JOBs vs POSITIONs

In common use, the terms job and position are often confused. In his book on remuneration, William Mercer makes a clear definition of the two terms; we have adopted his concept in the Umana system.

A JOB (Job title)

A job is a set of activities and tasks — the work someone does.

• Typically many employees work doing the same job (maybe even in different departments).

• Usually a job has a specific salary or grade, typically written into your collective agreement. Umana rates are based on JOB, not on position. See the remuneration module.

• For example, a "teller" in a bank is a job. The bank could even define "junior teller", "intermediate teller" and "senior teller" jobs. A single bank could have hundreds or thousands of tellers.

Job categories

Jobs may be grouped together by job category (JOBCAT). For example, the Tradesman category might include welder, mechanic, electrician. Rules can be applied and employees filtered by job category.

You configure your categories whatever way works best for you. The JOBCAT table is configured in the table module. The category for a job is specified in the JOB window.

A POSITION

A position is a chair. It can be vacant or occupied by a single person. It is often a unit for budgeting.

For example, if a bank has 10 tellers, there will be on position for each.

Each position is owned by (attached to) a department or cost center. So it becomes part of the budget of the department.

Sometimes departments have a head-count budget: an annual-ETC budget. If a position is filled for 6 months of the year, that 1/2 an ETC-year.

Occupying a position

A position is (normally) occupied by a single person at a specific time (unless it is vacant). Usually, there is one position per employee. The person who holds the position permanently is the incumbent.

• If the incumbent is temporarily absent for a given reason, the position may be held by someone else, their replacement.

• There are some exceptional situations in the way a position is occupied: It might be shared. It could be partly-filled. A position might even be overfilled while an incumbent (about to leave) trains a new person.

Positions are optional

If you are not budgeting you may not want to manage positions; they do take work. Typically organizations with head-count budgets will manage them, but they are not required by Umana.

On the other hand, managing JOBs is very important if you have pay scales and rules, or a collective agreement.