What is the practice of moving employees from one job to another to make work more interesting called?
One way to keep workers interested and engaged is to rotate their jobs every so often. This article will define job rotation, discuss its pros and cons, and provide five case studies of businesses that have used it effectively.
Job rotation refers to the process of moving employees from one job to another to make work more interesting. The majority of these rotations are lateral, taking place between similar-level employment rather than promotions. They are usually often short-term, with employees returning to their previous positions once the allotted period has passed.
Among the many advantages of job rotation that we will discuss in greater depth later on are the following: the thrill and challenge of starting a new job, the absence of monotony, increased motivation, better evaluation of person-job fit, and the opportunity to gain experience in a variety of fields.
Rotating jobs is a well-known way to help a company grow. It is a crucial component of job (re)design, alongside job enlargement, enrichment, and simplification. Let’s examine the advantages of job rotation in more detail.
The advantages of job rotation
The advantages of job rotation to businesses and their employees are numerous. While the two do overlap to some extent, let’s examine the advantages of job rotation from the perspective of the employer first:
1. Acquiring knowledge: One of the best ways to build human capital is through job rotation, which involves passing on specialized knowledge, abilities, and competencies from one employee to another. For instance, a worker who has worked in a variety of capacities may have a more well-rounded understanding of the production process as a whole. In a similar vein, managers may require exposure to many departments before being prepared for a senior leadership role that requires this expertise.
One further example is that a lot of people working in human resources do not have any business acumen. A great strategy to hone these abilities is to switch up who works in HR by bringing in individuals from other parts of the company every so often. John Boudreau and Ed Lawler both advocate using this method.
2. Ability to adapt: Having workers rotate through different tasks creates a more adaptable workforce. To make better use of your workforce, which is larger and more adaptable, consider deploying individuals into two or even three positions.
3. Finding a new worker: When a key employee abruptly quits, someone else must step up to fill their shoes. In this case, job rotation can be useful. A vital function can be filled swiftly by (temporarily) deploying a colleague who is somewhat comfortable with the role and extremely familiar with the organization.
4. Placement and orientation: During traineeships, rotation is a common practice. Typically, a traineeship lasts two years and involves the graduate working in four different departments. This provides the graduate with the opportunity to discover their strengths and explore their hidden skills.
Meanwhile, it allows the company to investigate the new hire’s potential value-adding role inside the company, a process known as job-employee matching. Similarly, when an employee wants a change, they can be rotated across the organization to test out a new role. This is a fantastic method for making sure that new talent is being used to its full potential. They can return at any time if it doesn’t help. This could keep a brilliant worker from quitting.
5. Customer happiness and retention: People may be more likely to quit their jobs after being there for four or five years. Employees are more satisfied and stay longer in their jobs when they get to switch things up and face new challenges.
Job rotation also offers advantages to the employee:
6. Motivation: When you remain in the same job for too long, you risk becoming uninspired. Job rotation provides a change of environment and new tasks that push workers to grow and change. Job rotation moves employees from one job to another to make work more interesting. This is a fantastic strategy for boosting morale, preventing employees from becoming bored, while improving their individual adaptability.
7. Acquiring knowledge: Both the employer and the employee profit from learning. There is an enormous need for professional development opportunities, particularly for those who have just joined the workforce. The use of job rotation, especially when coupled with peer coaching, might create such opportunities.
Drawbacks of job rotation
We can’t end this piece without briefly talking about the bad things about job rotation.
1. Lack of effectiveness: When a person starts a new job, they have a learning curve before they can perform at their best. This is why rotation can generate inefficiency and frequent interruptions in the workplace.
2. Getting it wrong: Someone who rotates out of a job may still have better (tacit) knowledge and connections, which is another downside. Role ambiguity can occur if this individual continues to be (partially) active in the role. Establishing a peer mentoring program is one approach to dealing with this problem.
3. An unhappy worker: Removing someone from a job they enjoy could make them less invested in their work. One possible downside is that dissatisfied workers might not be enthusiastic about the new position, which could lead them to contemplate quitting the company altogether.
4. Not enough opportunities: Horizontal job rotation is common, meaning that employees commonly move to a different position within the same level rather than a promotion. For some, this may seem more like a detour than a progression toward their desired career goal. The best course of action here is to gauge their ambition and present the rotation as a chance to gain varied talents that will help them in the long run.
