Understanding job families for improved workforce management

Table of contents

What are job families and why are they important?

Job families are groups of related job roles that share common skills, competencies and career pathways. By organising roles into job families, businesses can streamline their workforce structure, simplify career progression and enhance strategic alignment. This method helps in effectively managing talent and developing employee skills.

Furthermore, job families optimise workforce planning by facilitating adaptability to technological advancements or market shifts. They also enhance compliance and governance, standardising roles across the organisation to simplify meeting regulatory requirements and maintaining consistency in job evaluation and compensation.

Job families vs Job Functions:
Job families are often grouped within “job family groups” or “job functions”. These are higher-level categories of jobs that include multiple job families, such as Finance or General Administration. The distinction helps in creating a more organised structure within the organisation.

Role profiles and levels:
Each role within a job family should have a role profile, which is a high-level overview of the role. Ideally, job families should be linked to levels or grades. The number of levels will vary for each job family depending on the scope and range of responsibilities, but the same system should be used for all job families. This allows for easy comparison across different roles.

Job Families chart example

To boost efficiency and support career growth, it’s essential to look at job families from a broader perspective, not just the traditional hierarchy. Here’s an example from one of Navigo’s org design tools, org.manager.

This chart helps identify similar tasks and dependencies among job families, making the organisational structure clearer. It offers valuable insights into resource allocation and aids in strategic career planning. By understanding these dynamics, leaders can align job roles with company goals, creating a more effective and flexible workforce.

Tip: This view can be customised based on your business requirements. Use visualisation rules to highlight key information that is important for analysis, or hide fields to reduce the amount of information shown on screen for a more focused view.

How job families software will improve your business

In larger organisations, figuring out roles and responsibilities can be complicated. Grouping roles into job families helps clear up confusion and boosts efficiency across various HR functions. This setup not only highlights and makes the most of your team’s talents but also supports smarter decisions in promotions, development planning and other key HR tasks. Using a job family framework helps organisations understand their workforce better and, with the org charting tool, visualise it more effectively.

Job families centralise all the important career management information, making it easier for both employees and managers to explore career paths and understand the skills needed.

Here are five ways that organising roles into job families can significantly improve your business:

Streamline tlaent management: Utilising job family software offers a more organised approach to HR processes. By simplifying job titles and clarifying job responsibilities, HR departments can more effectively manage recruitment, performance evaluations and succession planning. This streamlined approach leads to better decision making and increased operational efficiency.

Enhance career development: Clearly defined job families, give employees clear and attainable career paths. This visibility significantly boosts motivation and retention. Employees can better understand their advancement opportunities and align their career goals with organisational needs, contributing to a more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Strategic workforce alignment: Job family software helps align job roles with strategic business objectives, ensuring that every employee contributes to the company’s goals. This alignment improves productivity and creates a unified direction within the workforce, making it easier to achieve organisational targets and enhance overall business performance.

Efficient training programs: Understanding the specific skills and competencies required within each job family allows for the creation of targeted training programs. A dedicated platform can help address skill gaps and prepare employees for future roles, enhancing the overall capability and adaptability of the workforce without too much manual admin work.

Better resource allocation: Effective management of job families through software facilitates better workforce planning and resource distribution. By preventing inefficiencies such as overstaffing or understaffing, organisations can achieve improved budget management and operational performance.

By using dedicated software, you can share your real-time workforce reports with anyone in your organisation, as well as restrict access to specific fields based on role or user. org.manager’s workforce reporting software is Australian hosted and browser based, making it easy to access and share on any device.