Everyone has talents and the challenge is to identify these talents and develop them into strengths in the right work environment. Focusing on strengths leads to better employee performance, less absenteeism and less turnover, and what organization doesn’t want that! With jobcrafting, this beauty can be realized.
What is jobcrafting?
In jobcrafting, with an oblique eye to employees’ strengths, small changes are made to job tasks and work environment and a job is built around employees, so to speak. The starting point for the work employees (will) perform and/or the roles they (will) fill is the employee themselves, not the job description.
When Michelangelo was asked how he created the statue “David,” he replied that he chiseled away everything that did not look like David. Employees can do the same with their jobs: take away what doesn’t come easily to them and be left with what they enjoy doing, they like. Jobcrafting avant la lettre
So this “job modeling,” “task crafting,” or “kneading the work” and not employees, allows employees to design their own work. They can contribute ideas within the task area. And by adjusting working hours and work location in such a way, it can contribute to their job satisfaction and personal and professional development.
What is the result?
The result of jobcrafting is a job that fits the employee best with all the benefits that come with it. More job satisfaction, greater autonomy, more use of strengths (reinforce what works!), tapping into energy sources and closing energy leaks. And all this leads to better employee performance and less absenteeism and turnover.
Questionnaire: Jobcrafting in Brief
- Make a top 10 list of your tasks/roles;
- Number one is the task/role you spend the most time on;
- List the tasks/roles where your strengths are used;
- Identify the tasks/roles you would rather lose than lose because they appeal to your weaknesses;
- Make an outline of your ideal workday/workweek? So what do you do so already with whom and for whom?
Source: ‘The GREAT conversation book’ – Jacco van den Berg
The answers to the questions in the box are used to examine whether, and with what (small) adjustments, the work can be made more valuable because an appeal is made to your strengths. This can be done by tinkering with the tasks (the what). Employees will do more of what they enjoy and do what they are already good at. By doing work with other colleagues (the how), employees also develop. For example, in a “master-apprentice construction” in which they learn from and with an experienced rot.
What is the result?
Below is a roadmap that supports leaders in achieving their team goals in a way that empowers employees. The executive:
- Determines what needs to be done (objectives, KPIs, projects, work);
- asks each employee what their desired contribution to these goals is, inviting them to “subscribe” to work that is enjoyable to them and that calls on their strengths;
- then invites all employees to share their outcomes with each other and make mutual agreements on who, for what, will be deployed (carrying capacity = decisiveness);
- finally, sees to it that everything is done, set in motion to achieve team goals. After all, even the tasks perceived by employee as less pleasant must be done.
Employees’ own responsibility to identify and develop their own strengths is great. So my advice is to make an outline prior to this team meeting (use the questions from the box for this) of the ideal task/role package and work environment and articulate the benefits if the supervisor and colleagues say “Yes” to this. No you have, yes you can get. Good luck!
Want to know more?
Want to know more about employee turnover? And how to address that? Also read our blog “Preventing employee turnover: 10 tips & calculate yourself!”.
