Taking liberties with words when naming a vacant managerial role as a director’s position may attract more candidates… with unpredictable consequences.

In their bid to attract and retain talent, have organizations been inflating job titles in recent years?

 According to one global recruitment firm, there was a 24% increase in Singapore employers inflating job titles in Singapore in 2023.

Job title inflation refers to a practice by companies to offer inflated or exaggerated job titles that may not accurately reflect the responsibilities, seniority, or even salary of the position. The job titles involve terms such as “Manager” and “Director” for jobs intended for professionals with at least two years of commensurate qualifications and experience that were being made optional or easier to meet.

However, these efforts are said to “see limited success and may create problems for employers and employees alike, ” according to the firm Robert Walters. 

Why not?

Based on LinkedIn polls conducted by the firm’s Singapore office in January this year, 85% of professionals responding agreed to prompts that the job title is “important” or “very important” when applying for a role.

Yet, while some firms have tried inflating job titles, the success rate has been varied: 43% of hiring managers surveyed shared that they had or were considering inflating a job title to attract or retain professionals to a role within their organization, with 21% citing such a move as working “to its desired effect.” Also:

    • An inflated job title may lead to problems where fellow professionals may not see it as a major indicator of seniority, or the level of responsibility and experience associated with a position.
    • Top indicators of seniority cited by respondents were:
      • Being able to manage a team (46%)
      • the importance of the job (34%)
      • a C-Suite/Head-of title (20%)

Robert Walters Singapore advises hiring managers to avoid inflating job titles as it may cause inefficiencies and inequality within the organization. According to the firm’s country manager Monty Sujanani, if hires are given inflated job titles, “it may be difficult for them to understand their actual job scope, or make it confusing to know who does what, which could lead to tasks not actually being done. There could potentially be a talent mismatch or cause resentment among employees as well. Clearly defining roles and responsibilities, and having accurate job titles — can help to ensure fairness.”