Job Titles Matter

By Mark Kolakowski

Job Vacancy Indonesia, Employee, Vacancy

Why Job Titles Matter: job titles are badges of authority. Not getting the job title appropriate to the position can undermine your standing both inside your company and with outsiders such as clients. Additionally, not getting the title that you are due can hinder your pursuit of future career opportunities. You will be seen as someone who actually is at a lower level of achievement than the one you have attained.
Job Title Scenarios: In one scenario, an employee gets a de facto promotion, but does not get an upgrade in job title to that of the former incumbent. This may signal either a downgrade in the importance of that job, or a device to lower its compensation level.
Another job title scenario is one in which your management grants you an upgrade in job title, but your HR records do not reflect it. When this occurs, it is typically an error of omission, but in some machiavellian firms it can be intentional.
An actual case study in HR errors involved someone hired with the explicit understanding that he would get an Assistant VP (AVP) title immediately upon starting work. During the course of over four years in a corporate HQ position, that person got every indication that he indeed was an AVP. However, after he moved to a job in a different legal entity within the firm, he was surprised when his new boss congratulated him on being upgraded to AVP. When he pointed out that he already was an AVP from day one, his manager investigated and determined that, somehow, there were errors in how the personnel records were maintained, and in how they were transmitted internally. Luckily, the employee quickly was able to get an upgrade to full Vice President instead, which is what he actually was due by that point in his career.
Sometimes, people are hired into firms or enticed into changing jobs within firms based on promises about future upgrades in job title. Unfortunately, where these agreements are purely verbal, as they often are, there is the risk that management may renege on them, even by claiming never to have made them. The danger is especially high when there is a change of supervisor for the employee in question, and the new manager denies being bound by his predecessor's promises.
Difficulties in getting an upgrade in job title may occur for worthy employees even if they do not lead automatically to higher compensation. Managers may be using the denial of upgrade strictly as a means to assert their authority.