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Hi ya party people,

Lowkey surprised how quickly this week came and went, but I’m not complaining, cuz I’m fully prepared to go on DND mode for a couple of days! 🫡

But before that happens, you already know what time it is.

For this week’s Q&A, someone got voluntold to rebuild an entire career architecture (job descriptions, salary bands, career paths, the whole thing) for a 300-person org that is technically three companies in a trench coat, with employees scattered across multiple countries.

And next, we’ve got someone else who has spent nearly a YEAR writing documentation and basically getting a master's degree in conflict resolution trying to get a director and a specialist to simply function like colleagues.

Both of these people need help. Both of these people deserve a pat on the back.

Let's discuss!

P.S. Ready to submit a question? Send it in here, and you might be featured next Friday! 👀

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ASK AWAY

✍🏽 architecture & arguments

✍🏾 I’ve been tasked with redesigning our company’s career architecture, including updated job descriptions, salary bands, and defined career paths. Where should I start?

Context: We are a newly integrated 300-person sales and marketing organization formed by combining three separate companies, with a workforce that includes both U.S.-based and international employees and contractors.

📣 Tara Turk-Haynes, Founder/Consultant @ Equity Activations:

I’d start auditing and analyzing what you have now. Hopefully you have salary data and job families or groups to match. It helps to clearly define what groups or levels you can put together, see if they are equitable (check demographics like age, race, ethnicity, tenure), and create a map of what you see, determine what is required for someone to move up a level (good for performance management and for people managers wanting promotions without data), and create a clear process. Job descriptions should be a bit easier once you have that data because then you have specifics on skills needed for the requirements section depending on the role.

📣 Sandi Creyaufmiller, SVP Culture &Talent @ Marine Bank:

You need to start with the organization's new vision. Understanding the new organization's goals and business needs will provide a foundation. Look at the utopia of what is desired and the inventory of what you have, and then work on the gap. Try to keep your career design as simple as possible, with clear reporting structures. The simpler you keep that, the easier it is to scale. Once you have a design in mind, work on the roles that will comprise it. Be sure to check in with leadership regularly to secure their buy-in, so you don't do work that ultimately doesn't align with their goals. Once the design is agreed upon, work to fill in job descriptions that meet the business's needs and create opportunities for your employees' growth.

This is a big job, as the impacts of your work will directly affect the new firm's ability to retain its workforce. Done correctly, you will make a positive impact on your company's growth.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

✍🏾 How long should I spend trying to remediate a director and specialist who cannot get on the same page? I feel like we are sinking time and money and sooo much energy into fixing it, and it's not getting better - BUT both individuals are talented and I'd like to keep them both.

Context: I oversee a director (and by extension their department), where a specialist who is clearly not untalented and great in other areas of their role experiences extreme friction with that director. This director has been with us since we opened, and is critical to what we do - certainly always areas for improvement, but most of the time an absolute rockstar. Other people who report to them are efficient, effective, respectful, happy in their roles. I've tried everything I can think of to get the director and abov e mentioned specialist on the same page, but it's as if they speak 2 different languages, always talking past one another, not hearing one another, always some kind of confusion and lots of complaints from both sides. We've done performance reviews of course, set follow ups, done 1:1s, asked for documentation form both parties, but it's almost been a year, how do I decide when it's time to move on?

📣 Jenny Toth, Senior Manager People and Culture @ CAVA Foods:

This problem is not yours to solve alone. It feels like both parties are looking to you to provide a resolution that only the two of them can actually make happen. The Director has a significant share of the responsibility to resolve this situation with their direct report. I suggest collaborating with the Director to establish clear expectations for the Specialist for performance, communication and raising concerns in a way that maintains efficient business operations. Once you settle on a plan that the Director feels confident in executing, you should step back and let them manage the Specialist. In the meantime, you should also establish clear expectations for the Director for raising concerns and guiding the work of the Specialist that are not just opportunities for complaints and venting. You can be available as a sounding board and resource when appropriate. This is a growth and development opportunity for the Director.

📣 Dan Bonach, Fractional CHRO @ Valhalla HR:

It sounds like both are valuable to the team and that there seems to be a personality conflict of sorts. Is the Director intimidated by the specialist? Perhaps you can shift the specialist to another area of the business where they can thrive (be cautious though, if they struggle with the current Director, you'll want to have confidence that they aren't someone who defies authority/can't get along with their managers).

Consider doing a trial run with the Specialist taking a project on with another leader and getting feedback from that leader on how they do and if there are any continuations of the challenges that are currently occurring within the team

today.

📣 Christine McCallum-Randalls, Director of People @ Test Double:

You've received excellent advice so far. My hot take below is very blunt and assumes that you've done what has been advised here, nothing came of any of the documentation either party provided, and you are spending more time on this issue than it's worth.

My hot take is this, at some point enough is enough and people have to either actively participate in a solution or be told they can't complain about it anymore. Your job is to help guide people, not solve their problems for them. I don't know if this necessarily applies to you here, but given that you've spent a lot of time on this already - just because someone wants your time does not mean they are entitled to it. Sometimes the more time we give someone, the more they take. I learned the hard way that I needed to set stronger boundaries regarding my time with some folks.

When they complain to you ask, "Did you do [x thing we already discussed as steps to resolve it]? No? Feel free to come to me after you do [x thing]."

Or, ask the manager, "Do you truly want to resolve this? Because I've seen your leadership capabilities and believe you have the skills to handle this. But this has gone on so long that I can't reconcile your capabilities with this situation unless you have already made up your mind about them and don't want to actively participate in improving the situation." You can also ask something similar of the employee if they come to you again.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

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🚨 ON YOUR RADAR

🎧 I Hate It Here Podcast: I'm always dropping new episodes with your favorite People Ops leaders! Until we return with a new season of guests, enjoy some of the greatest hits! Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

📊 Learn how a top tech company simplified healthcare navigation and moved the needle on adoption by embedding it into Day 1 onboarding. Healthee released the ultimate playbook for driving sustained employee benefits engagement.*

💰 Pay Transparency matters (but it's also difficult). That's why I created this course. Join the Safe Space community to access it, plus everything else you need to stay ahead of the curve.

🤖 Literally everyone's talking about AI in HR, but are they actually saying anything useful? In this HR Therapy, we're skipping the hype and getting into the real data: what's working, what's failing, and why using ChatGPT to draft your internal comms is not the revolution you think it is. If you're tired of leaving AI panels more confused than when you walked in, this one's for you!

*This one is brought to you by one of my amazing brand partners

📝 RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Each week I feature a resource I love from the Safe Space library that I believe would be relatable to this week's newsletter topic.

This week, we’re talking investment currencies. Check it out HERE ⬇️