Job Titles and Levelling Frameworks: The Glue That Holds Organisation Design Together

When leaders think about organisation design, their minds often go to structures and reporting lines. Yet one of the most powerful levers sits at a much more practical level: job titles and levelling frameworks.

Titles and levels shape how people see themselves, how they are perceived by others, and how careers progress. They connect directly to pay, promotion, and status. When they are inconsistent or poorly designed, the result is confusion, inequity, and disengagement. When they are clear and fair, they create alignment, mobility, and trust.

Why Titles and Levels Matter

It is easy to dismiss job titles as superficial, but they carry weight. They signal seniority, expertise, and authority both inside and outside the organisation. A poorly chosen title can create mismatched expectations, weaken external credibility, or frustrate employees who feel undervalued.

Levelling frameworks provide the consistency behind the titles. They define what sits at each level in terms of scope, responsibility, and impact. Together, they help organisations answer questions such as:

• What does “manager” mean in this business?

• How do we distinguish between senior manager and director?

• What is the difference in scope between a regional head and a global head?

Without a framework, every team invents its own answers. That leads to inflation, overlap, and internal inequities that are hard to unwind.

Common Problems Organisations Face

• Title inflation: Creating senior-sounding roles to attract or retain people, which then devalues existing levels.

• Inconsistency across functions: A “director” in one team may be equivalent to a “manager” in another.

• Career bottlenecks: When frameworks are unclear, employees cannot see how to progress.

• External mismatch: Titles that do not translate in the market make recruitment and mobility harder.

• Pay inequity: Inconsistent levels often drive pay gaps and disputes.

These problems create noise inside the organisation and reduce trust in leadership and HR.

Best Practice in Titles and Levels

A strong levelling framework is clear, fair, and scalable. Best practice includes:

• Define levels by impact, not tenure: Scope of responsibility, decision rights, and contribution to strategy should determine the level, not years of service.

• Limit the number of levels: Too many creates confusion and complexity. Most organisations operate well with 7 to 9 broad levels across the enterprise.

• Standardise titles across functions: A director should mean the same thing in finance, HR, and marketing. Local variations undermine consistency.

• Anchor to the market: Benchmark titles and levels externally to support recruitment and pay equity.

• Connect to career pathways: Show employees how they can move up, across, or into new domains. Transparency drives engagement.

Challenges in Influencing Change

HR and Org Design professionals often face resistance when trying to introduce levelling frameworks or clean up titles. Typical challenges include:

• Loss of prestige: Leaders fear their title will be downgraded or seen as less important.

• Functional autonomy: Teams want to protect their own naming conventions.

• Short-term disruption: Realigning titles can mean changing contracts, systems, or communications.

• Recruitment pressures: Hiring managers may argue that inflated titles are needed to compete in the market.

Overcoming the Challenges

• Frame the value in business terms: Position frameworks as enablers of fairness, mobility, and efficiency, not just HR discipline.

• Engage leaders in design: Co-create the framework so leaders feel ownership rather than imposition.

• Use data: Show benchmarking evidence to demonstrate how misaligned titles create pay risk or hinder recruitment.

• Communicate career benefits: Emphasise that clarity in levels creates more visible progression opportunities for employees.

• Take a phased approach: Align new roles and levels gradually, applying the framework to new hires first and then harmonising existing staff over time.

Final Word

Job titles and levelling frameworks are not administrative details. They are the glue that holds organisation design together. They shape perceptions of fairness, define accountability, and enable mobility across the business.

Leaders who ignore this area allow inconsistency and inequity to spread. Leaders who embrace it create organisations where people know where they stand, how they can grow, and how their contribution is valued.

The chart may show the structure, but titles and levels show the reality of how people fit within it. Get them right, and you create clarity and trust. Get them wrong, and the organisation will feel messy no matter what the org chart says.