The Equity-Enhancing Document You’re Not Using Yet

Whether we’re talking about the gender pay gap, with women in 2022 making just 82% of what men do for the same job, or the fact that Black Americans make 30% less than white Americans do, it’s clear that organizations continue to have important equity work to do.

While there are a number of steps that companies need to be taking to improve on authentic equity and parity, one of the most important - and often underutilized - is creation and utilization of role profiles.

What is a role profile?

A role profile is a comprehensive, internally-facing document, that clearly outlines the core responsibilities of a role, as well as detailing how performance is measured. Role profiles include the knowledge, skills and abilities required to be successful in the role, in addition to the behaviors and attributes valued most by the organization. Most role profiles will also list the titles of the employee’s direct reports (if relevant), as well as their supervisor.

How is that different than a job description?

While job descriptions and role profiles share many similarities, a job description is an externally-facing document used in the recruitment and hiring process to provide job-seeking candidates with information about an open position. Since it caters to people external to an organization, a job description will usually avoid specific internal terminology. A job description also lacks the performance measurement information found in a role profile.

How are role profiles structured?

A strong role profile will include a job category and job level. In most cases, roles align to one of three categories, depending on the scope, complexity, managerial responsibilities and professional experience required for each role. Within each job category are job levels that represent ascending levels of seniority. It’s important to note that while job levels can be used to align role titles, they are not necessarily the same.

Image: An example of role profile structuring, Agile Talent Consulting

How is a role profile used?

Role profiles are primarily used in performance management and employee development. By providing a clear picture of what is expected of employees in a particular role, a role profile can help individuals understand how they can grow and develop within the organization.

Another use of role profiles is in compensation benchmarking, where pay bands are determined based on job category and level at an organization.

Where does the equity piece come into play?

Because they clearly define impact measures, or quantifiable indicators of success, role profiles are a key tool in ensuring that performance management is fair across people with the same role. They can be utilized during the formal performance review process as well as during weekly 1:1 touchpoints.

Role profiles also include qualifications, which are typically differentiated between internal and external. Internal qualifications are those that apply to staff members who want to advance into a role, whereas external qualifications are meant to help employees identify outside talent that might be a fit. Again, the clarity of these qualifications make for a more impartial hiring and promoting process.

In addition, role profiles are public within a company. Since they are organized according to seniority, they make it easy for employees to see what experience and skills would be necessary to be promoted to a new position, eliminating ambiguity and arbitrary managerial decisions in the process.

Want to learn more?

Agile is pleased to offer comprehensive role profile creation and education to our clients. We support companies to use these role profiles in a number of ways, including in pay benchmarking. Reach out to get more information on increasing equity via role profiles at your organization.