JOB DESIGN

Job design specifies the contents of jobs in order to satisfy work requirements and meet the personal needs of the job holder, thus increasing levels of employee engagement. (Armstrong, 2014 P.145)

Job design (also referred to as work design or task design) is a core function of HRM and it is related to the specification of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal requirements of the job holder or the employee organizes the content and tasks so that the whole job is less likely to be a risk to the employee.

Job design involves administrative areas such as:

• Job Rotation
• Job Enlargement
• Job Simplification
• Job Enrichment

Job Rotation -

It is one of the strategies of the work plan which is an reply to the issue of boredom. Job rotation suggests the moving of an employee from one work to another without any change within the work. With Job Rotation, a given worker performs different jobs more or less within the same organization.

The advantages of job rotation are—

·         it relieves the employee from the boredom and dullness of doing a single task.

·         The organization also stands to benefit as the worker becomes competent in several jobs rather than only one.

·         Employees work changing can too make improve inter-department co-operation.

The limitations are—

·         The basic nature of the job remains unchanged.

·         Also frequent shifting of employees may cause an interruption in the work routine of the organization.

Job Simplification -

Here the occupations are streamlined or specialized. A given work is broken down into small sub-parts and each portion is assigned to one person.

Job simplification involves

•  Mechanical processing of work
•  Repetitive work process (assembly lines);
• Working on only one part of a product;
•  Predetermining tools and techniques;
• Feww skill requirements.

Work simplification is done so that less-trained and the less paid employees can do these jobs. And over simplification results in boredom which leads in turn to errors, this is the limitation of this method.

Job Enlargement -

Job enlargement involves expanding the number of tasks or duties assigned to a given employes. Job enlargement, therefore, naturally is opposite to work simplification. Adding more tasks, duties to a job does not mean that new skills and abilities are needed to perform it. There is only a horizontal expansion. It is the process of increasing the scope of a job by adding more tasks to it. The related tasks are combined.

Job enlargement reduces monotony and boredom. It helps to increase interest in work and efficiency. But there is no time increase in the job. Enlarged jobs require longer training periods as there are more tasks to be learned.

Job Enrichment -

It includes planning work in such a way that it gives the employees more noteworthy independence for arranging and controlling their possess execution. It seeks to improve tasks, efficiency and human satisfaction by building into people’s jobs, greater scope for personal achievement and recognition, more challenging and responsible work and more opportunity for individual advancement.

The advantages here are that, Job enrichment benefits employees and organization in terms of increased motivation, performance, job satisfaction, job involvement and reduced absentees.

Further, improved work should meet certain mental needs of jobholders (Identity achievement), etc. Job enrichment is motivating and satisfying as it adds status to one’s job. Empowerment, a by-product of job enrichment, gives the employees a sense of ownership and control over their job.

The limitations are-

•         If the employee is lazy or does not give due attention to his/her job, job enrichment will not have the desired outcomes.
•          The cost of design and implementation increases. Further job enrichment by itself does not motivate. This must be gone before by the arrangement of other factors that contribute to the quality of work life.

Overall goals of job design as follows,

• Task variety
• Skill variety
• Work breaks/Rest Breaks
•  Allowance for an adjustment period
•  Provide training
• Vary mental activities

References,

https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/job_design.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_design

https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/job/job-design-methods-rotation-simplification-enlargement-and-enrichment-of-jobs/2517