Do contractors and agency workers get a level in your framework, or stay outside it?

I'm with an energy utility in Australia, around 4,300 employees plus roughly 900 contractors and labour-hire workers at any time, many in roles identical to permanent ones. Procurement manages them by rate card with its own six categories, which do not line up with our eleven levels.

Workforce planning now wants a single view of capability by level, and the business would like contractors visible in the same structure. Our employment lawyers are cautious about anything that makes contractors look like employees.

If you have mapped them, how did you do it without treating them as part of the career framework? And did it change how rates were set?