We cut 62 job families to 23, and eleven had crept back within a year

A headcount threshold would not work for us. I'm at a hospital group in Australia and some of our most distinct families are small, perfusionists for example, about 14 people, with a labour market entirely their own. I would rank the market test first and treat size as a tie-breaker.

The three locally agreed pay ranges worry me more than the families. That tells you someone outside reward can create a range.

We closed that by making range creation a system permission held by two people. Families still get argued about, but nobody can attach money to one without us.

We refused one last year: a 'customer success engineering' family that turned out to be six people and a manager who wanted a different bonus plan. What helped was asking what would change for an employee if the family existed. If the honest answer is only the title, it is a title request, not a family.