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2 minute read
The first step in any compensation or job architecture project is understanding what jobs actually exist in your organization. Building and maintaining a global job catalog ensures that you have this information readily available if and when you need it.
What is a Global Job Catalog?
A global job catalog is a comprehensive database of all the job roles within an organization. It includes information such as job titles, job descriptions, job families, job levels, and salary bands. Basically, your entire job architecture is outlined in your job catalog.
To begin developing a job catalog, you will need to identify each unique job within your organization. People can share the same job, such as an Administrative Assistant. You will need to group like jobs together and identify each unique job. Once identified, you will need to create a unique job code for each unique job.
It’s important to note that a job is defined differently than a position. A job can be shared among many employees. An example of this is a Sales Representative. You can have 100 people in the same Sales Representative job. These 100 people will share one job code for a Sales Representative. However, each person will have a unique position. Therefore, 100 people who are Sales Representatives will have 100 different position codes. Positions are tied to the employee. Jobs can be shared among numerous employees.
Using Your Global Job Catalog
The catalog is designed to be accessible to all employees and serves as a central source of information. As such, it supports a number of HR functions and objectives, including:
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Talent Acquisition: Your job catalog can be used for job postings when it’s time to fill a position. If your catalog includes job descriptions, job levels, competencies, and skills, it makes job posting a breeze.
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Talent Management: Developing a career framework in your job catalog assists with transparency of career progression.
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Performance Management: Including competencies and skills in your job catalog can assist in offering a consistent performance management program throughout your organization.
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Learning & Development: Employees who want to develop within their role can use their job catalog to develop skills needed for other roles.
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Benefits: Certain benefits may only be available to certain job levels or job families. Having a job catalog enables appropriate filtering of data to ensure the correct groups receive those benefits.
And, of course, compensation teams see immense benefits from the job catalog, as well.
Compensation and Your Global Job Catalog
A global job catalog provides a standardized framework for categorizing job roles and responsibilities, which can help organizations create a consistent compensation structure across different geographies and ensure that they are paying their employees fairly.
The consistency that comes from a formalized job catalog that defines job roles and responsibilities is critical for accurate job matching. That translates to easier benchmarking and survey data analysis. Market pricing is an essential component of compensation planning, and a global job catalog makes it easier to compare compensation data across different geographies and industries. This helps organizations benchmark their compensation packages against competitors, ensuring that they are competitive in the market.
A global job catalog is also a tool to support pay equity and compliance with the growing body of pay transparency legislation. Including pay bands or job-based ranges in your global job catalog and making it accessible to your entire organization puts you in compliance with the current California law, which is the most stringent pay transparency legislation in the U.S.
As companies expand globally, a global job catalog is increasingly essential. The standardized approach to job titles and descriptions promotes equity and consistency in pay and career progression, helps to identify skill gaps and opportunities for career development, ensures compliance with local labor laws and regulations, and improves organizational agility and flexibility. Investing in a global job catalog will better equip your organization to attract and retain talent, stay competitive in the market, and drive your business forward.
