General
What is the purpose of the Staff Job Family Architecture (JFA) project?
The Staff Job Family Architecture project seeks to group similar WVU staff positions into job families in an effort to simplify and standardize how positions are categorized at the University. The project will create a job architecture to include establishing job structure, career ladders/levels, title standards and mapping of incumbents to the family/level structure. Learn more about the project objectives and scope.
When is the project expected to be completed?
The project officially kicked off in March 2022 and is currently in the change management and mapping validation phase. The new job families and structure will be communicated and rolled out over the next year and will go live at the same time as the University’s new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool, Workday.
When will the new titles and structure be implemented?
The new job families and structure will be communicated and rolled out over the next year and will go live at the same time as the University’s new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool, Workday.
Does the Job Family Architecture project include faculty and student roles?
Faculty and students are not included in the Staff Job Family Architecture at this time. The new structure will not affect academic titling or tenure processes.
When will more information be available?
Regular communications to employees about the project will begin this summer and will continue leading up to the launch of Workday.
Who can I contact with questions?
We encourage you to work with your supervisor first to discuss these changes. If you still have questions afterwards, please email us at Compensation@mail.wvu.edu.
Why is the Staff Job Family Architecture project managed by the University’s Compensation team if compensation is not going to be changed as a result of this project?
As part of their responsibilities, the Compensation team develops and maintains the classification structure of WVU job titles.
Jobs, Titles, and Organization
What impact will the Job Family Architecture project have on me?
The new architecture will provide more clarity about where staff positions fit into the broad WVU organization. Each staff position will be assigned a title that corresponds to a job family, job function, job category and level in the new architecture. It is important to note that an employee’s job duties, responsibilities and pay will not change.
Will reporting structures change?
The architecture was designed to reflect functional responsibilities, broad job categories and levels but not reporting structures. Most units will include employees from a range of job families and functions and employees and managers will not always belong to the same job family. There are no plans to change reporting structures based on job family architecture mapping at this time.
Will employee titles change?
One of the goals of the project is to align current staff WVU titles around similar job responsibilities, functions and levels to create greater consistency in HR systems and transparency across the institution. While job titles for the HR systems will change, employees and managers will have the opportunity to use business or descriptive titles to clarify role responsibilities and/or reporting lines within title guidelines.
Will my job type change?
Staff positions will still be identified as classified and non-classified by the definitions found in BOG Rule 3.1.
What if my position performs duties across multiple job families and/or functions?
Positions will be assigned to a job family and function based on the preponderance of the duties performed by the position.
Will I still be able to use a working title?
Employees and managers will still be able to use business or descriptive titles to clarify role responsibilities and/or reporting lines. Working titles will be a reportable field in Workday so there will be guidelines to ensure positions are appropriately represented.
Why is my job family different than the unit in which I work? For example, I work in a college but my job family is Finance.
The Staff Job Family Architecture was designed to reflect functional responsibilities, broad job categories, and levels. Most units will include employees from a range of job families and functions.
What job category includes supervisory positions?
There are four job categories: Operational Contributor, Professional Contributor, Manager/Leader, and Executive Leader. Supervision can be found in some levels of Operational and Professional Contributor but is required in the Manager/Leader and Executive Leader job categories due to role-based security considerations.
Compensation
Will employee compensation change?
The implementation of the new architecture will not impact the work that employees perform nor impact employee salaries. The project's focus is designing the structure of how we group staff positions at WVU. This structure must be in place prior to conducting market research related to salary ranges. The new architecture will not only assist with this process by aligning jobs to more market relevant titles but also in reporting and collecting similar jobs at WVU.
Is the compensation structure changing as part of this project?
The new architecture must be in place prior to conducting market research related to salary ranges. The new architecture will not only assist with this process by aligning jobs to more market relevant titles but also in reporting and collecting similar jobs at WVU.
Job Descriptions
The Staff Job Family Architecture Project does not impact employee compensation, but are there still opportunities for job descriptions to be reviewed?
This project does not change the current processes that exist to review and evaluate positions or salary. Managers can continue to submit positions that have had changes for review to the Compensation team.
Will employees continue to have individual job descriptions?
Each employee will continue to have an individual job description that details specific day-to-day job responsibilities and requirements.
Does my job description need to be updated for this project?
Job descriptions do not need to be updated unless there have been changes to the position. This project does not change the current processes that exist to review and evaluate positions or salary. Managers can continue to submit positions that have had changes for review to the Compensation team.