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Unit roles

Roles define positions and responsibilities within your organization. Core supports two types of roles: Organization Roles for company-wide positions that serve the entire organization (such as CEO, Safety Officer, or a company-wide Scrum Master), and Unit Roles for positions within specific teams or departments (like Team Lead or Frontend Developer). This guide explains how to create, manage, and assign roles effectively.

Understanding Role Types

Organization Roles

Organization roles are company-wide positions that operate across the entire organization rather than within a specific team or department. While these are often executive leadership positions, they can be any role that serves the entire company.

Common Examples:

  • Executive roles: CEO, CTO, CFO, VP of Engineering, Director of Marketing
  • Company-wide specialists: Chief Safety Officer, Head of Compliance, Corporate Counsel
  • Organization-wide functions: Scrum Master (if one person serves all teams), Facilities Manager, IT Security Lead

Key distinction: If there's only one person in a role serving the entire organization (not tied to a specific team), it's an organization role. If the same role exists within multiple teams (e.g., each team has its own Scrum Master), those are unit roles.

Characteristics:

  • Apply across the entire organization, not limited to one unit
  • Appear as individual cards on the organization chart
  • Usually have direct reports (units or other organization roles)
  • Typically held by one person per organization
  • Serve company-wide functions or provide leadership

Unit Roles

Unit roles are positions held within specific organizational units (departments, teams, projects).

Examples:

  • Senior Frontend Developer
  • Team Lead
  • Product Manager
  • UX Designer
  • QA Engineer

Characteristics:

  • Specific to particular units
  • Can be held by multiple people across different units
  • Form the operational structure of the organization
  • Can have associated skill requirements
  • Represent day-to-day roles and responsibilities

Managing Unit Roles

Accessing Unit Roles

Navigate to Organization > Unit roles to view and manage all role definitions.

Viewing the Roles List

The unit roles list displays:

  • Name: Role title
  • Description: Brief explanation of the role's responsibilities
  • Assigned skill groups: Competency areas associated with this role

Each row includes action buttons:

  • Edit icon: Modify role details
  • Delete icon: Remove the role definition

Creating a Unit Role

  1. Navigate to Organization > Unit roles
  2. Click New unit role
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Name: Enter the role title (e.g., "Senior Backend Developer", "Product Manager")
    • Description: Describe the responsibilities and expectations
  4. Click Save

Adding Skill Groups to Roles

Skill groups define the competencies expected for a role:

  1. Find the role in Organization > Unit roles
  2. Hover over the role row and click Assign skill group to this role
  3. Select a Group from the dropdown (e.g., "Focus Skills", "Technical Skills")
  4. Click Save

When members are assigned to this role, they'll be prompted to assess themselves on skills in these groups.

Editing a Unit Role

  1. Navigate to Organization > Unit roles
  2. Click the edit icon next to the role
  3. Modify the name or description
  4. Click Save

Deleting a Unit Role

Before deleting:

  • Ensure no members are currently assigned to this role
  • Consider whether to reassign people to different roles first

To delete:

  1. Click the delete icon next to the role
  2. Confirm the deletion

You cannot delete a role that has active assignments.

Assigning Roles to Members

Organization Role Assignment

To assign a company-wide organization role:

  1. Navigate to Organization > Org Chart
  2. Click Assign Org Role in the toolbar
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Role: Select the organization role (CEO, CTO, etc.)
    • Member: Choose the person to assign
    • Parent Entity: Select who this role reports to
      • Another organization role (e.g., CEO)
      • "There is no one above this entity" for top-level roles
  4. Click Save

The member now appears in the org chart at the appropriate hierarchical level.

Unit Role Assignment

To assign a role within a specific unit:

  1. Navigate to Organization > Org Chart
  2. Click Assign Unit Role in the toolbar
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Unit: Select the organizational unit (department, team, etc.)
    • Member: Choose the person to assign
    • Role: Select the unit role they'll hold
    • Primary assignment: Check if this is their main role
  4. Click Save

The member is now assigned to the unit with this role. To view them, click on the unit card in the org chart to see the unit's member list.

