What’s in the designation or job title?

Veronica Bhatia has been working as an HR Manager at Berries Smartphone Private Limited (Indian unit of Berries Smartphone Inc.) since March 2010. In her role, she heads the HR team for SIX members in India. She is having dual reports. Functionally, she reports to Tony Gottlieb, vice president of HR. H H. Based at Berries Software Inc. (BS) corporate office and headquarters in New York, USA. Administratively, she reports to Arminder Dhillon, MD, BS India.

Berries Smartphone Inc has a presence in TEN countries: USA, Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, India, China, Philippines, Germany and France. The company is headed by John Richardson, CEO of BS. It has had the support of FOUR Regional Vice Presidents and THREE Functional Vice Presidents. They are: VP – North America, VP – Latin America, VP – Asia, VP – Europe, VP – Finance and Accounts, VP – RR. HH., VP – R&D. There is a Country Head for each country designated as Director General or Country Manager. The Head of Country reports to the Vice President of his region. The country head is supported by SIX department heads, one each for finance, human resources, sales and marketing, production, projects, and customer service. In India, these departmental heads are designated as General Manager, so there are GM-Finance, GM-Sales & Marketing, GM-Production, Program Manager, GM-Customer Service and HR-Manager. Together they form the local leadership team. The Global Leadership Team does not interfere with the local structure and designation nomenclature. Functional General Managers are supported by Deputy General Managers (DGM), Deputy General Managers (AGM) and Managers.

GM – Finance and Manager-HR have dual reports: functionally to the respective Vice President and administratively to Arminder Dhillon. Veronica handles end-to-end HR (talent acquisition, talent management, talent development, organizational development, compliance, etc.). She is also managing some global HR interventions. She has over 15 years of HR experience. In 2012, after her 2nd Annual Performance Review, she asked Arminder to change her designation to Assistant General Manager-HR. She did not want any additional compensation or benefits. She reasoned this out with the fact that employees with similar work experience are AGM or DGM and in front of them she feels minor or small. Arminder said, “Veronica, I have no problem with your request. However, I would like you to check with Tony before making any changes.”

Veronica emailed Tony to change his Manager designation to AGM. In response, Tony sent him a Skype meeting request for the next day titled “Please discuss.” In the Board –

Tony: Hello Veronica. How are you?

Veronica: I’m fine Tony. Thanks for asking. And you?

tonio: I’m fine too.

tonio: Veronica, I read your email several times but I couldn’t understand the gist. Can you pass me please?

Veronica: Tony, I’m looking for a designation change. Employees with similar experience to mine are AGM and DGM in India. Sometimes it seems difficult to communicate with them as they treat me like a subordinate even though I run Human Resources and am also part of the local leadership team. I really like my role. There are challenges, as well as many opportunities to grow and learn. My compensation is absolutely perfect as I am paid with other functional and department heads.

Tony: Veronica, you have such an important role. You are an important member of the global human resources team. I don’t understand why you want to be “Assistant General Manager”. John will not like or approve of this. He will be upset when he reads Assistant General Manager (AGM) in your email signatures. If Arminder wants you to be able to sign some documents in his absence that can be commissioned but do not require a change in your designation.

(Veronica was thinking, “Assistant General Manager,” what is that? Where does it come from? I don’t want to be an Assistant General Manager.)

Veronica: Tony, I already have the authority to sign Letters of Appointment, Bank Checks, Bank Guarantee, Official Documents, etc. It is not about authority. It is a matter of local social and cultural hierarchy. In India, AGM is considered to be more senior than Manager. My compensation is already on par with existing AGMs and DGMs, so changing a job title shouldn’t be a problem.

(Tony was getting irritated. There was a clear gap in communication and cultural understanding.)

Tony: How many AGMs are there?

Veronica: Our MD has FOUR GM. There are FIVE AGMs and ONE DGM in Sales. TWO AGM’s in Production. And there is ONE AGM and ONE DGM in the Customer Service Department.

Tony: (After a long pause.) I am surprised that India has a Functional Manager titled as General Manager. Shouldn’t the General Manager be someone who oversees various functions? In this case, Arminder is General Manager because he has overall responsibility for managing the revenue and cost elements of BS’s income statement, also known as profit and loss (P&L) responsibility. So technically all of your functional GMs are Managers. There can be no functional GM’s. It is in contradiction with the management rules. All your current manager reports to the GMs are team leaders. You are Manager. Technically and logically, you are above AGM or DGM.

(Veronica was in shock. She didn’t know what to say).

Tony: While I will not ask Arminder to make changes to job titles and reporting hierarchy, since you report to me (I am responsible for your performance and growth), I will not approve your request to change your job title to “Assistant “. to General Manager.

Veronica: In that case, should I suggest something?

Tony: Yes. Please continue.

Veronica: Can we naturalize my designation? Can we make it something like: Country HR Manager or Senior HR Consultant or Senior HR Business Partner? It will free my mind from all the tensions related to job title or promotions etc. I’m not going to ask for any promotion.

Tony: I think Senior HR Business Partner is good because that’s exactly what you’re doing. He is partnering with the leadership team in India to ensure organizational growth and the effectiveness of the company’s Human Resources.

Veronica: Thank you. It was an enriching conversation. Thank you so much.

(That was the end of their conversation.)

Veronica immediately emailed Arminder with a copy to Tony about changing her job title to Senior HR Business Associate. With this email, she also got out of the rat race of hierarchical promotions in India. Now, she could only move vertically and the next target job for her was “Regional Human Resources Manager-Asia”.

Do you think job titles or designations really matter? I do not think. In this case, Veronica was among the 15 highest paid employees (out of 350 employees in India) at Berries Smartphone, India. Her role was impacting 350 employees. She was managing global HR assignments. She was coaching the leadership team in India. In this case, the job title was just a job title. It is the span of control, the scope and impact of the role, and compensation that should matter most. I have seen employees with a job title like Manager, but the impact of her role is no more than that of a Graduate Engineer or Graduate Trainee.

What are your thoughts? What would you have done in this case? Do you care about the job title? What’s in the job title or designation?