Imagine a workplace where everyone understands what different roles and titles entail. Where employees know exactly how to take the next step in their careers. And where salary structures are crystal clear. Does it feel like a distant dream? Then your company needs job architecture. Here’s how it works!
What Is Job Architecture?
The term job architecture is gaining traction, especially in light of the EU’s new Pay Transparency Directive, which is expected to come into effect in Sweden by 2026.
But what exactly does job architecture encompass? In short, it is a logical and systematic way of defining various roles within an organization, how they relate to one another, and how they are linked to different salary levels. It involves mapping out job responsibilities, competency requirements, and career progression in a way that ensures transparency for both employers and employees.
Job architecture typically consists of six key components:
Job Families – Groups of roles with similar functions, responsibilities, and competencies.
Job Descriptions – Detailed listings of the tasks and responsibilities associated with each role.
Job Evaluation – A structured ranking of job roles based on criteria such as knowledge, responsibility, and effort.
Title Structure – A logical framework for job titles within the organization, ideally based on job descriptions and evaluations.
Career Paths – Clear and structured development paths for employees within the organization.
Salary Ranges – Defined salary intervals for different roles and levels, based on job evaluation and market data.
Read more: Pay Surverys – Eight Questions and Answers
Why Does My Company Need Job Architecture?
A well-defined job architecture benefits employees, managers, and the organization as a whole.
It helps to:
- clarify roles and responsibilities within the company
- streamline recruitment and onboarding processes
- facilitate fair, transparent, and competitive salary structures
- support salary discussions by equipping managers with clear justifications for pay
- decisions
- define career progression, reduce employee turnover, and enhance engagement and motivation
- enable a more strategic approach to workforce planning.
Most importantly, a structured job architecture makes it easier to comply with the upcoming Pay Transparency Directive. While the directive does not explicitly mandate companies to establish job architecture, organizations that implement it will be better positioned to meet the regulatory requirements. Structuring and documenting roles and responsibilities is a crucial step toward ensuring equal pay for equal work and communicating salary levels transparently.
Checklist: Seven Steps to Building a Job Architecture
1. Create (or Update) Job Descriptions
Start by reviewing your job descriptions. Are they comprehensive and up to date? A well-crafted job description should include the job title, key responsibilities, tasks, required skills and experience, and reporting lines. Additional details such as work environment requirements, expected working hours, and role-specific goals can also be useful.
Clearly defining roles ensures that both employees and managers share a common understanding of expectations, forming a solid foundation for salary structures and career development.
2. Conduct a Job Evaluation
The next step is to do a job evaluation – assessing each role based on four key criteria: knowledge and skills, responsibility, effort, and working conditions. This structured ranking process helps identify equivalent jobs and ensures an objective basis for salary decisions.
Job evaluation should be part of the annual salary review process, clarifying how different roles relate to one another and forming an integral part of job architecture.
Read more: Job Evaluation – How Does It Work?
3. Establish a Clear Job Title Structure
How are job titles determined at your company? Are they clear enough—or do they perhaps create more confusion than clarity? Start with the job evaluation and build a well-thought-out title structure that corresponds to the organization’s levels and their different requirements and responsibilities. With a crystal-clear structure, it becomes easier for employees to understand exactly how they contribute to the organization and what development opportunities exist.
Also, keep in mind that much can be gained by sticking to established and standardized titles rather than niche and creative ones. This will facilitate both recruitment and the process of benchmarking salaries, as it is easier to compare salary levels for equivalent titles at other companies.
4. Organize Roles into Job Families
Everything in order with job descriptions, job evaluation, and titles – check. Now it’s time to create job families. As the name suggests, this involves grouping roles into larger families, specifically based on similarities in job tasks, competency requirements, and areas of responsibility. For example, finance personnel can be grouped into the Finance job family, IT specialists and technicians into the IT and Technology job family, and production and logistics personnel into the Production and Logistics job family. In larger organizations, it is also common to work with sub-job families. For instance, the Finance job family could be divided into the three sub-job families of Accounting, Controlling, and Payroll.
So, what is the purpose of this? Well, creating job families makes it easier to manage career development and salary setting by clarifying the skills and experiences required in each area. By ensuring that all parts of the job architecture – job descriptions and titles, job evaluation, and job families – connect in a logical way, a clear thread is created that helps both employees and managers understand career paths and salary determination.
5. Define Career Paths
It’s actually self-evident – when employees have a clear vision ahead of them, their engagement and willingness to stay and grow with the company increases. The next step is therefore to establish clear career paths that are connected to job families and specific roles, making it as easy as possible for employees to see the development opportunities available.
For example, an employee might start as a junior in a job family, progress to a senior role, or even transition into a different job family to gain new skills and experience. Career paths should be realistic and reflect the skills and responsibilities associated with each level.
6. Align with Salary Ranges
With job descriptions, evaluations, job families, titles, and career paths in place, the next step is defining salary ranges – expected compensation for each role and level. The goal is to create a transparent and fair salary structure that helps employees understand how their pay is determined and what they can do to influence their salary progression.
When setting salary ranges, base them on market data, work tasks, and competency requirements for each role. Salary ranges should be clear, equitable, and provide room for growth within each level.
Did you know that under the upcoming Pay Transparency Directive, companies must provide salary range information to employees upon request? Even job seekers will have the right to know salary ranges – either in job postings or early in the hiring process.
7. Evaluate, Update, and Communicate!
A job architecture isn’t something you build once and forget – it requires continuous updates to remain effective. Here are some key actions to keep in mind:
- Ensure employees have access to clear and up-to-date information about job architecture, such as through an internal HR portal.
- Gather feedback from HR, managers, and employees on how job architecture is working and make adjustments as needed.
- Regularly review job descriptions, evaluations, and salary ranges to ensure relevance. Are there organizational changes or market shifts that require updates?
Forget the Spreadsheets – Streamline Your Work with Flex HRM!
Struggling to structure job architecture and salary mapping? Ditch the complex spreadsheets and limited overview! Flex HRM simplifies the process with automated workflows and all the data you need in one easy-to-use interface.
Do you have any questions about how Flex HRM would work for you and your team? Or are you curious to see the system in action right now? Feel free to contact us!
