A name by any other rose is just as prickly

Human Resources magazine reports that Cable & Wireless has renamed its HR function “People & Brand”; to be lead by their new Director of Brand and Culture.

The news item says that the new man’s responsibilities cover HR, resourcing, talent management, culture change, corporate communications and brand management across the business. So possibly things are not quite as bad as they seem and when an employee (bet they call them colleagues) wants to discuss pay the door they go through may still say HR. If not, pity the poor graduate trainee  having to write ‘People and Brand Officer’ in the ‘what job’ box on the ‘where are they now’ section of the alumni newsletter.

OK, a new label can help to kick-start change but stick to words that work in everyday use and have face-value currency. I for one do not want to be accredited to a Chartered Institute of People.

On the up

On the way up

A new discussion paper (Tougher at the Top) by the Audit Commission considers the labour market for Council Chief Executives. What they find is that there is an ever-upward spiral of musical chairs. This is caused by Councils insisting vacancies are filled by someone already in a Chief Executive post. Yet they find “There is no statistical evidence that chief executives recruited from other authorities are any more effective than first tier officers promoted into the role“. As well as generating a premiership-like ‘churn’ among Chief Executives this has significantly raised salary levels (up 34% in four years).

But this effect is by no means limited to those at the top. The pressure on salaries that results from over-specified recruitment briefs happens at all levels. Nor is it a new phenomenon. Managers, faced with vacancies, have always tried to specify someone who is at least as experienced as the person leaving rather than one with the skills and experience the leaver had had when they started the job.

The consequence is that they recruit someone for whom the job is a sideways move, who is already at a comparable salary (but probably wants a rise to join) and who will be ready to move on that much sooner. Those below will, rightly, draw the conclusion that their own promotion prospects lie elsewhere and so the spiral spins on upwards.

You might hope that the current financial climate would discourage this tendency but experience suggests the opposite. In straitened times training costs are cut, risk avoided and, in the absence of any real statistics for the effect on salaries, recruitment specifications are likely to be tightened rather than loosened. In the long-term managing your pay bill, not to mention the recruitment budget, can be as much about recruitment and promotion practices as about market testing and pay progression.

Job titles (again)

After ‘bonus’ one of the search terms that often lead people to my main site is ‘job titles’ where they land on an article (“A Rose by any Other Name“) archived from my client newsletter (also reproduced here in March). So, out of interest I googled job titles. Even limiting the search to the UK, it found 700,000 references. Many are lists of titles that link to job advertisements (such as ijob) or salary databases (usually expensive and confusing). Jobtitles.org lists about 10,000 titles and provides a job description (and pop up ad links) for each.

I also found a number of articles, extolling the motivational benefits of giving staff more elaborate titles and, in an article in iVillage, suggesting how you can get your boss to give you a more prestigious-sounding one. Personally, I was happiest with the link I found to the Plain English site where they debunk the preposterous lengths that some organisations go to in naming and describing jobs. My favourites there were flueologist and Knowledge Navigator (chimney sweep and teacher).

There is a balance to be struck between sticking rigidly to a pre-set hierarchy of simple titles and Hyacynth Bucket-like pomposity. If someone really is doing a lot more than is implied by their job title try to reflect that into his or her title (and their pay?) but be very careful that you know who else could make an equally valid case before you do. A secretary who also helps to organise sales conferences is still doing the secretary work; what extra work are the other secretaries doing?

My preference is for titles that mean something to strangers. Of course, there are industry-specific titles that are totally appropriate but need explanation to outsiders (‘best boy’ in film credits?) but overall I recommend ones that enable staff to answer the “what do you do” question by just quoting their title. Above all try to avoid titles that equate to rank.

Must go now. I have to attend to my other job of Domestic Beverage Facilitator.

A Rose by any Other Name – job titles

Job titles matter and deserve more thought than is often given. After all, a person’s job title is the public face of their identity both inside and outside the organisation. They can be a frequent source of discontent and division.

In some organisations such as the armed forces, police and the large consultancy and accounting practices the title is, deliberately, the grade or rank. Titles such as Colonel, Inspector or Senior Consultant tell others in the organisation something about the level of work, but not the content. Essentially, these are personal grades which can be useful where staff are frequently re-assigned or work in cross-functional teams.In most enterprises, however grade goes with the job, not the person. But all too often the organisation bites back.