Importance Of Down-To-Earth Job Titles And Descriptions

Finding the best match

Companies often try to create “feel good” or creative job titles to inspire an upbeat atmosphere and to market positions to attract candidates.  However, these attractive titles are often confusing, frustrating, unrealistic and unproductive. 

Candidates, employees and employers do not know where or how or at what level these titles fit into an organization. Trying to be creative and inspirational, companies sometimes overlook the true purpose and level of job titles. 

A good down to earth job title and job description should enable:
 

Let’s consider the following fictional, but very possible scenario:

Sarah Menendez, a manager in an accounting department, just graduated with her MBA.  She applies for a position as a Director of Accounting for XYZ Company, a large, well known corporation. Ava Smith, a recruiter from XYZ, calls Sarah to discuss the position. 

After telling Sarah about the company and describing the job briefly, Ava asks, “What are your salary expectations, Sarah?”

Remembering her negotiation skills, Sarah responds, “What is the designated salary range for the position?” 

Ava, with some embarrassment, confides in Sarah, “The position title is Director of Accounting, Sarah.  However, the position is not really a Director position. It is mostly a hands-on position with solid accounting experience and no management responsibility.  A small percentage of the job duties require training others on the team--that’s why it is called a Director position.”

 Sarah was puzzled until Ava states the salary range. Sarah immediately understands why Ava prefaced the salary range with an explanation of the inaccurately designated position. The salary range is 40K lower than what she is currently making and much lower than what might be expected for a true director level position. They finish discussing the position and salary range in depth. By the end of their phone conversation, they both agree that the position is not a match.

Sarah and Ava have both experienced the effects of a poorly written title and job description. Since her interview, Sarah does not trust Company XYZ, feels they are incompetent, and does not plan on wasting any more time applying for positions with them in the future. Ava is worried she may lose her own job because she cannot fill the position and/or develop a good pipeline of possible candidates. Also, she feels erroneous job titles may be resulting in poor branding and loss of good candidates for the company.  

Considering this scenario, we see why job titles and job descriptions need to be simple and unambiguous, especially for recruitment and compensation purposes. Candidates need to know at a glance the real position title, level, and compensation to determine if it is the right position and level to serve the client or company well and/or to make a switch to a new company.  Recruiters need to be able to market their open job requisitions honestly and realistically and develop solid, credible pipelines of candidates. 

Now that we have considered this scenario and what job titles need to be, let’s go back in time to basic job titles. Job titles were initially defined to help candidates and future employees understand how they fit into the organization, and what role they would play for their company.

Historically, there were clerks, supervisors, managers and executives. These titles might be prefaced with a departmental name, such as “accounting” clerk. Level might be indicated by adding an adjective, such as “senior” accounting clerk. Let’s look at our historic model:

Level: Entry level, Mid-level, Senior
+
Basic title:  Clerk, Supervisor, Manager, Executive
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Department/Subject:  Accounting, Human Resource, Finance, Engineering, etc.
Now let’s analyze and apply our historic model to the Accounting Director position title and change the “feel good” title to a real, pragmatic title.  Ava told Sarah a couple of facts about the position listed here:
 

With no management responsibility, this is not a supervisor/manager/executive position. It is a clerical position. Since the employer is asking for both solid experience and even training, we know it is a senior position and the position has solid staff responsibilities. Hence, I would title this position, “Senior Accounting Clerk” as the majority of responsibility is accounting.  Training should be listed under job duties for the job description.

What happens when we utilize this historic model? Looking at the scenario with Sarah and Ava, the position title did not match up to the unexpected, much lower salary range, did it? Now, the position title and level fit the salary range. This is very important to both the candidate and to the company marketing to candidates. Compensation which is in line with the position title helps to build trust between the candidates/employees and the company. More trust equals better branding. Better branding drives candidates to apply to companies. Recruiters can develop larger pipelines and better quality matches. Everyone wins!

Additional Resources:
The 21 Most Creative Job Titles, Josh Linkner
Occupational Outlook Handbook

Nancy Gillman is HR Consultant/Owner of RGCS. Nancy’s background includes: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of complex Human Resource infrastructure (people, processes, practices, environment etc.) as well as change management. Her projects have been both onsite and offsite depending on the needs of the client. Her clients have ranged from small businesses to Fortune 500, from start-ups to growth to mature businesses. She has also taught Business and Technology courses at the Secondary and College level.