Job Enrichment

Job Enrichment should be distinguished from enlargement job enlargement attempts to make a job more varied by removing the dullness associated with performing repetitive operations. In job enrichment, the attempt is to build in to jobs a higher sense of challenge and achievement. The accumulation of achievement must lead to a felling of personal growth accompanied by a sense of responsibility.

Definition: Job Enrichment is the addition to a job of tasks that increase the amount of employee control or responsibility. It is a vertical expansion of the job as opposed to the horizontal expansion of a job, which is called job enlargement.
Examples: We use job enrichment to make work more challenging and rewarding for our employees to make it easier to keep them.

Examples: We use job enrichment to make work more challenging and rewarding for our employees to make it easier to keep them.

The goal of job enrichment is not merely to make the more varied but I the words of M.Scoot myers research for taxes investment, which has been experimenting with the techniques is to make every employee a manager ‘ . Thus the employee job is enriched will perform the management function of manning and controlling so far as his work is concerned.

How to enrich a job

A job may be enriched by giving it Varity, and also may be enriched by :

1. Given worker more latitude in deciding about such things as work method, sequences and pace or by letting them make decisions about accepting or rejecting materials :

2. Giving workers a felling of personal responsibility for their tasks.

3. Taking steps to make sure that people can see how their tasks contribute to a finished products and the welfare of the enterprises.

4. Giving people feedback on their job performance preferable before their supervisors get in and

5. Involving workers in analysis and change of physical aspects of the worker environment such as lay out of office or plant, temperature, lighting and cleanliness.

Thus in an enriched job the employee know the overall deadlines and the quality standard he must meet and with in that frame work plans the order in which he will take the various task and the time that should be devoted to each one. He holds himself responsible both or meeting the deadline and for producing the work of necessary quality, and he does not pass his work on for others to judge until he is satisfied that it meets the standards. Or if the work is necessarily group work, the groups plan or help to check the result.

How to make it Effective The limitation of job enrichment apply mainly to jobs requiring low level of skills. The job of highly skilled workers professional and manager already contain varying degrees of challenge and accomplishment. Perhaps these could be enriched considerably more than they are by applying modern management techniques . And all level particularly in non-managerial levels several approaches could be made to job make enrichment appeal to higher-level motivations.

1. The people involved must have a substantial voice in the planning process. It should not be overlooked that people like to be involved, to be involved to be consulted and to be given an opportunity to offer suggestions. They like to be considered as people. This would effectively result in the successful functioning of the programme.

2. There is needed for better understanding of what people want. It has been pointed out by motivation researches that this varies with people and situations generally people with few skill want extrinsic factors such as pay, benefits, job security, sympathetic supervisor as then one moves up the ladder intrinsic factors do become increasingly important.

3. It should also result in worker enrichment if productivity increases are the main goal of job enrichment, the programme must show how workers would benefit.

Job enrichment, in short involves redesigning of the immediate job, it also requires an enlargement of sense of respect by those who manage. In our complex personal impersonal bureaucratic organizations, this respect for the individual can be lost all too quickly. But with out this respect we can never expect to make full use of our human resources.

How to implement job enrichment?

Vertical loading :Allows staff to perform tasks at a range of different levels of responsibility. The key here is to reduce the gap between doing the job and controlling the job. An employee in a vertically loaded job has some of the responsibilities that management held previously. This approach, when implemented correctly, should lead into geelings of personal accountability amd responsibility for the work outcomes.

Formation of natural work teams :These are small groups of workers that come together to plan how their work is best organized. The objective is to increase ownership of the task, which contributes to the meaningfulness of work.

Establishment of customer relationships and employee ownership of the product :As teams become more advanced, they will be able to meet with customers and focus on the customers’ needs, not the needs of their supervisors. Thre are three basic steps to achieve this:

1) the client must be identified;

2) the contact between the client and the worker needs to be established as directly as possible.

3) criteria and procedures are needed by which the client can judge the quality of the product and rely those judgements back to the worker.

Why participate in job enrichment?

Usually people on all levels of organization resist change, they are afraid of the unknown. Here is a list of job enrichments good qualities for both employees and managers:

Employees:

· You can demonstrate your initiative, willingness and ability to learn new skills. Show your supervisor/manager what you can do and how quickly you can learn.

· You will gain on-the-job experience. This skill diversity may help you to meet the minimum qualifications of jobs for future career advancement.

· You make a commitment to your career by investing time and energy in learning new skills and developing your abilities. This commitment will demonstrate that you are self-motivated.

· New experiences may open doors of opportunity and increase your chances of receiving a higher annual merit pay increase within your current pay grade.

· Varied job assignments can make your work more enjoyable.

Managers:

· You gain flexibility in staffing because staff members will possess more skills and may be available for special projects.

· You can increase staffing levels during peak times. · You can develop current staff so they are capable of meeting future department goals.

· You will be providing the kinds of job variety high performers need to remain committed to their jobs.

· You can reward high performers for completing career development activities through merit pay increases.

· Your employees will have opportunities to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed for future advancement by showing you how easily they learn and how well they carry out new tasks.