Banking HR: How To Get Ahead On The New Job Grading Requirements

The implementation deadline of the new collective bargaining agreement, 1 January 2020, may seem far away. However, having worked directly with the ABBL on this agreement, I can say that it's much closer than you may think. HR managers will have to spend significant time and effort applying the new model within their institutions, and banks should therefore start now with tackling this exercise.

What is this agreement, exactly?

The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) introduces a job-grading principle that every bank will have to apply to the functions within the agreement's field of application. Essentially, jobs must be graded into four groups as defined in the CBA. HR teams must therefore understand how the methodology operates, the associated criteria, and how to execute this exercise appropriately.

In order to help HR managers with all that, the ABBL has set up, through the House of Training, training sessions. Attending the sessions is probably a good idea: even though the CBA's criteria are meant to be simple and therefore easily applicable, there may be hidden challenges. For example, in applying the new principle, HR staff will discover that it groups functions differently which may affect remuneration dynamics. The exercise should certainly not be taken lightly!

The best way to prepare

The exercise will have to be carried out on the basis of job descriptions. Thus, a few questions to start with might be:

Are there already job descriptions within the bank? If so, are they up to date? And do they contain all the elements needed to map them into groups using the given weighting criteria? HR managers will naturally have to assess which functions are covered by the CBA's framework. In this context, the exercise may also be an opportunity to reassess the positioning of certain jobs whose scopes have changed—whether being under the old CBA but not the new one, or vice versa. It's fairly common to see job titles being specifically created to please the job holder, and implementing the new CBA may be a chance to revisit and rationalise such actions.

Orchestrating a complex exercise

Once the job descriptions are updated, grading workshops must be held. Organisers must think about how long these workshops should last, when they'll take place, and who to involve in them. These items may seem simple, but they are important in the context of the bank's overall goals as well as its corporate culture.

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