Stanford Report, March 2, 2015

New job classification program at Stanford aims to bring consistency, transparency and career opportunities

The Staff Career & Job Classification Program is part of an effort to bring more consistency and clarity across the university. It is the result of many years of planning and evaluation by University Human Resources.

By Valerie Beeman and Elaine Ray

Stanford University Human Resources

In this video overview, learn what's new about the Staff Career & Job Classification program and how it affects you.

When Stanford staff members look at their timecard in the first pay period of April, they will find one significant change – their job classification and associated job description title. Every non-academic and non-bargaining unit employee will get a new classification as part of the Staff Career & Job Classification Program.

The initiative is the result of many years of planning and evaluation by University Human Resources (UHR) and is designed to bring more consistency and clarity to the way jobs are categorized across the university. A full library of job descriptions and new career management tools and services will complement the new classifications.

"Stanford last revamped its staff classification program in 1999. For this project, one of the key goals was to ensure the same jobs are classified in the same way across the university. As a result, we had to take our time to carefully study all jobs to identify their core duties," said Linda Faris, associate vice president of staff compensation.

Salaries will not be reduced or otherwise changed as a result of this initiative. Individuals' job responsibilities, their reporting relationships and current performance goals also will not be affected. Employees' working titles – those that appear on business cards and in the university directory – will not change as a result of this program.

Here's what the new program will feature:

  • New job description: Each staff member will receive a new job description that reflects the current core duties of their job in a standard format that also includes minimum requirements and working conditions.
  • Job description title: Based on the job description, staff will receive a new job description title. This is the "official" job title shown on timecard and pay statements in Axess.
  • Online job description library: More than 500 staff job descriptions are now available online. Staff can see how their jobs fit within the university and view other job descriptions. UHR hopes this will help employees plan and navigate their Stanford careers.
  • Classification structure: Based on the new job descriptions, jobs are matched with an associated classification level. The previous groupings of Administrative (A), Professional (P) and Managerial (M) have been eliminated. The new structure will include 16 classifications represented by the letters A through P. Also, to ensure that "like jobs" across all schools and units are classified consistently, decisions about classifications will no longer be made independently at the school/unit level.
  • New online career management tools: To capitalize on the consistent job descriptions and provide navigational career paths and career guidance, new online career management tools are available. Career development and guidance services, such as career-related gatherings and quarterly professional development courses, also will be available. Managers now have access to online tools to hold career-focused conversations and to provide appropriate support for employees' career goals.

While the timing of notification of these changes depends on individual units, most employees should expect to learn about their new classifications by the end of March. Before then, they can learn more about the new program by reviewing the resources available on Cardinal at Work, a new online resource, which features a video overview and a list of frequently asked questions. In addition, Axess now includes a section called "Cardinal at Work" on the Employee tab with links to the online job description library, the new career tools and the staff classification structure.

"This new approach to classifying jobs will represent a vast improvement over the current system in terms of increasing perceptions of fairness with how jobs compare across the campus, as well as how they generally compare to the market," said David Jones, vice president for human resources.

Maureen McNichols, the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management in the Graduate School of Business, has served as co-chair of two task forces convened to address the university's classification system. Her co-chairs were Diane Peck, former vice president for human resources, who convened the original effort in 2008, and Randy Livingston, vice president of business affairs and chief financial officer, who, along with McNichols, co-chaired a reconvened task force in 2014.

"Consistency of job descriptions is crucial in many ways," said McNichols, noting that the university can now easily compare jobs with external employer benchmarks in the annual salary surveys. "The better matching to market data, along with job descriptions that are consistent for people doing the same work across the university, means the new classification structure will be more equitable and competitive."