Primary vs. Secondary Assignments

Members can hold multiple roles across different units, but typically have one primary assignment:

  • Primary assignment:
    • The member's main role and responsibility
    • Displayed prominently in their profile under their name
    • Shown in the org chart as their primary affiliation
    • Recommended for all active members
  • Secondary assignments:
    • Additional roles in other units
    • Support matrix organizations or cross-functional work
    • Listed in member profile but not highlighted
    • Useful for showing temporary project work or committee membership

Built-in Organization Roles

Core includes several pre-configured organization roles, primarily focused on executive and leadership positions:

  • CEO: Sets the organization's overall vision and strategic direction while bearing ultimate accountability for performance
  • CFO: Leads financial planning, analysis, risk management, and reporting to safeguard the company's fiscal health
  • CHRO: Designs and implements people-strategies, including talent acquisition, development, and organizational culture
  • CMO: Directs marketing strategy, branding, and demand-generation activities to grow market share and customer engagement
  • COO: Oversees day-to-day operations and ensures that business processes align with strategic objectives
  • CTO: Drives the technology strategy, overseeing development, infrastructure, and innovation initiatives
  • Director of Engineering: Leads engineering teams, enforces coding standards, and coordinates cross-functional technical initiatives
  • Director of Finance: Manages budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, and compliance to inform executive decision-making

Additional built-in roles include Director of HR, Marketing, Operations, Product, and Sales.

Creating Custom Organization Roles: While these built-in roles cover common executive positions, you can create custom organization roles for any company-wide function. For example:

  • Safety Officer or Chief Safety Officer for organization-wide safety compliance
  • Enterprise Architect for overall technical architecture
  • Scrum Master if one person serves all teams
  • Facilities Manager for company-wide facility operations
  • Any other role that serves the entire organization rather than a specific team

Role and Skill Integration

How Roles Connect to Skills

The relationship between roles and skills works as follows:

  1. Define unit roles (e.g., "Senior Frontend Developer")
  2. Assign skill groups to each role (e.g., "Technical Skills", "Focus Skills")
  3. Assign members to roles within units
  4. Members assess their proficiency in the required skills
  5. Core aggregates these assessments to show:
    • Individual member competencies
    • Unit-level competencies (team capabilities)

Benefits of Role-Skill Mapping

  • Clear expectations: Members know what skills are important for their role
  • Skill gap identification: See where individuals or teams need development
  • Project staffing: Find people with the right skills for specific tasks
  • Career development: Help members understand growth paths
  • Capacity planning: Assess whether teams have necessary competencies

Common Scenarios

Creating Roles for a New Department

  1. Navigate to Organization > Unit roles
  2. Create roles for common positions:
    • "Department Manager"
    • "Senior Engineer"
    • "Junior Engineer"
    • "Intern"
  3. Assign relevant skill groups to each role
  4. Create the department unit
  5. Assign team members to these roles within the department

Standardizing Roles Across Teams

For consistency across similar teams:

  1. Define standard role names (e.g., "Team Lead", not "Lead", "Manager", or "TL")
  2. Create unit roles with these standardized names
  3. Include clear descriptions explaining responsibilities
  4. Assign consistent skill groups to the same roles across teams
  5. Use these roles when assigning members to any team

Supporting Career Progression

Define role levels to show growth paths:

  1. Create tiered unit roles:
    • "Junior Frontend Developer"
    • "Frontend Developer"
    • "Senior Frontend Developer"
    • "Staff Frontend Developer"
  2. Assign increasingly demanding skill groups to higher levels
  3. Members can see what skills they need to develop for advancement
  4. Managers can track progression and plan promotions

Matrix Organization Support

For members who report to multiple managers:

