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The Crucial Details Of Job Titles & What They Mean To Your Company's Employees

 

Your small business is finally growing, and that's a wonderful thing. However, it's also very intimidating, as you have to start thinking about running your organization on an entirely different level. When you first started out, most of your employees didn't have job titles. Everyone was just there to help the business grow. If something needed to be done, someone did it. Now, you've got a bigger staff with more responsibilities, and it's time to start making job titles. Don't worry. They aren't as bad as you think. Here are a few things to think about as you start considering titles for your growing business.
 
 

 
The "Why?"
 
Why have job titles in the first place? There are a few reasons, but mainly, it's because employees want them. If you plan on working for an organization for many years, and let's hope your employees do too, then it won't matter what your title is. However, as soon as you walk out that door, it's pretty tough to explain what "Chief Awesome Officer" really is. In addition, as your organization grows, you'll need to know who is in charge of each task. A job title simplifies the organization and roles within your company.

 
Promoting from within
 
You've invested a lot of time and money into ensuring the future of your new business. Now it's time to grow, which means you'll need some trustworthy employees ready to take delegation. As you consider promotions for your company, strong titles will help immensely. The more formal and well-designed your titles are, the more specific and helpful they will be to your employees, who will want to work harder to gain the better title.

 
Formalize the process
 
As you get your promotion process formalized, it will help to designate a specific hierarchy to your organization, instead of letting each manager decide titles within their departments. Otherwise, you could end up with a situation in which your IT department has 15 vice presidents and sales has two. Keep it fair and equitable across the board, ensuring similar titles for similar pay grades and job descriptions. Not only will this organization keep your promotions and raises fair for everyone, but it will act as a formal guide with which your employees can use to strive for that next big job title.

 
How do you title?
 
When it comes to creating job titles, there are two different schools of thought. The first is that you should offer big, fancy titles as much as possible. After all, it makes an employee feel better, and it's basically free to you. The second school of thought basically keeps job titles separate and specific, making clear objectives for what it will take to move from one into the next. This organization also can involve keeping titles lower, establishing more directors and less chiefs and vice presidents, as is the case with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Several articles have pointed out how Zuckerberg keeps his titles lower, ensuring all entering employees a fair, measurable system by which to grow within the company.

 

 

This article was written by Deborah Flomberg of Examiner.com for CBS Small Business Pulse.
 

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