Classification Plan Overview
Alaska’s merit principle requires that the recruitment, selection and advancement of public employees occur under conditions of political neutrality, equal opportunity and competition, on the basis of individual merit and competence.
Central to the application of the merit principle is the Executive Branch Classification Plan, which is comprised of two major elements: (1) individual position descriptions for every classified or partially exempt position and (2) the Classification Outline of job classes, series, families, and occupational groups used to sort, organize and describe bodies of work.
The Division of Personnel’s Classification Section is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Classification Plan -- work that is broken down into review and analysis of individual position descriptions submitted by departments, job class maintenance requests, and job class studies.
A position description is a detailed accounting of a position’s assigned duties, responsibilities and level of authority. The document is submitted in a prescribed format and kept as public record by the State. Each position is designated and tracked by a unique position control number (PCN).
A job class is a group of one or more positions that are sufficiently similar in duties and responsibilities, degree of supervision exercised and received, and entrance requirements so that:
- the same title can be used to clearly identify the main purpose of each position
- the same minimum qualifications for initial appointment can be established for all positions
- the same rate of basic pay can be fairly applied to all positions
- employees in a particular job class are considered an appropriate group for purposes of layoff and recall.
As long as these tests of similarity are met, the Division of Personnel constructs job classes as broadly as feasible. Approximately 1,100 current State job classes are listed alphabetically and described in detail in the Job Class Specifications area of the online Workplace Alaska recruitment system: http://workplace.alaska.gov. Each job class is assigned a unique four-digit class code, visible in Workplace Alaska job class specifications in the upper righthand corner.
A class series is constructed of two or more job classes sharing a common title but distinguished on the basis of classification factors, such as variety and complexity of work, nature of supervision received, and the qualifications required for an individual to adequately perform the work.
A job family is a group of job classes and class series related by the nature of the work performed. The initial preparation for employment and subsequent career progression are typically similar for all job classes in a family.