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Motivation in Practice - Job Rotation

Author: Jim Riley  Last updated: Sunday 23 September, 2012

Motivation in practice - job rotation

What is Job Rotation?

Job rotation involves the movement of employees through a range of jobs in order to increase interest and motivation.

Job rotation can improve “multi-skilling” but also involves the need for greater training.

In a sense, job rotation is similar to job enlargement. This approach widens the activities of a worker by switching him or her around a range of work.

For example, an administrative employee might spend part of the week looking after the reception area of a business, dealing with customers and enquiries. Some time might then be spent manning the company telephone switchboard and then inputting data onto a database.

Job rotation may offer the advantage of making it easier to cover for absent colleagues, but it may also reduce' productivity as workers are initially unfamiliar with a new task.

Why is Job Rotation Important?

Job rotation is seen as a possible solution to two significant challenges faced by business:

(1) Skills shortages and skills gaps, and

(2) Employee motivation

Skills shortages occur when there is a lack of skilled individuals in the workforce.

Skills gaps occur when there is a lack of skills in a company’s existing workforce which may still be found in the labour force as a whole.

According to the Treasury and DfES, both skills shortages and gaps are major problems acting as major barriers to economic growth and the reduction in long-term unemployment in the UK.

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