Classification
DAS CHRO is statutorily responsible for managing the State's Classification Plan, ensuring classes are discreet, internally consistent, have statewide scope, promote comparable treatment of employees, and create career paths for employees that allow for and promote employee movement across state agencies. [ORS, 240.215, 240.190 and ORS 243.650 to 243.782.]
The Classification Plan is a management tool. It organizes the State's large and diverse work by type of work (occupation) and level of skill, effort and responsibility, and defines the processes for keeping the classes current.
Classifications are groupings of work or positions similar in duties, authorities, and responsibilities that are systematically arranged based on:
- Type of work (occupation)
- A common title
- Difficulty and complexity, including variety of duties, scope, and controls on the work (such as segregation or selection of assignments, guidelines, or procedures, etc.)
- Comparable selection methods
- Similar level of job value
A classification specification is the definition of the classification. It is the official written source document describing a type and level of work, responsibilities, knowledge, skills, and minimum qualifications.
The classification specification is a general document. It is not a position description (PD). A PD describes the specific duties assigned to a specific job. The classification specification describes an occupation and the type and level of work of the occupation in broad, general terms. It covers a range of positions and often a range of agencies where the representative duties, authority, and responsibilities generally apply.
Position classification review, or allocation, is the process used to match each position to and place it into the correct class. The goal is to assure that the same classification title (not working title), pay range, qualification requirements, selection procedures, training, performance standards, etc. are applied uniformly to all positions similar in responsibilities, duties, and skills. This process benefits recruitment, training and development, performance evaluation, workforce planning, and internal and external pay consistency efforts.