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Job Families
from TWSM#8
Attachment & Pride Job Families
The Skills Movement
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If you want to retain talent within your organization and make the most of the skills your people offer, you need to help that talent develop. The Job family modeling, also known as “career pathing,” could be your answer.
By MARCO AGNELLI
A PLACE FOR INNOVATION AND EXPERIMENTATION
The European Institute of Oncology (IEO), which is certified by the Joint Commission International, an American institution that guarantees the excellence of health facilities by measuring the quality of care processes and management, has over 1000 employees including over 700 working in clinical activities, 200 in research and 100 in administration and management.
IEO looked for a management tool that would meet many organizational needs, such as clarifying to all employees of the characteristics of their roles and what was expected of them, and incorporated the need to integrate their different professional roles (medical and non-medical).
SERVICE QUALITY = PEOPLE’S QUALITY
The model selection was not random. The management and development of behavioral skills are fundamental to achieving organizational goals, and the only way to obtain effective performance in all areas is from employees who are motivated and satisfied with their jobs. The Job Family Modeling was preferred over other models because it emphasizes behavioral skills and the staff’s knowledge/skills, which are necessary to adequately cover the various organizational roles, and because it is designed to develop, enhance and reward them in order to foster both business and individual growth. This model is particularly suited to the needs of complex and evolving organizations that are rich in diverse roles, but which mainly want employees that are committed to the company’s mission, performing with a greater degree of autonomy and discretion.
The Job Family Modeling supports the organization in developing flexible internal processes, identifies macro-groupings of business roles with a similar type of work in terms of responsibility, and not activity, and provides the tools to reach goals, through the allocation of specific levels of skill and expertise. The definition of professional families must extend beyond the allocation of individual organizational roles, since the objective is to create integration and a spirit of collab-
The experience of the Toronto Airports Authority
interview by Katherine Olson The Job Family model is a very good organizational system for enterprises, nonetheless it is not always of easy application in the so called "complex organizations" such as hospitals and airports. However difficult it may be, this model is efficient and applicable even in these types of organizations. Alec Ballantyne, Greater Toronto Airports Authority’s Total Rewards Manager, uses a skills-based model similar to the Job Family model, to organize nonunion staff. Roles are sorted into groups: Administrative Support, Technical Support, Engineering/Architecture Support, etc. Multiple levels within each represent progressive degrees of accountability. Explains Ballantyne “after the role group has been identified on the basis of the work it performs, it’s then slotted at a level within that role group on the basis of its accountabilities in each of the following areas: Functional Contribution, Relationship to Stakeholders, Problem Solving/Analysis, Decision Making/Autonomy and Leadership.” In this case, Professional Support has 5 levels: 1, administrator jobs; 2, senior administrators, professionals or first-level management jobs; 3, middle managers; 4, manager-level jobs, and 5, directors, the highest-level management. [W haygroup.com ieo.it jointcommissioninternational.org] oration within the company, as well as on the impact of the organization's role rather than the role an individual has to perform. Professional families must also represent the entire structure of existing and required skills, and are defined in terms of: expected contribution to the organization's success (responsibility), behavioral skills required for performance, and the capacity and knowledge required for each role. Responsibilities are defined in terms of professional families and are shared by multiple roles.•
Job Family Model for IEO
The project led by the IEO in collaboration with Hay Group, since the second half of 2000, has set the goal of establishing a foundation for an HR development system based on two principles:
1) the growth of HR is determined by a set of technical skills, abilities, organizational behavior and motivation; and 2) the management system must flexibly connect the rewarding system to skills development, as well as to a performance evaluation system.
The IEO has expressed a fundamental requirement to support the cultural and operational integration between different people, prioritizing this even before the different organizational areas. In view of this, we have chosen two addresses: 1. Strongly emphasize all that
The different teams at IEO form a significant variety of specialties that contribute to clinical, research and training
activities. 01 Flavio Nascè with his management team, 02 Franco Orsi Director of the Interventional Radiology Unit, 03 Alessandro Testori Director of the Melanoma and Soft Tissue Sarcoma Division and Director of the Melanoma Cancer Center (of which the symbol here on the left) and 04 Giuseppe Testa, researcher at the IFOM-IEO Campus.
"unites" people in terms of responsibility, authority to each individual's development path, rather than relying on what "divides”. 2. Consider the IEO’s fundamental success factor: the centrality of the patients and what should be done to meet their complex needs.
IEO identified four types of roles: 1) Realization: Roles that need to perform tasks with the highest accuracy and quality; 2) Welcome, information: Roles that have to manage the key check-in and communication processes with the patient;
3) Assistance, support,
development: Roles that need to reach targets set in medium-high complexity contexts and ensure development and innovation; 4) Coordination: Roles that other people need to coordinate and contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of internal processes. In light of this, four professional families were identified: Executives, Customer Service Specialists, Professionals, and Professional Coordinators.
The analysis and definition of the model was highly participatory and, therefore, one of the few cases in Italy which saw Trade Unions taking an active role in all phases of the project. This, precisely, has enabled the transformation and implementation of a management model that is typically "business related". The result is in itself a great success and an absolute novelty in the world of labor relations in health—and perhaps beyond.
The Starting Point
As of June 1, 2002, the date on which the model and associated supplementary contract were implemented, employees have been notified of their placement in the professional families, and an indication of their role and contract level. As a consequence, everyone is aware of their potential career paths, as well as the requirements for contract level advancement and for the recognition of professional accomplishment. In 2002, Hay and IEO worked on internally communicating the model, with the aid of a special brochure distributed to all relevant staff in order to inform all people involved of the rules and possibilities. From a business point of view, the model allows the institute to develop or reinforce the work culture so that it is more in line with business needs; further clarify organizational structure; and define the motivation to guide and develop individual performance and retain the best staff.
