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All levels studies

How many levels do human resources ladders have?

Data collected on

We read 14 human resources ladders that public employers and companies publish for their own staff and counted their levels. The median is 5.5 levels for HR professionals who do not manage people, and 6 is the most common count. Every source is linked below, and the data is free to download.

Key findings

  • Ladders run from 2 to 7 levels. The median is 5.5. The most common count is 6, used by 6 of the 14 ladders.
  • 3 of the 10 ladders that use job titles have a Senior level. Its median position is step 3 from the bottom.
  • 7 ladders publish a separate track for managers. The 6 that say where it starts put it between step 4 and step 8, and the median is step 6.

How many levels human resources ladders have

Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for HR professionals who do not manage people.

  • 2 levels1 ladder
  • 3 levels2 ladders
  • 4 levels2 ladders
  • 5 levels2 ladders
  • 6 levels6 ladders
  • 7 levels1 ladder

Which titles the ladders use

The bars cover the 10 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other 4 use grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Level 2” or “Expert Level”. One ladder can use several of these words.

  • Senior3 of 10
  • Assistant5 of 10
  • Consultant3 of 10
  • Business Partner3 of 10
  • Specialist2 of 10

Senior counts a level titled Senior or Sr., not Senior Staff or Senior Principal; the other words count wherever they appear in a level title.

Where the manager track starts

This chart shows the step, counted from the bottom of each ladder, where the first people-manager role sits. It covers the 6 ladders that say where it starts. Of the rest, 1 has a manager track but does not say where it starts and 7 do not say whether they have one.

  • Step 42 ladders
  • Step 50 ladders
  • Step 62 ladders
  • Step 71 ladder
  • Step 81 ladder

Download the data

One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.

Download the CSV

All 14 ladders

Levels for HR professionals who do not manage people, lowest first, as each publisher names them.
LadderLevelsLevel namesManager track
Australian Public Service CommissionPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)4
  1. Emerging HR professional
  2. Developing HR professional
  3. Advanced HR professional
  4. Expert HR professional
Not stated
GitLab6
  1. Associate People Business Partner (PBP)
  2. Intermediate People Business Partner (PBP)
  3. Senior People Business Partner (PBP)
  4. Manager, People Business Partner (PBP)
  5. Senior Manager, People Business Partner (PBP)
  6. Director, People Business Partner (PBP)
Separate, above the top level (step 7)
Monzo6
  1. Level 1
  2. Level 2
  3. Level 3
  4. Level 4
  5. Level 5
  6. Level 6
Not stated
NHS EmployersPublic employer6
  1. HR Assistant
  2. HR Assistant Higher Level
  3. HR Administrator
  4. HR Adviser
  5. HR Adviser Specialist
  6. HR Adviser Advanced
Separate, from step 6 (level with HR Adviser Advanced)
Penn State UniversityPublic employer7
  1. Human Resources Assistant – Support
  2. Human Resources Assistant – Intermediate Support
  3. Human Resources Assistant – Senior Support
  4. Human Resources Consultant – Professional
  5. Human Resources Consultant – Intermediate Professional
  6. Human Resources Consultant – Advanced Professional
  7. Human Resources Consultant – Senior Professional
Separate, above the top level (step 8)
State of North CarolinaPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)3
  1. Agency Human Resources Consultant I
  2. Agency Human Resources Consultant II
  3. Agency Human Resources Consultant III
Separate; start not stated
State of TexasPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy)6
  1. Human Resources Specialist I
  2. Human Resources Specialist II
  3. Human Resources Specialist III
  4. Human Resources Specialist IV
  5. Human Resources Specialist V
  6. Human Resources Specialist VI
Not stated
State of WashingtonPublic employer6
  1. Human Resource Consultant Assistant 1
  2. Human Resource Consultant Assistant 2
  3. Human Resource Consultant 1
  4. Human Resource Consultant 2
  5. Human Resource Consultant 3
  6. Human Resource Consultant 4
Not stated
The Ohio State UniversityPublic employer6
  1. HR Business Partner 1
  2. HR Business Partner 2
  3. HR Business Partner 3
  4. HR Business Partner 4
  5. HR Business Partner 5
  6. HR Business Partner 6
Not stated
UK Government People FunctionPublic employer3
  1. Working Level (HEO/SEO)
  2. Practitioner Level (G6/7)
  3. Strategic (Expert) Level (SCS1/2)
Not stated
University of CaliforniaPublic employer5
  1. Human Resources Generalist 1
  2. Human Resources Generalist 2
  3. Human Resources Generalist 3
  4. Human Resources Generalist 4
  5. Human Resources Generalist 5
Separate, from step 4 (level with Human Resources Generalist 4)
University of WashingtonPublic employer2
  1. Human Resource Assistant
  2. Human Resource Assistant Senior
Not stated
University of Wisconsin–MadisonPublic employer5
  1. HR Assistant
  2. HR Coordinator
  3. HR Generalist
  4. HR Business Partner
  5. HR Manager
Separate, above the top level (step 6)
US Office of Personnel ManagementPublic employer4
  1. Early Career Level
  2. Intermediate Level
  3. Advanced Level
  4. Expert Level
Separate, from step 4 (level with Expert Level)

How we did it

We read 14 human resources ladders that their publishers use for their own staff: 2 from companies and 12 from public employers, on their own sites or in documents they publish. We kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals, professional bodies’ standards and ladders only for recruiting, payroll or HR service-desk teams.

Levels are the steps an HR professional can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations (like “Human Resources Specialist I” and “II”), each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.

The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.

Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. A level counts as Senior when its title says Senior (or Sr.), but not Senior Staff or Senior Principal. Assistant, Consultant, Business Partner and Specialist count wherever the word appears in a level title, so “Human Resource Consultant Assistant 1” counts for both Assistant and Consultant.

This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, mostly from public universities and governments in the US, UK and Australia, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every employer does. Where a live page was gone or blocked automated reading, we read the Internet Archive copy, and the table says so.

We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.

Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.

See levels with their skills

The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our human resources career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.

Other levels studies