Everyone wants a sexier title. Director of Employee Experience? How about VP of Talent Management? Just make sure the Bobs can figure out "what would you say you do here?".
Ultimately, after all the creative types work the white-board and focus groups, one thing remains - organizational level. Are you a VP, Director, Manager, Representative, Specialist or something else?
What does it mean in your organization? How do you compare with others in your organization and outside your company?
Which got me thinking - what are the most popular title levels for HR pros across the country?
To get a baseline, I put my SHRM membership to work and looked to create a baseline of what titles were most common in a single state. I used Alabama, since that's where I live. Here's what I found:
Total SHRM Members in Alabama: 2,330
Most Common Titles:
Manager - 764 members
Director and Assistant Director - 473
VP and AVP - 176
Specialist - 135
Consultant - 76
President - 65
Supervisor - 54
Interesting stuff, and I assume the splits are statistically significant with a sample this big. Couple of observations from my experience. Specialist usually means an individiual contributor of some sort, and the President title is usually a one-person consulting shop where the one person takes the title that might help them get a foot in the door when pitching business. I don't see a lot of supervisor titles, so I am guessing that's reserved for roles like "Payroll Supervisor" or "Benefits Supervisor" where the incumbent is managing some hourly types cranking away at transactions.
The Manager, Director and Vice-President levels require extra work if you are interviewing a candidate to determine exactly "what they did" for the company in question. I've been a manager, director and VP for Fortune 500 companies, and a VP for a smaller start up. The smaller the company, the more a manager, director or even a VP of HR can be involved in things a similarly-titled pro at a Fortune 500 would never touch.
And that's not a bad thing. If you've got an opening in your company for a HR pro, mix and match these three titles in your resume sorting. Don't automatically assume a VP at a smaller company won't be interested in a manager role, and don't automatically assume a manager with good experience can't be your new director of HR at a smaller company.
It's so funny because HR is the first department to tell you that "titles don't mean anything" at most companies. I strongly disagree.
Posted by: laurie ruettimann | October 15, 2007 at 03:35 PM