Relevant Interruptions

At Ontarget we have a specific view on job titles.  I think everyone wants to feel that they're important.  One way of letting people know that you're important is through your job title.  Companies spend a great deal of time and money managing job titles.  Job titles provide a way to reward someone for their increase in knowledge. 

There are three reasons we don't have typical titles in Ontarget:

• The work we do changes all the time.  We don't do anything that we did two years ago.  New technology, new software and new ideas provide efficiencies for our clients that pass on.  Having a senior widget maker today doesn't mean he/she will be a senior widget maker in two years.  If he/she does not keep up with the changing times they can easily be replaced by someone with fewer years in the business but more experience on what's current.  You have to keep learning and using new tools in order to maintain your status.

• In my opinion, most companies don't have/follow a quantifiable process for promoting personnel to a new job title.  What I've seen happen is someone keeps asking and asking and finally a manager promotes that individual.  Right after that there are half a dozen people saying, "Why did she get promoted, I do the same thing that she's doing and I do it better......"  Most companies don't have the time to properly evaluate everyone.  Without the typical titles we don't have people worrying about why someone else is a senior and they are just a junior. 

• I want our business cards to strike up a conversation.  If we had Project Manager on our employees business card the person on the other side of the table may think "Project Manager, I know what you do."  Because things change so often, the things a Project Manager does are different every year.  We want the person on the other side of the table to read a title like "Quarterback" and say, "Quarterback, what do you do?"  I'm glad you asked, let me tell you.

Everyone creates their own title.  It has to be descriptive of what you do but not like a typical title "Senior Analyst IV."  Our titles include: Counselor, Quarterback, Light Bulb, Nut's and Bolts, Navigator, etc..  In order to make this concept work it had to start with me.  My title is not CEO or President, it's Overhead.  I think it describes me very well.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at www.ontargetinteractive.com.