How Are Job Titles Useful?

Job titles are utilized by an employer in order to classify the roles of their employees within their company. Employers also use what’s called an organization chart that displays all positions that are held in the company. The charts lists the positions by title, the reporting structure, and even the company management. Below is a quick rundown of how titles serve a business.

Delineating Hierarchies

Organizations, particularly large ones, have job titles set for every ranking within their company. This runs from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), to directors, then managers, and even to individual contributors. This professional map creates a clear and understandable hierarchy so it is easy to not only see where each role fits within the company structure. It can also provide an easy road map for promotion within the organization.

Workplace Responsibilities:

A clear job title effectively illustrates what someone does at work. For example, a head groomer at a dog kennel isn’t going to be fixing the plumbing or changing the tires. Employers should be able to easily understand the scope of an employee’s duties and which department they work within simply by looking at the employee’s job title.

Compensation Management

Job titles also help employers gauge how much they should be paying their employees. There are certain job titles that can be tied to a specific range of pay grades. There may be, for example, a specific salary range for a software engineer, sous chef, or math teacher. Knowing the ranges of pay associated with these roles helps an employer identify a fair salary to offer.

Hiring

Having a clear job title also helps employers find the right person for the job when trying to fill a vacancy. Whether by print or via an online job posting, the right title can attract high-quality applicants who can be successful in just that role.  

While job titles have innumerable uses, setting a reporting hierarchy is by far one of the most important. Typically, a company will set their rank positions in tiers that often resemble this type of layout:

• Board of Directors
• C-Suite
• Vice Presidents & Directors
• Managers
• Individual Contributors
• Entry-Level

The reason there are tiers is to have an understanding of who certain employees should be reporting to about any issues or projects, and to provide a clear indicator of who has authority over whom. These tiers contain specific roles for individual employees. The list of job titles found below will prove to be incredibly helpful if you want to determine what job roles you are qualified for in your desired field of work. Examine the job titles, not only to see what interests you, but also to discover what kinds of professional roles would be an excellent match for your professional background. Let’s take a look at each profession found in these tiers and the responsibilities usually associated with each one:

Board of Directors

Bear in mind that not every company is large enough to need a board of directors. However, companies that are very large will tend to have such a board. The board of directors is composed of individuals who have the ultimate control over how they would like to direct the company. They are brought onto this board not through a standard hiring process, but through an election which is held by the company’s stockholders. Some boards take a very active hand in managing the company, but some prefer to stand back and instead let those in the C-Suite tier manage the affairs of the company. The main responsibility of the board of directors is actually to appoint well-suited individuals to the C-Suite’s executive officer positions. When you hear that someone is an executive officer for their company, they may have one of these titles:

• Chairman of the Board
• Vice Chair
• Treasurer
• Secretary
• Board Member

C-Suite

At the top of the job title hierarchy is the C-Suite. The C-Suite is ultimately responsible for developing overall goals and policies and ensuring that they are pursued satisfactorily. This tier is typically headed by the CEO, who oversees the rest of the C-Suite in managing the business and reports directly to the board of directors when applicable. Job titles in this tier may include:

• CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
• COO (Chief Operations Officer)
• CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
• CIO (Chief Information Officer)
• CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)
• CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer)
• CTO (Chief Technology Officer)

If a person has a title like CMO or CTO, that means they are in charge of overseeing the operation of an entire department like marketing or technology. It’s also not unusual to see a person who is both the CEO and COO if they work at a smaller company.

Vice Presidents and/or Directors

A vice president and/or director has a lot of responsibility within their company. A vice president and/or director is the leading head of section within the business like human resources, legal, production, sales, or research and development. A vice president provides strong leadership for their managers and employees. Vice presidents and directors can have a number of different titles like the ones seen here:

• Director of Technology
• Vice President of Marketing
• Sales Director
• Vice President of Human Resources
• Director of Finance
• Vice President of Engineering

Vice president must also make reports to the C-Suite and lead the managers of their departments.

Managers

Under the supervision of the vice president and/or director, a manager must maintain operations of a department’s small unit either on a national or local scale. For instance, the nationwide marketing department of a corporation may have regional managers. These managers would be in charge of marketing for different states, and each manager would have employees under them who were charged with working on marketing in the cities or counties in those areas. A manager may not go by that specific title, though. You’ll find that managers go by many different names:

• Design Lead
• Digital Marketing Director
• Business Development Supervisor
• Maintenance Supervisor
• Facilities Manager
• Sales Administrator
• Project Manager
• Executive Chef

While a vice president may oversee an entire department, it is the managers who are managing the operations of their department on a day-to-day basis, and they are usually much more hands-on. They lead teams of people known as individual contributors.

Individual Contributors

Typically the largest workforce within a business, individual contributors are the rank-and-file members of a company. They are the ones who complete a multitude of tasks like selling an insurance policy or managing appointments that help a company function smoothly and, in turn, make a profit. Depending on which field they are in, individual contributors in a company can be known as:

• Waiters
• Salespeople
• Insurance Producers
• Electricians
• Cashiers
• Secretaries
• Accountant Representatives
• Budget Analysts
• Software Engineers
• Delivery Drivers
• IT Technicians
• Lawyers
• Front Desk Receptionists
• Shelf Stockers
• Warehouse Workers
• Phone Operators
• Copywriters
• HR Coordinators
• Customer Service Agents

These employees carry out the basic tasks of operating the business. There is by far more variety in the their job titles than in any of the other tiers since the titles reflect specific job descriptions, specific departments,, and specific industries. An individual contributor may work as a part of a team, but they are not usually charged with overseeing anyone but themselves.

Entry-Level

A person who is just becoming a part of a company is usually given an entry-level job. These jobs are specifically meant to teach new hires about the business and their role in it. You may see some entry-level job title which include:

• Carpenter Apprentice
• Financial Advisor Trainee
• Apprentice Engineer
• Underwriter Trainee
• School Nurse Intern
• Sales Assistant

Entry-level jobs usually only appear in large companies and are often non-existent at smaller companies. An employee working in an entry-level position most likely will report to a selected individual contributor as well as a manager.   Job titles serve as an important tool not only to those already within a company, but to new job seekers as well. Use Glassdoor to search for specific job titles and examine what they reveal about a position’s required experience level and the responsibilities that go along with it. As you apply to jobs, use the specific job title listed in the job posting in your resume so an employer’s tracking system will be able to pull yours directly out of a sea of applicants.