You have good talent within your organization, and you would like to keep them around. Or you would like to win new talent in the market. Keeping or winning talent both require your active or potential employees to like their jobs. So, the best way for any company to grow is through job crafting. Job crafting is proactively taking action to change the work environment. Long term, this means happier employees. It also means happy executives seeing positive results. How can companies appropriately job craft?
1. First and foremost, consider the needs of each employee
For a job to be fulfilling, it needs to meet the needs and desires of the person working in it. This means changing benefits around. And it doesn’t have to be more money. Consider offering remote work or hybrid work opportunities. One executive admitted he would take a significant pay cut to continue working remotely. Other options are to provide training for the jobs employees are currently doing as well as offering educational opportunities so employees can pursue their passions, whether that’s growing their careers or passions outside of work. However, everyone’s different. Track what individuals want from work. Some might want more time with their families. Others might want more growth opportunities, and you can begin mentoring them. Understand what kinds of people work at your company. Make their workspaces beautiful and alive, which can still be done on a budget. Invest in your employees and you are likely to pay off exponentially later.
2. Merge the job you need done with what the employee wants to do
It's important to merge what the job needs and what the employee likes to do. I know this from experience. My mother kind of liked her job, but it was work. Predominantly secretary duties with light accounting. She loves accounting, but she didn’t get to do much of it. Eventually, her employer discovered she liked accounting and she was good at it. Rather than ignoring that, now her job is predominantly accounting. She provided value through her talents, and they provided her value by tailoring her job to her strengths and what she enjoyed doing. This doesn’t mean she likes everything about her job. Similarly, you and your employees won’t like every single thing about yours. But the job should still be something your workers can be proud of.
Synchronizing what the job entails and what the employee likes doing, is as good as it is helpful. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Some things come naturally to us, and others come at great expense to our mental health. When able, tailor each position as much as possible to the employee’s strengths.
3. Willingness to continually improve your Job Crafting process
The most common advice in investing is to “buy and hold.” The reason this advice is so prevalent is because it’s the only way for stocks and investing to change your life. No one can game the market. But we have a herculean psychological struggle holding assets when the market begins crashing. Similarly, keeping and holding to a job crafting process is a great way to win talent, but it takes work and effort. There is going to be a lot of trial and error. It might even be frustrating upfront. However, smoothing out this process can mean saving money and time in the long run. Consider a survey or some sort of feedback system that allows current employees to respond reguarly about what could be improved upon. And commit to implementing requests when possible.
Consider implementing job crafting, but know that it’s an investment and It’s hard work. But…those who work for your organization may end up loving it and would be likely to refer their talented peers to work for you. It’s a win-win.
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