Overview of the Career Banding Framework

Job families are major groupings of jobs that represent general fields of work where career paths are identified and career planning is emphasized. OSP has established 10 job families:

Administrative and Managerial	Institutional Services
Engineering and Architecture	Law Enforcement and Public Safety
Human Services	Medical and Health
Information and Education	Environment, Natural Resources & Scientific
Information Technology	Operations and Skilled Trades

Each job family is further categorized into branches, which in turn contain roles. Roles represent the various classifications that have been banded together due to similarities in position attributes, nature and scope of the work, and competencies required to meet business needs.

	Example 1	Example 2	Example 3	Example 4	Example 5
Job Family	Environment, Natural Res. & Scientific	Environment, Natural Res. & Scientific	Admin. & Managerial	IT	IT
Branch	Research	Research	Social/Clinical Research	Systems	Support
Role	Technician	Specialist	Assistant	Analyst	Technician

Each role has its own unique pay band, and three position competency levels: Contributing, Journey and Advanced. Position competencies represent a set of knowledge, skills and abilities required of the position based on business needs as determined by the manager.

Position competencies required in a role are outlined in a competency profile developed by the Office of State Personnel with the assistance of the career banding transition teams. The competency profiles are reviewed and validated through statewide focus groups with final approval by the State Personnel Commission. 

Position competencies play an important role in many Human Resources functions:

• For recruitment and selection, decisions are based on the specified levels of competencies needed for each position,  and how well a potential employee meets the position's requirements;
• In performance management, a department manager/supervisor looks at how well the employee applies the competencies required for the position to achieve the established goals and objectives for the position.
• Once an employee's competencies are assessed against the position competencies, training and career development plans can be established for the employee. Training and development programs can be modified and expanded to enhance needed competencies.
• In workforce planning, competencies drive planning strategies as departments review their business needs and the skill sets (competencies) required to meet those needs to assure organizational success in the future.
• When making compensation decisions, the career banding system allows managers to pay for those skills which are most valuable to the organization and which meet their business needs. Compensation can be fine-tuned to promote employee development and market competitiveness for similar positions.

Each manager determines the overall level of competency required for the position based on the organization's business needs and standards. Each role has three position competency levels:

• Contributing competencies required in a position include knowledge, skills and abilities minimally necessary to perform a job from entry to journey. 
• Journey competencies required in a position represent a fully-applied body of knowledge, skills and abilities.
• Advanced competencies required in a position include the highest or broadest scope of knowledge, skills and abilities.

Copies of the Position Competency Review forms are posted here.

A sound competency assessment process ensures that employees have and demonstrate the knowledge, skills and abilities required to meet stated business needs and contribute to the success of the organization. Managers are responsible for determining the employee's demonstrated competency level for each of the competencies required in the position.

Each position requires a particular set of knowledge, skills and abilities (i.e. position competencies), based on the department's needs for the position. And just as positions have competency levels, so too do employees. Each employee brings to the position their own expertise, knowledge and skills, and each employee will be assessed to determine how well and to what extent the employee demonstrates the position's required competencies.

The standard form used by a manager to evaluate the demonstrated competencies of the employee against the required competencies of the position is referred to as the Employee Competency Assessment, or ECA. Managers are responsible for determining the employee's demonstrated competency level for each of the competencies required in the position. Managers make this determination using a 1-3 rating scale:

1. Developing: Required position competency is not yet fully applied by the employee at the level defined by the manager as necessary to meet stated business needs. The employee may be lacking in some elements of the required position competency.
2. Applied: Required position competency is often demonstrated by the employee at the level defined by the manager as necessary to meet stated business needs.
3. Broadly Demonstrated: Required position competency is consistently demonstrated by the employee at, and occasionally above, the level defined by the manager as necessary to meet or exceed stated business needs.

Managers should conduct ongoing reviews of position and employee competencies and document any changes on the appropriate form. In addition, during performance reviews, the manager indicates whether or not the employee's demonstrated competencies have changed. A copy of the Employee Competency Assessment form is posted at: http://hr.unc.edu/formfinder/careerbanding/ECA.doc