Job Rotation

Job Rotation Job rotation is an approach to management development where an individual is moved through a schedule of assignments designed to give him or her a breadth of exposure to the entire operation. Job rotation is also practiced to allow qualified employees to gain more insights into the processes of a company, and to reduce boredom and increase job satisfaction through job variation. The term job rotation can also mean the scheduled exchange of persons in offices, especially in public offices, prior to the end of incumbency or the legislative period. This has been practiced by the German green party for some time but has been discontinued. At the senior management levels, job rotation - frequently referred to as management rotation, is tightly linked with succession planning - developing a pool of people capable of stepping into an existing job. Here the goal is to provide learning experiences which facilitate changes in thinking and perspective equivalent to the "horizon" of the level of the succession planning. For lower management levels job rotation has normally one of two purposes: promotability or skill enhancement. In many cases senior managers seem unwilling to risk instability in their units by moving qualified people from jobs where the lower level manager is being successful and reflecting positively on the actions of the senior manager. Many military forces use the job rotation strategy to allow the soldiers to develop a wider range of experiences, and an exposure to the different jobs of an occupation. Whilst there is relatively little research undertaken in this area a prospective emancipatory action research study has been on-going in north west London health services for several years, the research papers can be found on - www.nurserotation.com. The work has been undertaken by Patrick Coyne, Dr. Ricky Lucock, Prof. Buchan and Jane Ball, with the local health communities. A meta-evaluation of the research and the development of a global model of job rotation is being completed at this point by Patrick Coyne.

For the executive, job rotation takes on different perspectives. The executive is usually not simply going to another department. In some vertically integrated organizations, for example, where the supplier is actually part of same organization or subsidiary, job rotation might be to the supplier to see how the business operates from the supplier point of view. Learning how the organization is perceived from the outside broadens the executive’s outlook on the process of the organization. Or the rotation might be to a foreign office to provide a global perspective. For managers being developed for executive roles, rotation to different functions in the company is regular carried out.

This approach allows the manger to operate in diverse roles and understand the different issues that crop up. If someone is to be a corporate leader, they must have this type of training. A recent study indicated that the single most significant factor that leads to leader’s achievement was the variety of experiences in different departments, business units, cities, and countries. An organized and helpful way to develop talent for the management or executive level of the organization is job rotation. It is the process of preparing employees at a lower level to replace someone at the next higher level. It is generally done for the designations that are crucial for the effective and efficient functioning of the organization. Benefits

of

Job

Rotation

Some of the major benefits of job rotation are:

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It provides the employees with opportunities to broaden the horizon of knowledge, skills, and abilities by working in different departments, business units, functions, and countries

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Identification of Knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) required

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It determines the areas where improvement is required

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Assessment of the employees who have the potential and caliber for filling the position

Importance of job rotation Job rotation is the surest way of keeping the employee away from complacency and boredom of routine. It is difficult for an employee to sustain his interest in a given job for any substantial length of time as humans have the tendency of outgrowing their jobs through the learning and experience that they gain over a period of time. Stimulating human mind through diversity of challenges is a sure way to bring to forefront its creative instincts and in taking the individual and organizational performance to a higher plane. This is where job rotation can prove to be a handy tool. Potential of job rotation

A well planned job rotation programme in an organization has immense potential of positive impact on job satisfaction, engagement of people and finally on retention of people. Few of the outcomes of job rotation with respect to the individual are: • • • •

Job enrichment Overall development Intrinsic motivation to perform caused by newer challenges Career development

Where as for an organization, the benefits could include some or all of the following: • • •

Leadership development Aligning competencies with organizational requirements Lower attrition rates

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Performance improvement driven by unique view points of new people

The ritual of job rotation Today, in the industry, job rotation is viewed “as just another transfer” rather than as an important tool for implementing HR strategy of the company. Job rotation has become a ritual at best, with out any focus on the outcomes that can be achieved through a little planning and implementation effort. Today, job rotation is a means of punishing poor performers, settling scores arising from organizational politics, or going through percentage rotation scheme, where a certain percentage of employees in a certain area are shifted to pre-designated areas every year. Realizing the potential of job rotation In order to realize the true potential of job rotation, there must be a planned system in place with the policy taking into account, • • • • •

Organizational interest – employee commitment, attrition rates, specific business issues etc. Eligibility of the employees – qualification, prior experience, aptitude, competence etc. nature – mandatory or voluntary Duration Basis of selection etc.

In the absence of aspects brought out above, there is every possibility that the seriousness with which the job rotation scheme is implemented in the company may get diluted and become a cause of sagging employee motivation. Job rotations at different levels of management

For job rotations at a slightly higher level, it is absolutely necessary that the business problems in various areas are identified. This calls for the active involvement of top management. Select most suitable people to be shifted from their current jobs to tackle the challenges at hand by considering individual attributes already described above. This will not only provide an insight for the future leaders in various aspects of the business but also will enhance their confidence levels as they solve these critical problems for the organization. Job rotation at junior and middle level executives may be pivoted around their strengths and attributes and the future roles expected of them. Focus must be on exposure in all related areas of his domain of expertise, so that as they grow to higher rungs of the management, they have an overall experience of their domain. Job rotations for workers must include aspects related to work environment, also along with other individual attributes already explained, so that it adds to his satisfaction derived from balanced distribution of work load, working conditions and learning opportunities. Done this way job rotation gets aligned with career development, leadership development and employee satisfaction which would finally result in higher levels of intrinsic motivation among the employees and hence may contribute in retaining talent.