Career Architecture Project FAQs

What is the career architecture project?

The career architecture project is a university initiative to design a consistent framework and hierarchy of equitable, market-informed, transparent jobs. This organized approach will create job families and staff job profiles relative to functional areas, job responsibilities, scope, skill and education requirements to provide greater clarity for employees and supervisors regarding the workforce, career planning and employee development. 

This project reflects ASU’s strategic priority as an Employer of Choice and our commitment to the ASU Charter.

Why is career architecture important?

Our job structures are the foundation for hiring, paying, developing and advancing our workforce. For the university to attract, retain and develop the best talent, we must ensure that our existing and future staff positions are aligned within a consistent market compatibility framework, establish clear career paths and facilitate more equitable and transparent compensation practices. 

What jobs are included in this project?

The career architecture project is focused on staff jobs. There are approximately 1,500 staff job codes and descriptions that will be reviewed. The project does not include faculty, academic professionals or student positions.  

What is a career architecture?

Career architecture is both an infrastructure and a tool:

As an infrastructure, it:

• Defines and organizes staff roles at ASU.
• Identifies and clarifies job duties, required skills and scope of responsibility.

As a tool, it:

• Creates transparent career pathways to support career development planning.
• Lays the foundation for future compensation work such as market-informed strategies, staff pay plans and equity analysis.
• Supports the job posting process and the availability of accurate and consistent workforce reporting.

How will this project benefit existing and prospective employees?

Existing and prospective staff will have a new career architecture with consistently defined jobs and job profiles to increase transparency and assist with career development and planning as well as workforce development and planning. Employee’s job responsibilities and duties will not change. 

How will this project benefit managers and senior leaders?

Managers and senior leaders can use job profiles, pay structure, and market data to improve workforce planning, development, budgeting, talent acquisition and retention.

Will employee titles change?

The purpose of establishing a career architecture is to align and assign staff positions to appropriate job families, subfamilies, profiles and levels. Job profile titles will reside in Workday HCM beginning in 2025. Employees and managers will still use working titles to describe and clarify roles and responsibilities.

Will employee compensation change?

The focus of the career architecture is designing the structure of how we group staff positions at ASU. The project will not affect the work that employees perform nor affect an employee’s salary.

How will I receive updates on the initiative?

The project team will provide regular updates during key stages to stakeholders. As the project progresses, more information will be shared with the university community and updates will be made to this website. Email the career architecture project team with questions or for more information.

How is the Career Architecture project similar or different from the HCM Workday project?

The career architecture and HCM Workday projects are related initiatives but serve different purposes within the university. Both projects align with organization goals and support overall strategic objectives but have a different focus and scope. The career architecture project primarily focuses on designing and developing a structured framework that defines job roles, career paths and required skills. The HCM Workday project will integrate a software solution to streamline business processes and leverage process automation, workflow and document storage. Both projects are designed to enhance the employee experience, remain responsive to changing business needs and improve the efficiency of administrative operations.

How will decisions be made, and who will make them?

Data will be analyzed to develop draft job profiles and make recommendations about the framework within which jobs are structured. Changes will be informed by that work with input from the Advisory Committee and feedback from a broad range of stakeholders. All final decisions will be made by university leadership in consultation with stakeholders. Any changes will be taken with consideration of university policy and any applicable regulations.

How will this project help with career advancement? 

The campus has broad job levels and titling variations, resulting in different job titles that perform similar functions. For example, several positions across campus have various titles, including Event Manager, Program Specialist, and Special Events Coordinator, which do similar functions. As a result, it can be challenging to identify positions that represent a promotional opportunity. 

The career architecture framework will help ASU identify the scope, responsibilities, and level of positions to increase transparency and identify development and promotional opportunities. 

What is a career path?

A career path is a clear and defined roadmap that allows an employee to understand and develop a plan to advance or move laterally into different opportunities within ASU if they so desire. This process is built to empower an employee’s career by providing them with the resources and tools to make educated decisions on their career path forward. It also allows better talent management for supervisory roles as they can see how each department is organized more clearly and establish long-term growth plans for each employee.

How long will it take for this work to be completed and when will it take effect? 

The project kicked off on April 26, 2023, and is expected to be complete by March 2024. The new career architecture structure will be effective in early 2025 at the same time Workday HCM goes live.

Career Architecture: A standardized framework to classify jobs based on the nature of the work and the level at which the work is completed. This includes a standard protocol for titling jobs defined within the career architecture. A career architecture provides visibility into how jobs are organized and typically reflects both industry market practice and the organization’s internal needs and characteristics. 

Career Path: The way an employee progresses in their work, either in one job or in a series of jobs

Job Classification: A systematic process of evaluating the duties, responsibilities, scope, and complexity of a position description to determine the job profile title that most appropriately matches the job specifications and standards. This clarity ensures the position is appropriately matched to market data for compensation decision-making.

Job Family: A collection of jobs involving similar types of work requiring similar training, skills, knowledge and expertise (e.g., human resources, information technology).

Job Function: A subset of a job family, usually more specialized (e.g., benefits).

Job Profile: A document that states essential job requirements, job duties, job responsibilities, and skills required to perform a specific role. It is used to ensure consistency in the way jobs are defined across the university. Job profiles do not include the department-specific nuances (e.g., the difference between a Program Coordinator in W. P. Carey School of Business versus a Program Coordinator in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Instead, it includes those elements that are key for compensation decision-making.