Case Study

Job Architecture - the Baseline for any Performance

A early-stage startup with around 100 employees lacked a consistent approach to job levels, titles, and salary structures. Employees complained about unclear career progressions, salary inconsistencies, and managers faced challenges in recruitment and retention. This eight-week project launched a structured job architecture, achieving transparency over performance expectations and career progressions.

Challenge

The company had no standardised job levels or titles, leading to inconsistencies in pay across departments and a lack of transparency for employees on their career progression.
Managers responsible for hiring struggled with offering salaries due to the absence of structured guidelines on new hire placement.
Both employees and managers lacked clarity on how career paths would fit into the organisation’s framework and vision.

Strategy

1. Defining job families

Grouping jobs by similar nature of work (e.g. Marketing & Sales, Engineering, Information Technology) structured roles around similar training, skills, and expertise.
Team experts segmented these families further into job functions (such as 'Sales' and 'Sales Operations') for better role differentiation.

2. Establishing job levels and generic titles

Distinct job levels were derived based on competencies, skills, and similar compensation, referenced by tech industry frameworks for titles and career progressions as baseline structure.
Grouping ensured consistency across departments while allowing room for team-specific adjustments.

3. Introducing career tracks

Creating individual contributor, expert, and management tracks provided fair career progression without forcing senior employees into management.

4. Company-wide alignment

Discussions with department heads and aligning with the executive team ensured a consistent launch execution to all employees.
After a final edits, all employees were mapped into the new structure and integrated into the firm's HRIS.

Results

A comprehensive job architecture provided structural clarity across the organisation. Over 20 workshops with senior management ensured a collaborative and well-aligned approach.
All employees were mapped into the new framework, providing clarity on career progression and compensation outlook.
Improved communication supported people managers in guiding employee questions, hiring, and compensation using the new framework.
Title and seniority adjustments were made where necessary to align with market standards and to promote internal fairness.

Impact

By implementing a structured job architecture, which included defined job families, job levels, and clear title guidelines, the company achieved greater transparency, improved talent acquisition, and a solid foundation for performance management programs.

Manager engagement is critical: Leaders need time to assess their teams and align them properly within the new structure. Establish an iterative levelling process.

Lessons learned

Don't rush, and phase implementation: Avoid setting expectations and job levels simultaneously to allow employees time to digest.

Flexibility is key: While a standardised framework is essential, allowing some adaptations helps to maintain agility, retention and market competitiveness.

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