Everyone in human resources (HR) knows that a position description serves as a formal document that summarizes the important functions of a specific job on which a company bases position postings, job interviews, and performance appraisals. Position descriptions are designed to accurately represent actual duties and responsibilities as well as job specifications. . . and thus salary.
Yet here’s a controversial idea: In today's A/E firms, position descriptions for architects and engineers are worthless in determining compensation.
“This is a legacy of HR management in the manufacturing economy of the 1960s, where people had well-defined job descriptions, notes David Burstein, PSMJ Director and Senior Consultant. “Yet people keep trying to use it in a professional services environment, where it never made any sense.”
Most firms try to use position descriptions to determine salaries of design and technical professionals. But, according to Burstein, a key question remains: How do you classify Mary Jones, who does Engineer II work on Monday, Engineer III work on Tuesday, and Engineer IV work on Wednesday?
Locking a professional’s role into one position description simply no longer makes any sense–the organization must be much more flexible, adaptable, agile, concurs John Doehring, PSMJ Executive Leader and Senior Consultant. “The role of each professional depends on the project at hand, specific client expectations, and the other members of the team,” he says. “And next week, these will all be different.”
Yet, Burstein contends that supervisors just pick the salary they think is appropriate and back into the corresponding position description. “After considerable research, we have concluded that this methodology is fundamentally flawed and should be thrown out with yesterday’s trash,” he says.
For instance, PSMJ interpretation of the data gathered from our 2017 compensation surveys (as well as data gathered for our 2017 Financial Performance Survey) indicates that while the economy is growing at a slow but steady pace, A/E firm employees are demanding salary increases post recession. In addition, the demand for talent will become more critical as time goes on and the baby boomers retire, because the availability of new graduates is not keeping up with the outflow of talent in the A/E industry.
Your thoughts: Are position descriptions for architects and engineers worthless in determining compensation?
Looking for more information on how to structure your compensation program to attract the best design talent, PSMJ has just released Compensation and Recruiting in Today’s A/E/C Labor Market. We built this new program through decades of real-world experience from some of the A/E/C industry’s most successful firms.
You also might be interested in these compensation-related blog posts:
Data Dive: How Financial Performance Impacts Your Compensation Options
Trend Line: Larger Firm Equals Larger Compensation
Where Are Firms Allocating Their Business Development Time?