Glossary
Following are common terms associated with Virginia Tech's A/P faculty job architecture.
Autonomy: The responsibility, power, or obligation to independently make a decision and the accountability for its success or failure.
Career Map: Illustrates how different jobs relate and the different career paths available within the university that can be used for career planning and workforce development purposes.
Career Path: The growth or trajectory an employee can take in their career. Career paths are important for employees to plan their future, enhance their skills and knowledge to master current jobs, or identify paths for transfers, promotions, and other movements.
Career Structure: A set of career tracks and levels within each career track. When the job structure and career structure are combined it provides clarity on how employees can develop and progress at an organization.
Career Track: The basic infrastructure of a career structure representing a group of jobs characterized by distinct responsibilities (e.g., general administration, STEM, management/leadership, support).
Career Track Levels: Career track levels provide a system of hierarchical layers and organizational structure within and across career tracks. Career levels are used to understand and define levels within a career track based on a set of leveling factors such as knowledge, complexity, and impact. Career levels are defined consistently across A/P faculty positions at Virginia Tech and apply to all functional areas (e.g., general administration, G1-G5; STEM T1-T5; manager, M1-M3).
Career Track Level Factors: A scale of 1 to 5 is used within each track, with 1 being entry level individual contributor roles and 5 being expert individual contributor roles in that track. The following factors are used to determine where a role falls within that scale:
- Autonomy: The responsibility, power, or obligation to independently make a decision and the accountability for its success or failure.
- Complexity: The extent to which the role’s tasks are multi-faceted, mentally demanding, and challenging to perform.
- Experience: The amount of time, practice, involvement, and understanding an individual must have to perform the key functions of the role.
- Knowledge: The amount of familiarity, awareness, and understanding of impact that an individual must have in order to make effective changes within the scope of responsibility.
- Scope of Impact: For a position to have a scope of impact that is universitywide, the decisions made under the purview of the position’s duties must routinely have direct impact on operations across the university. This goes beyond positions that have responsibilities that cross department, college, or senior management area boundaries..
Complexity: The extent to which the tasks are multi-faceted, mentally demanding, and challenging to perform.
Discipline: A subset of Sub-function. A group of jobs having the same nature of work. A series of jobs whose required skills, qualifications, impact, and compensation increase sequentially.
Experience: The amount of time, practice, involvement, and understanding an individual must have to perform the key functions of the role.
Function: A collection of jobs recognizable across industries and companies. Each has a distinct purpose in service of the organization (e.g., Finance).
Functional Differentials: Market ranges within a salary structure with further division of the appropriate pay ranges for certain functions.
Job Architecture: Provides a structural base to create consistency and a better understanding of the roles and their purpose at Virginia Tech. It is a standardized framework to classify jobs based on the nature of the work they do and the level at which the work is completed. A job architecture provides visibility into how jobs are organized, and typically reflects both industry market practice as well as the internal needs and characteristics of the organization but is independent of organizational reporting structure.
Job Catalog: A catalog of jobs available within an organization.
Job Classification: The process of evaluating and reviewing jobs based on an objective analysis of their duties, knowledge, skills, and industry or field, and then assigning it to an organization’s job architecture.
Job Mapping: The process of mapping individual positions to the right place within the organization's job architecture. For Virginia Tech, this step occurred during the design phase of the job architecture project.
Job Profile: A unique combination of a job function, sub-function, discipline (if applicable), and career track and level forms a job profile. Each job profile has a system title used to describe the job within the job architecture. It outlines the nature of the work and the level at which the work is being performed. Job profiles create a foundation for compensation analysis, pay equity, and career path planning.
Knowledge: The amount of familiarity, awareness, and understanding of impact that an individual must have in order to make effective changes within the scope of responsibility.
Market range: The range of salaries in the external job market for a specific position.
Market reference range: Established target rates of pay for specific jobs. Each salary range has three market reference ranges under it. Only positions that have had a completed market evaluation have an assigned market reference range.
Pay Equity: Compensating employees equally when they perform substantially similar work or job duties, while accounting for education, experience, and job-related performance under similar working conditions. Factors such as age, race, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability, genetic predisposition or carrier status, marital status, or other factors prohibited by law, may not be considered in pay decisions.
Pay Philosophy: A formal statement defining the guiding principles of an organization’s position on employee compensation. It explains the rationale behind employee pay and creates a framework for consistent pay. It should align with the organization's values, business strategy, and culture.
Pay Structure: A hierarchical group of jobs and salary ranges in an organization. Pay structures often reflect salary grades that are defined by the market value and career leveling factors like knowledge, complexity, and impact for jobs in an organization.
Position Description: A description of a specific job as it relates to an employee. It includes an individual position’s purpose, duties, responsibilities, and the qualifications and skills required. It also includes a list of common tasks, physical requirements, and reporting relationships. These are used for several purposes, including recruitment and performance evaluation. A position description is more detailed than a job profile and is customized by the hiring manager or department.
Salary Range: A broad span between the minimum and maximum base salary recommended for positions based on their career track level and discipline. Each salary grade has a salary range that includes a minimum and a maximum. A job is paid between the minimum and maximum of its salary grade.
Salary Structure: An assigned salary structure is based on the employee’s career framework and provides a market framework to determine how employees are paid.
Scope of Impact: For a position to have a scope of impact that is universitywide, the decisions made under the purview of the position’s duties must routinely have direct impact on operations across the university. This goes beyond positions that have responsibilities that cross department, college, or senior management area boundaries.
Sub-function: A subset of a function. A group of jobs having the same nature of work. May be specific to internal needs or commonly found in external market (e.g., Payroll).
Supervisory Responsibility: For a position to be considered supervisory, it must have administrative responsibilities over subordinate positions to include recommendations for hiring and termination, writing evaluations, disciplinary actions, day-to-day oversight as well as long-term goal setting and accountability for the performance and productivity of the employees. Oversight of wage employees, students, contractors, graduate assistants, and volunteers is not considered supervision under this leveling methodology. This is consistent with the Department of Labor’s definition of a supervisor.
System Title (Classification Title): The title assigned to a job profile that typically reflects the function, sub-function, and discipline as well as the career track and levelof the job. Each system title is tied to internal data and external market data and is the basis for career maps. The system title will be considered the title of record within the university’s information management systems. It is distinct from an employee’s working title. System title will be called “ classification title” in Virginia Tech’s HR systems.
System Titling Convention: A protocol that creates common system titles based upon key components of a job profile. Consistent titling supports the organization’s ability to accurately identify and assess jobs for similarity in function, careert track, and career track level. It is a key factor in supporting current and prospective employee identification of career paths and job opportunities.
Working Title: Allows additional flexibility for what positions are called. With leadership and departmental HR approval, these titles can be used for employee business cards, email signatures, and internal/external communications. They can also be referenced on job postings (along with the system title) and on organizational charts. Managers and departmental HR representatives will determine the appropriate working titles for their team members. Working titles are not managed or administered by the Division of Human Resources.