  1. Assign primary assignment to their functional role
    • Example: "Senior Engineer" in "Engineering Department"
  2. Assign secondary roles in project teams
    • Example: "Tech Lead" in "Mobile App Project"
  3. Both roles appear in their profile and org chart
  4. Skill assessments apply across all assignments

Cross-Functional Teams

For teams that draw from multiple departments:

  1. Create a unit for the cross-functional team (e.g., "Product Launch Squad")
  2. Define roles specific to this team (e.g., "Product Lead", "Engineer", "Designer")
  3. Assign members from various departments without changing their primary assignments
  4. The team appears as a unit card in the org chart
  5. Click on the unit card to view its member composition

Best Practices

Naming Roles

  • Use clear, descriptive titles that everyone understands
  • Include seniority levels where relevant ("Senior", "Junior", "Staff")
  • Be consistent across the organization
  • Avoid internal jargon or abbreviations in public-facing role names

Writing Role Descriptions

  • Focus on responsibilities and expectations
  • Keep descriptions concise (2-3 sentences)
  • Highlight key accountabilities
  • Include reporting relationships if relevant
  • Update descriptions as roles evolve

Assigning Skill Groups

  • Only assign skill groups that are truly relevant to the role
  • Include both technical and soft skills where appropriate
  • Consider using "Focus Skills" for universal competencies
  • Review and update skill group assignments periodically

Managing Role Proliferation

  • Avoid creating too many similar roles
  • Standardize where possible (one "Developer" role, not ten variations)
  • Use role descriptions to capture nuances instead of creating new roles
  • Periodically audit and consolidate redundant roles

Primary Assignments

  • Encourage (but don't require) every member to have a primary assignment
  • Primary should reflect where the member spends most of their time
  • Update primary assignments when responsibilities shift
  • Use secondary assignments for temporary or partial allocations

Tips for Effective Role Management

Starting Fresh

If building an org structure from scratch:

  1. Start with organization roles (company-wide positions like CEO, CTO, or Safety Officer)
  2. Define unit roles for common positions within teams
  3. Create units (departments, teams)
  4. Assign organization roles first
  5. Then assign unit roles to team members

Migrating from Existing Structure

If importing an existing org structure:

  1. Document current roles and reporting relationships
  2. Map to Core's organization vs. unit role model
  3. Create unit types and units first
  4. Define all necessary roles
  5. Assign members systematically, starting at the top

Regular Reviews

Schedule periodic reviews of your role structure:

  • Quarterly: Review role assignments for accuracy
  • Semi-annually: Audit role definitions and descriptions
  • Annually: Assess whether role structure meets organizational needs
  • During reorganizations: Update comprehensively

Scaling with Growth

As your organization grows:

  • Maintain role standardization to avoid chaos
  • Document role definitions clearly for new employees
  • Create role templates for common position types
  • Establish clear approval processes for new role creation

Troubleshooting

Can't Create a New Role

  • Permission issue: Verify you have Manage permission for Organization Core
  • Duplicate name: Role names must be unique
  • Missing required fields: Ensure name and description are provided

Can't Assign a Role

  • Role doesn't exist: Create the unit role first
  • No unit selected: Unit roles require selecting a unit
  • Permission issue: Verify your permissions for member assignment

Role Not Showing in Dropdown

  • Org role vs. unit role: Ensure you're using the right assignment dialog
  • Recently created: Try refreshing the page
  • Role deleted: Verify the role still exists

Member Has Wrong Role in Org Chart

  • Check primary assignment: Org chart may display primary role only
  • Multiple assignments: Review all role assignments in member profile
  • Outdated data: Refresh the org chart view

Skills Not Appearing for Role

  • No skill groups assigned: Add skill groups to the role definition
  • Skills not created: Verify skills exist in the Skill Matrix module
  • Member hasn't assessed: Member needs to complete self-assessment

Next Steps

Now that you understand roles, explore: