How to build a role and leveling framework for a growing company

Building a role and leveling framework starts with defining what great performance looks like, documenting clear roles, and describing how individuals progress through increasing levels of scope, skill, and impact. It’s about creating shared clarity, so every employee understands what’s expected, how they can grow, and what success looks like at each stage.

According to Gartner research, only 41% of employees are performing optimally, giving their best work in a way they can sustain over time. While Gartner links this to factors like well-being and manager support, another major driver is often overlooked: unclear expectations. Without shared definitions of performance across roles and levels, organizations can’t measure or enable it consistently. A clear role and leveling framework provides that missing foundation.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the key steps to build a framework that connects roles, levels, and expectations into one scalable system your managers and team can actually use.

What is the difference between roles and levels?

A role defines the purpose, scope and accountabilities of a job or function in your organisation: what someone is hired to do, what outcomes they own, and what skill-set they bring. A level defines the seniority, scope, autonomy and impact expectation for someone in that role (or job family). So while the role might be “Product Manager”, levels might be “PM I / PM II / Senior PM / Lead PM”. Roles are what the job is; levels are how far someone has progressed in that job family, and hence what is expected of them at each step.

Research by McKinsey & Company shows that companies placing the right talent in the right roles, and supporting them effectively, achieve significantly higher revenue per employee than their peers. This reinforces that clear alignment between roles, levels, and expectations isn’t just about structure or fairness; it’s a measurable driver of performance and productivity.

How to build a role and leveling framework?

Here’s a simple, step-by-step framework to help you design and implement a role and leveling system that scales with your company. Each step builds on the last — from defining what great performance means, to aligning it with clear levels, expectations, and manager practices that make it work in real life.

1. Start With “What Does Performance Mean Here?”

Before building levels or titles, define what “good performance” looks like in your context.

As we wrote in Setting Expectations, performance in a growing company is best viewed through three lenses:

• Culture and behaviours (how you work)
• Impact/deliverables (what you achieve)
• Skills/competencies (how you get it done)
  

These categories form the foundation of any leveling system. A “Senior Engineer” or “Lead Product Manager” isn’t just a title — it’s a mix of impact, skills and behaviours performed at a higher standard.

2. Define levels by observable outcomes, not tenure

When defining levels, avoid comparing employees to one another (“better than junior PMs”). Instead, describe absolute performance standards. For example:

• Intermediate: “Runs structured discovery, identifies unmet customer needs, and drives roadmap decisions based on insights.”
• Advanced: “Leads complex product areas, mentors peers, and defines discovery strategy aligned with company goals.”
  

This shift, from relative comparisons to outcome-based examples, eliminates ambiguity and bias. It also gives managers concrete language for setting expectations and evaluating performance.

Research supports this: companies that use outcome-based frameworks are 31% more likely to see higher employee engagement and retention, according to Gartner HR research.

3. Align levels with real roles and real conversations

A framework on paper means little if it doesn’t translate into daily manager–employee discussions. To bring it to life:

• Translate organisational standards into individual expectations. Ask: What does good performance look like for you, in your current role?
• Combine business goals with development goals. Avoid separating “growth” and “impact.” Tie both into role expectations.
• Make conversations ongoing, not annual. Levels are fixed; performance evolves. Encourage managers to discuss expectations quarterly.
  

When managers and employees co-create expectations, the framework becomes a coaching tool, not a grading chart.

4. Use “talent bars” to communicate what’s expected

Levels define what good looks like; talent bars define what’s expected at each level. For example:

• A Junior Engineer may be expected to meet Basic level skills in TypeScript.
• A Senior Engineer might need to demonstrate Advanced proficiency in product delivery and cross-functional communication.
  

Talent bars evolve as your organisation grows. But the definitions of performance levels should remain stable. That stability creates fairness, and confidence, in your evaluation and promotion process.

5. Train and enable managers

Your framework is only as good as the people who apply it. Invest time in training managers to:

• Use the framework in 1:1s and reviews.
• Write clear, outcome-based expectations.
• Balance consistency with individual nuance.
• Reinforce growth conversations, not just evaluation.

Managers who understand and use the framework consistently become multipliers for performance culture, ensuring that expectations are both understood and lived.

6. Keep it alive

A role and leveling framework isn’t a one-off HR project: it’s a living system. Revisit it as your company’s strategy, products, and teams evolve. Ask quarterly or bi-annually:

• Do our definitions of “impact” still fit our business model?
• Are levels fair and motivating across departments?
• Do employees understand what’s expected of them and what growth looks like?

The goal isn’t documentation: it’s alignment and performance enablement.

7. Measure success & iterate

Define metrics to evaluate whether the framework is delivering: e.g., employee sentiment on clarity of roles, time to promotion, internal mobility rates, pay equity measures. Use feedback loops: involve employees in how well the framework is working. Adjust as needed.

Why role and leveling frameworks matter

Clear frameworks do more than structure roles. They create trust. Employees know what’s expected and how to grow. Managers gain confidence in evaluations. Leadership gains visibility into talent health. It’s the foundation for a performance enablement system where everyone understands:

• What’s expected of me?
• How do I grow here?
• What does success look like for my role?

What to read next

Read our previous writing about Setting Expectations: The First Step to Performance Enablement. Learn how to define and align expectations across your company, and why it’s the cornerstone for every role and leveling framework.

FAQ

Q: How many levels are “enough”?
It depends on size and complexity. Too few = lack of progression clarity; too many = over-engineering. A good starting point: 3–5 levels for individual contributors, with separate tracks for leadership roles.

Q: Should each function (engineering, sales, marketing) have its own leveling framework?
Ideally, you use one unified framework across functions so titles, progression and pay are consistent. But you may have function-specific competencies and role descriptions within that framework.

Q: How do we link this framework with pay and compensation?
Each level should map to a compensation band eventually. The role/leveling framework provides the structure; compensation then aligns to market benchmarks and internal equity.

Q: How do we get managers and employees to use the framework consistently?
Launch with communication, provide training, integrate into goal-setting and review processes, monitor usage. Make it live: encourage mention in 1:1s, promotions, career conversations.