Staff Job Title Guidelines

The University’s Staff Career Architecture provides standardized job profile titles across the organization, supporting requests and feedback from staff wanting clarity and consistency. At the same time, there is flexibility to use business titles to describe the function and scope of an individual job assignment more clearly.

Senior leadership endorsed maintaining business titles for current staff when the university implemented the Staff Career Architecture framework and migrating to the new titling framework over time.

The goal is to balance transparent career architecture with titles that resonate with both internal and external audiences. It is important to remember titles:

• should be representative of the accountabilities and responsibilities of the job, not the individual,
• do not determine a pay grade,
• are not a reward for staff performance or longevity, and
• are not dictated by a reporting relationship

Job Profile Titles

• Align with the Staff Career Architecture Framework and follow a consistent naming convention
• Create a common language and understanding of staff jobs across the institution, while supporting career progression exploration

Human Resources manages job profile titles and reviews and consults with campus subject matter experts as needed to ensure job profile titles align with market and industry trends.

Business (Position/Posting) Titles

• Provide an additional level of detail to a position’s assigned job profile title
• Are outward-facing and can be used in email signatures, websites, RIT directory, office signage, job openings, and business cards
• Will also appear in the employee’s Workday profile

Managers, with support from their senior leader, may assign business titles in alignment with the guidelines below.

Business (Position/Posting) Title Guidance

• A business title should:
  • add greater clarity in describing the individual job, e.g., clarifying a program, unit area, or population served,
  • align with the level of authority, responsibility, nature, and scope of the job,
  • align with professional and industry practice, and
  • align with other business titles within a job group or work unit, where applicable.
• A business title should not:
  • misrepresent the University or the authority of a position,
  • be overly granular,
  • duplicate an existing title used in a different discipline, stream, or job level, or
  • be used unless required to ensure the job’s success.

RIT “grandfathered” business titles for current staff when implementing the Staff Career Architecture framework. Existing staff have a job profile title and retained their current position title as their business title in the ERP system.

Moving forward, leaders are encouraged to use the job profile title as the business/position/posting title. If a leader chooses to use the job profile title, there is no need to enter a different business/position/posting title as titles will default to the job profile title.

At times, it may make sense or be necessary to add clarification and utilize a more specific or descriptive business/position/posting title (refer to title guidance). If a leader needs to adjust a business title, they can consult the title guidance and the change business title training guide in Workday.

With consideration for title consistency across the University, a senior leader may choose to update the business titles to job profile titles for either an entire department/unit or an individual employee, or to add clarity to an existing business title in accordance with the business title guidelines.

Human Resources is available to provide direction as needed.