A new position is created, a role changes, a department grows... Small changes that may not be very noticeable as day-to-day work continues, but which, over time, can have a significant impact on how roles are valued and salary levels are set. Here are our best tips for keeping job profiles up to date in your day-to-day work—and always having a reliable foundation for the next pay equity analysis.
This is part of our blog series on pay equity analysis in practice. In this series, we share concrete tips and best practices for those who want to get the most out of Pay Equity Compass—the tool that makes it easy to get everything right when it comes to pay equity analysis and pay transparency. Read the other parts here.
What is a job profile?
Before we continue, it might be helpful to do a quick recap of the terminology. What is a job profile? And how does it relate to the concepts of job architecture and job family, exactly?
Well, here’s the thing: a job profile can be described as a comprehensive picture of a job. It outlines the tasks, responsibilities, and requirements associated with the role, and serves as an umbrella for one or more positions that share similar content and have requirements at roughly the same level.
To put the job profile in context, we can think of it this way:
The job architecture is the overarching structure. It helps you organize the organization’s jobs into a logical whole and see how different roles relate to one another.
The job family identifies the business area to which the work belongs. For example, “IT & Digitalization” or “Maintenance & Real Estate.” This, then, is about what the role entails.
The job profile describes the work itself. Here, you group together positions that, in terms of content and requirements, correspond to the same or similar work, even if the titles differ.
In Pay Equity Compass, the job profile includes the following:
- name and description of the work
- current positions from your position registry
- career bands, which indicate the role’s level of responsibility
- salary range for new hires
- market salary data
- any internal classification
Learn more about Pay Equity Compass
New position? Add it right away.
Has a new position been added to the organization? Then it needs to be linked to the correct job profile.
In Pay Equity Compass, you can do this easily and smoothly. Just navigate to Pay Equity Compass > Job Architecture > Manage Job Profiles. There, you can search for the job profile that best matches the new position, edit the profile, and add the position directly from your position registry.
Let’s say, for example, that a new position titled “HR Coordinator” is being added. If the role corresponds to an existing job profile, such as “HR Specialist/HR Administration,” you can add the position there—updated and ready when it’s time for the pay equity analysis.
New role? Create and evaluate the job profile.
Sometimes a new position doesn’t fit into any existing job profile—it might involve a different kind of responsibility, different requirements, or a different level of difficulty. In that case, it’s time to create a new job profile by entering a name and description, linking relevant positions, and selecting a career band. You can also add details such as classification, salary range, and market salary.
Finally: keep in mind that new job profiles also need to be job-evaluated. By doing this right away, the profile will be ready when the pay equity analys begins, and you’ll avoid stressful last-minute updates.
Update Continuously and Avoid Time-Consuming One-Time Efforts
A major advantage of Pay Equity Compass is that you can work on an ongoing basis without having to start from scratch. When positions and job profiles are added or changed, you simply make the necessary adjustments and update the existing pay equity analysis. The system then recalculates the data to incorporate the new information.
This makes the work more manageable. Instead of consolidating all changes into one large (and cumbersome) project, you can keep the structure up to date as you go.
Quick checklist:
- When a new position is created—check whether it should be linked to an existing job profile.
- When a completely new job is added—create a new job profile
- When a new job profile is created – evaluate it immediately.
- Before the pay equity analysis – conduct a final review and update the analysis.
Want to learn more?
Do you use Flex HRM Pay Equity Compass and want to learn more about how to work smart with job profiles (and everything else related to the pay pay equity analysis)? Read more in our Knowledge Base.
Haven’t made the switch to Pay Equity Compass yet but are curious to learn more? Contact us, and we’ll show you!
