Our client, a Dutch multinational, has commissioned us to design and implement a new job catalogue for both the manufacturing and supply chain business unit. In SuccessFactors, a job catalogue refers to a centralised database that contains a comprehensive list of job positions within an organisation. A job catalogue consists of multiple levels, with each level describing more specific details about the job, such as responsibilities, required skills, and competencies. The purpose of a well-structured job catalogue is to streamline and standardise job-related processes and data across the organisation.
Problem statement
The previous job catalogue structure was showing several issues, that needed to address to reap the potential benefits. Firstly, the structure was not fully reflecting the organisational reality. The categories were not always clear and understandable. Secondly, the job catalogue was not descriptive enough and lacked directional value. Lastly, due to inconsistency in the data, there was a lack of a trustworthy basis for key HR processes and business support. In summary, the previous job catalogue structure was insufficiently supporting the business in insight into the workforce (distribution in roles, levels, expertise etc.), reporting and analytics (the basis for decision-making), and benchmarking (among countries and regions).
Challenges
One of the challenges we faced during this project was designing the new structure.
We had to ensure that the new structure was simple, sufficiently descriptive, comprehensive, and representing the business. Since we as HR consultants have limited knowledge of the business in the manufacturing and supply chain business unit, we enlisted the help of a sounding board group representing the business.
Another challenge we faced during this project was the mapping of all job positions to the new structure. We conducted the mapping based on the job title of an employee and the current job catalogue structure of the job position. However, the job titles are not standardised, which means that People Managers can come up with their own job titles. This results in a large number of different job titles, including some in a local language. In such cases, it took significant time to determine where this job title should be grouped.
Where Quintop came in
We started by redefining the old job catalogue structure for the manufacturing and supply chain business unit on all 4 levels (job function, job functional area, job family, and job classification). This was based on the agreed guidelines for the classifications of jobs within the company. We made sure that the new job catalogue structure was aligned with the organisational structure, blueprint roles as well as reporting and analytics needs.
We put together a sounding board, that represented the business, to provide us feedback on our proposals. After our job catalogue proposal got a sign-off from the sounding board, we mapped all employees within the manufacturing and supply chain business unit to the new job catalogue structure. During this process, we involved the Regional HR Directors of the company and asked them to review our mapping and make changes if needed.
Throughout the project, we worked closely together with the Master Data Management (MDM) team of the company to ensure that the new job catalogue structure and employee mapping were uploaded in SuccessFactors.
After the mass upload, we supported People- and HR managers to understand the new job catalogue structure and its considerations as well as the new way of working. We organised online training sessions to walk them through the new job catalogue structure and explained why it’s important to fill in the job catalogue correctly.
The result
This project resulted in a well-structured job catalogue in SuccessFactors that is business, process and system-proof and acknowledged as the single source of truth when it comes to mapping positions to standardised roles. Due to this project, there is reliable FTE reporting in the manufacturing and supply chain business unit with the opportunity to deep dive and create detailed views based on consistent role definitions across regions and countries. Additionally, the analytics capabilities increased by combining insights in roles with other relevant data sources (volume developments, external benchmarks etc.). Lastly, the new job catalogue structure supports decision-making and simplifies HR processes for People- and HR managers (onboarding, grading, and team management).