Guidelines for effective job rotation
You now understand that it is possible to “rotate the wrong way.” Let’s review some tried-and-true methods for making a bigger difference with less mess.
1. Something that helps you reach your goal: Rotation has a wide range of applications. Remember that the point of work rotation has to be immediately apparent from the get-go. Inefficiency, unclear roles, and interruptions in work are the results of careless job rotation. The only way to justify these inefficiencies is if job rotation serves a specific purpose.
2. Staff support: Another possible drawback is that rotation has the ability to make staff unhappy. Building support is, thus, of the utmost importance. Instead of forcing employees to participate in job rotation, you can persuade them by outlining the many ways in which their work will improve. When you can get your employees on board, you can transform a problem into an opportunity.
3. Training: Third, before transferring employees to a new position, make sure they have enough training. If you go into a job unprepared, you won’t be as motivated to do a good job and will take longer to attain your full productivity potential. Above all else, this is a situation where peer mentoring and coaching can be quite helpful.
4. Keep an eye on things and provide comments: Make sure you keep a close eye on someone once they’ve rotated into a position, and give them plenty of feedback. People will learn to fend for themselves and need less supervision as time goes on. Also, make sure you discuss and set clear work success criteria. This clarifies the expectations for the employee.
5. Job rotation that is prearranged: Job pathing, also known as career pathing, is a more structured method of job rotation. Here, a certain order of jobs is set up to help people meet their career goals.
A look at five different job rotation programs
Here are five examples of job rotations that have actually happened.
- The Slumber Yard
The Slumber Yard, the preeminent online mattress review resource, provides us with our first case study of job rotation in action. The Slumber Yard implemented a rotation scheme primarily to lessen employee turnover. Matthew Ross, COO and co-owner, said that training workers to be capable in different areas reduces the consequences associated with worker turnover. If an individual leaves, other workers can easily take over their role.
Of course, the time required to master a new skill varies from one job to another. This highlights the significance of precisely calculating training durations and matching rotation program lengths. Every three months, members of The Slumber Yard take turns rotating.
- Heineken’s Technologist Program
Heineken, a beer brewer from the Netherlands, provides us with our second job rotation example. In addition to the Technologist Program, the organization offers a number of traineeships for recent college grads. Trainees that make the cut will have multiple 6-month assignments to complete. Consequently, they will be required to work their way through different departments, such as Quality Assurance, Brewing, Product Development, Packaging, and Packaging development, among others.
Possible projects that trainee technologists could be involved in include:
Designing new beers or packaging; addressing day-to-day manufacturing concerns through elimination and detailed analysis; identifying quality hazards; safeguarding products; and coming up with inventive solutions for new problems.
Graduates of the program are prepared to begin their careers as technologist in a variety of Heineken divisions. This traineeship exemplifies how rotation can help individuals gain diverse skill sets, which in turn creates a more adaptable workforce capable of multitasking.
- Job rotation in factories
One more compelling argument in favor of job rotation in industrial settings is the frequency of musculoskeletal disorders and other work-related injuries. There is no silver bullet, and job rotation is best implemented as part of a broader initiative to reimagine work, but it may help with this (and with boredom, for that matter).
- How rotation impacts nurses
American nurses participated in a study to see if a rotation system would help them better grasp the organization’s mission and values, which would in turn boost their job satisfaction, encourage them to stay put, and strengthen their loyalty to the company.
The nurses who participated in the study found that job rotation contributed to improved patient care, increased knowledge and skill sets, and overall job satisfaction. They reached a consensus that it could be a way to lessen job burnout while also helping workers gain versatile skills and a broader perspective.
- Edelman
Job rotation programs come in a variety of forms. For their top performers and future stars, the PR and marketing experts at Edelman, based in the United States, offer a rotation program. Selected employees spend up to 18 months working, living, and learning in a foreign country.
In order to better serve the company’s clients, Edelman’s program aims to provide employees with opportunities to learn from numerous perspectives and gain professional experience.
In sum
The numerous advantages that job rotation may bring to an organization and its employees should be obvious by now. But if it’s done at random, it will slow things down, cause mistakes, and make roles less clear. To avoid confusion, it is important to make it clear why job rotation should be used.
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