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Job design is about how to build a better job. It is not just about ensuring that the tasks get done as efficiently as possible, but also ensuring that you are designing a job that will promote motivation and engagement in your employee. It has been shown that improvements in employee engagement levels have a direct impact on a business’s productivity and profitability.

When looking at job design, there are a number of core job characteristics that increase job satisfaction and motivation. American researchers and scholars Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham developed their job characteristic model in 1980. The model outlines five core job characteristics that can lead to three critical psychological states. In turn, these can produce the positive outcomes of work motivation, satisfaction and work effectiveness. The five core job characteristics are as follows:

• Skill variety – The use of different skills and talents to complete a variety of work activities.
• Task identity – The degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work.
• Task significance – The degree to which the job affects the business and/or larger society.
• Autonomy – The freedom to make decisions and use discretion in regard to work scheduling and procedures used to complete the work.
• Feedback – The degree to which employees can tell how well they are doing based on direct feedback.

[wlm_ismember]These five characteristics affect employee motivation and satisfaction through three critical psychological states – experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility and knowledge of results.

• Meaningfulness is the belief that the job is worthwhile and important. This state is derived through skill variety, task identity and task significance. If a job has high levels of these three characteristics, employees will feel an increased level of meaningfulness. Take for example an employee whose job is to perform just one aspect of a large assembly line day after day. We can imagine that this job is not likely to provide high levels of meaningfulness. However, if the company made any of the following changes, these levels could be increased: moving the employee to a different section of the assembly line on a rotation basis; making changes to the production to allow the employee to produce a full component; or giving the employee the opportunity to receive direct feedback from the customer.
• Responsibility is derived directly from the level of accountability the employee has for their job outcomes. When employees feel responsible for their successes and failures, they become more engaged and satisfied.
• Knowledge of results can come from co-workers, managers, clients or even from the task itself. For example, an airline pilot will get direct feedback the minute they land the plane. This can come from their instruments as well as feedback from passengers or crew. This is important on two counts: firstly, the employee knows how successful they are, and secondly, they can learn from their mistakes and make improvements and adjustments.

By considering these key characteristics when designing a job, there is the ability to enhance levels of employee engagement, which directly impacts on the performance of the business. Before looking to employ a new person, think carefully when designing the job. Be clear about what you need the person to do; what skills and abilities they will need to have to do it; and look for ways to build some of these five key characteristics into the role.

Other job design strategies that can lead to an increase in employee motivation are set out below:

• Job rotation – As the name suggests, this strategy involves moving employees from one job to another. The benefits of this strategy can be threefold. Firstly, in labour- intensive or repetitive jobs it can minimise the risk of injury if the jobs require the use of different muscles and movements. Secondly, job rotation supports multi-skilling. This not only adds variety for the employee, but has the added benefit of broadening the knowledge base across the team. Finally, it can reduce levels of boredom in highly repetitive jobs.
• Job enlargement – This occurs when additional tasks are added to an existing job. Research shows that simply adding additional tasks will not increase satisfaction or motivation, unless it is combined with autonomy and knowledge.
• Job enrichment – This strategy involves giving employees more responsibility for scheduling, coordinating and planning their own work. Job enrichment will generally increase levels of motivation and satisfaction leading to higher levels of productivity, lower absenteeism and reduced staff turnover.

One way to achieve job enrichment is to combine interdependent tasks into one job, allowing the employee to have increased ownership over the whole process, product or service. An example is a journalist who no longer just reports the story, but also operates the camera and sound recording equipment. This makes them a video journalist responsible for the whole piece of work rather then just one component.

Another strategy to create job enrichment is to put employees in direct contact with clients. By having direct contact and responsibility for clients, employees can make better decisions that benefit clients and builds an increased level of significance into the role.

It is important to note that job design will not increase motivation in all employees and in all situations. If employees do not have sufficient skills and knowledge, adding additional tasks or autonomy may have the opposite effect, increasing stress levels and reducing performance and job satisfaction. Use the information in this article in conjunction with other articles in this section of the website on motivation and engagement to ensure you maximise your team’s performance.[/wlm_ismember]

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