Deloitte is overhauling employee job titles. Here’s why, and what HR can learn from the strategy.

Do job titles matter?

Well, Deloitte thinks so, and by June, it said it will change the job titles of its nearly 182,000 US employees to reflect how it’s prioritizing AI transformation across its consulting practice, Business Insider reported.

Deloitte is “modernizing our talent architecture to provide a more tailored experience reflective of our professionals’ broad range of skills and the work they do,” a spokesperson told Business Insider. (Deloitte didn’t respond to HR Brew’s request to comment by the time of publication.)

“With all that’s going on in the world…the unsettled social, economic, political environment, this is not a little thing,” Susan Legar Ferraro, founder and CEO of her consulting firm G3 Works, told HR Brew about Deloitte’s announcement. “This organization influences probably millions of people…They have an opportunity to do something really good here and to be an example to the rest of the world.”

What does this change mean? “Collapsing a regular org structure is a good step in the right direction,” Ferraro said. Restructuring job titles to create new leadership opportunities and more clarity around required tasks and skills can be beneficial to employees, she said.

Joe Mull, an employee commitment expert and founder of leadership development program Boss Hero School, agreed that employees can benefit from clearer job titles.

“We need clarity in job titles more than ever before. Job titles need to reflect what kind of work that people actually did,” Mull told HR Brew. “When job titles are given to people that are ambiguous…that’s actually troubling for employees who have a long-term career to think about.”

Job titles can also create status for employees, Mull said. If they are associated with clear expectations for moving from level to level within an organization, they can both help employees feel valued, and employers recognize value.

How issues can start to arise. Like with any major change, Ferraro said revamping job titles can elicit strong emotions from employees, especially if they feel they weren’t consulted in the decision and implementation processes.

“I would look at that as, ‘artificial harmony,’ and what that does is it pisses off employees, because they’re like, ‘Here they go again,’” Ferraro said.

Employee representatives from every level should be brought in to help strategize, Ferraro suggested, and employees should be surveyed after the announcement to offer leaders “wisdom points.”

“Have [leaders] thought about it in a way that it’s going to be effective, or is it just lipstick on a pig?” Ferraro said, later adding “Are they investing in them to train them up to how to successfully use AI? And are they going to get some type of bonus for learning those new skills, or is it just, ‘You’re lucky that you have a job?’”

Timing can also be crucial with organizational changes, Ferraro said. Training and upskilling have to be the priority for HR pros, so the more time to prepare employees, the better.

“Too often, senior leaders take the lead on making these kinds of changes, and then these are imposed on a workforce whose experiences and whose needs aren’t considered,” Mull said. “If they’re making decisions about my professional designation, and they don’t invite me into that conversation, that’s harmful.”