One way to take the temperature of the labor market is title bloat and title creativity; based on that, it seems to be heating up.

It also means that I get calls from clients asking what to do, so here are five simple rules to address title innovation in your organization.

1. Absolutely avoid title bloat, especially where it contributes to compensation problems. For example, does giving someone a VP title, but not VP-level work, entitle that person to a bonus reserved for executives?
2. People aren’t dumb, so don’t try and con them. Being called an associate, instead of an employee, may seem more respectful, but it doesn’t offset pay or benefits.
3. Titles, even those that need some explanation, should be accurate enough that they don’t confuse internally or externally (vendors, customers, investors, etc.).
4. Titles that reflect a new function should be formally announced, e.g., Director of Culture at Southwest Airlines.
5. Be sure to ignore titles when you’re hiring. Lee Burbage, Motley Fool’s vice president of human resources says, “It’s the job description that matter…The only thing a title can tell me is a sense of progression.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 2:14 pm and is filed under Business info, Hiring, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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