Job architecture vs job grading : which purpose do they serve ?

Quite often I see HR professionals using job architecture and job grading in an interchangeable manner. They are both essential components of organizational design and human resource management, but they serve distinct functions and focus on different aspects of job organization and evaluation within a company.

Let’s dig deeper:

Job Architecture

Job Architecture refers to the overall structure and design of jobs within an organization. It includes the mapping and organizing of all job roles and titles into a cohesive system.

This structure helps in aligning jobs and career paths across the organization, making it easier to manage job families, roles, career progression, and succession planning.

Why does it matter ?

• Organization of job families: Job architecture groups jobs into families based on similar functions/work streams. This grouping helps in defining career ladders and pathways within those families.
• Role Definition: It defines roles, responsibilities, and expectations for each job, facilitating transparency and understanding across the organization.
• Alignment with business strategy: Last but not least, job architecture ensures that the organization of roles supports strategic goals and needs of the business, optimizing workforce capabilities.

TLDR: The primary purpose of job architecture is to create a clear and logical structure for all roles within the organization, which supports workforce planning, talent management, and organizational development.

Job Grading

Job Grading involves evaluating and categorizing jobs according to a set of criteria such as responsibility, skill requirements, complexity, and working conditions. This process results in assigning each job a grade or level within the organization’s pay structure.

Why does it matter ?

• Evaluation Criteria: Jobs are assessed based on predefined criteria that measure the job's demands, such as the level of decision-making, expertise required, and impact on the organization.
• Pay Scale Association: Each grade corresponds to a pay range, which helps standardize compensation across the organization and ensures pay equity and competitiveness.
• Hierarchical Positioning: Job grading helps establish a hierarchy of jobs, which assists in organizational design and helps employees understand potential career progression.

TLDR:The primary purpose of job grading is to ensure fair and equitable compensation based on the relative value of each job in the organization. It also aids in budgeting and compensation strategy planning.

Summary

While both job architecture and job grading are about structuring and organizing roles within a company, job architecture focuses more on the role's function and alignment within the organization's strategic framework, whereas job grading is more concerned with valuing the role in terms of compensation and hierarchical status.

Both play a critical role for effective human resource management in terms of clarity, fairness, and strategic alignment.

Getting started

I would typically recommend starting by job architecture, in order to get clarity on the overall structure, before getting in the job specific, however several practical reasons might dictate for you to start with job grading and that’s fine as well.

Last but not least, which ever way you go, I cannot stress enough the need for an adequate governance structure: in plain english, you need to very clearly define who will be resonsible for maintaining this carefully crafted structure day after day, and who will have the authority to call the shots when things go wrong (and they will most likely at some stage). The last thing you want to see happening is for you to work on a framework that will be completely obsolete in 12 months time.