Job Enlargement: Meaning, Benefits, and Importance
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Expansion of duties is a common approach in many organizations. However, does this approach help improve employee engagement? This is where the job enlargement approach comes into play. It allows organizations to expand the task scope for employees so that the same mundane activity becomes a little more challenging.
Such practices have evolved over the years due to increased tasks and customer demands. Organizations must accommodate more tasks to ensure a seamless customer experience and cater to unique business opportunities. This article explains job enlargement, including benefits, disadvantages, and examples.
What is Job Enlargement?
Job enlargement in HRM expands the duties of an existing role for any employee. It means that if an employee handles one task will now have to perform multiple tasks. Such a process adds new responsibilities for the employees who are capable of multitasking and are multi-talented. For example, a content creator in the marketing team will now strategize, edit, and distribute the content.
Using this technique, you can improve productivity and retain employees. When a person does the same thing repeatedly, " it becomes monotonous.” This approach can bring more excitement through challenging tasks for employees. However, you need HR software to provide insights into employee engagement and preferences when designing such activities.
It is crucial for job redesign, enrichment, orientation, and simplification. A functional workforce mindset emerged after an era of specialization in which employees with specific skills were assigned tasks based on that particular skill. This has led to a rise in job expansion across many business domains.
Advantages of the Job Enlargement Approach
It is a strategy used in human resource management to enhance employee engagement and performance by increasing the variety of tasks they perform.
Here are several advantages:
1. Boosted Employee Motivation
Broadening the job scope can encourage employee zeal by providing a more comprehensive range of responsibilities. It opposes monotony and inertia, which can make work results less exciting and appealing.
2. Skill Upgradation
Because of their changing roles, employees are expected to acquire new skills and competencies periodically. This makes them better at what they do and more valuable to the organization.
3. Better Job Performance
More engaged employees who see their work as more interesting will likely be more productive. A wide range of activities offer improved efficiency and effectiveness.
4. Enhanced Team Dynamics
It improves collaboration among several team members and lets individuals know each other better, improving the company's communication and cooperation.
5. Reduced Turnover Rates
It can minimize employee turnover by improving job satisfaction and engagement. Employees who feel their roles are fulfilling and challenging are less likely to seek new employment.
6. Flexibility and Adaptability
A workforce skilled in various tasks is more adaptable to change. When employees possess multiple competencies, organizations can respond more swiftly to market demands.
Disadvantages of This Approach
1. Role Overload
The increased variety of tasks may overwhelm employees, leading to stress and reduced job satisfaction. This can negatively impact their performance and well-being.
2. Dilution of Expertise
Employees who take on multiple tasks may become less specialized in their primary functions. This dilution can decrease the quality of work, especially for complex tasks that require specific expertise.
3. Training and Development Costs
Implementing such an approach often requires significant training for employees to handle their expanded responsibilities. This can incur costs and need additional time, burdening the organization.
4. Potential for Conflict
Task redistribution may lead to confusion over team members' roles and responsibilities. If not managed effectively, this could result in conflicts and decreased collaboration.
How Does Job Enlargement Work?
Expansion of jobs can be achieved through various strategies and steps that organizations can take to expand employees’ roles. Here’s a typical process:
- Assess current positions about the tasks being performed within the job and assess how task variety can be improved. This includes reviewing previous assignments and assessing which additional duties would be complex for the employee.
- The following steps require the employees' active involvement. They can help define their positive feelings toward tasks.
- After new tasks are recognized, the scope of job descriptions may be expanded by increasing the list of functions that correspond to each job. This helps give focus and direction and inform employees about changes in workplace expectations.
- As employees' duties expand, organizations offer training to prepare them for the new responsibilities expected of them. This may involve training the concerned employees in specific skills, management, or the ability to train the employees for the latest activities they will be turning into.
- However, expanding job tasks into several stages is sometimes more helpful. It is better to start by gradually presenting new tasks. This leads to flexible working, whereby employees can adequately manage their working lives.
Job Enlargement vs Job Enrichment: What is The Difference?
Job Enlargement focuses on increasing the number of tasks within an employee's role, while job enrichment emphasizes enhancing the quality and significance of those tasks through greater autonomy and responsibility. Understanding these differences can help organizations choose the right approach to improving employee satisfaction and performance.
Here are the differences between job enrichment and job enlargement
| Sr No. | Differentiators | Job Enrichment | Job Enlargement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Workload | Involves vertical loading of functions, which means added responsibilities on an employee | It focuses more on the horizontal loading or expansion of the same job. |
| 2 | Purpose | Enrichment aims to add more challenges and make the job lively. | It focuses on reducing repetitive tasks and monotony. |
| 3 | Skills needed | Enrichment requires developing and using higher grades of skills and innovation from employees. | Acquisition of a higher level of skills or development of new skills is not so important |
| 4 | Direction and control | Job enrichment allows employees to own the capabilities of self-esteem, and less control is needed from external entities. | It also needs proper direction and control to define the scope of responsibilities. |
Examples of Job Enlargement
Enlargement of jobs helps organizations improve workflows and define the scope of responsibilities for employees across tasks. Let’s understand examples in different settings,
1. Copywriter That Manages Social Media Accounts
Imagine your firm has a social media manager on a sabbatical and needs someone to handle engagement across the platforms. This is where you can enlarge the job of a copywriter with experience writing for social media campaigns. This allows copywriters to gain an understanding of social media management and, at the same time, leverage expertise to improve engagement.
2. Senior Radiologists Takes Up Diagnosis
Radiologists can diagnose and detect specific diseases in a hospital setting. This is a more organic extension of the existing job profile, improving hospital outcomes.
Similarly, there are numerous examples where HRs can enhance employee engagement by adding tasks horizontally.
Conclusion
Ultimately, increasing jobs can benefit HR managers looking to improve employee skills and add some challenging aspects. This can reduce employees' monotonous work life and improve retention. However, ensuring the expansion in the right proportion and avoiding overloading tasks are equally important. This is where HR software like factoHR can help by providing deeper insights into employee preferences and the need for job expansion.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Enlargement Mean You Get Promoted?
No, enlarging a job profile does not mean you get a promotion or raise, nor will you have higher authority. It simply means added roles and responsibilities.
What Increases The Need For Job Expansion?
Job expansion allows HR managers to improve employees' skill levels and ensure that professionals handle tasks across different scopes. So, if an organization needs highly skilled professionals for other tasks, it helps improve the skill level with added responsibilities.
What is Job Enlargement Design?
This work strategy helps improve employee skills with added job satisfaction and engagement across organizational departments.
What is a Job Enrichment Example?
Job enrichment often involves enhancing job roles by increasing the variety of skills required, adding extra responsibilities, providing more meaning to work, allowing for greater autonomy, and offering regular feedback to employees.
What are the Different Types of Job Enlargement?
There are two main ways to make a job enlargement. They are called Horizontal and Vertical job enlargement.
- Horizontal job enlargement means giving someone more tasks that are similar to what they already do.
- Vertical job enlargement means giving someone more tasks that make their job bigger and give them more control.
What is the Objective of Job Enlargement?
Job enlargement is a strategy in human resources and organizational management that involves increasing the scope of an employee's responsibilities and tasks within their current job role. The goal is to offer employees a wider range of tasks at the same skill level they currently have, providing them with more variety and diversity in their work.
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