A Job Rotation Program Can Encourage Employee Engagement

How do you know when an employee is no longer engaged? Do they openly start daydreaming at work? Do they seem checked out during meetings or conversations? We’ve written previously about how performance management can help employees re-engage with work. Have you considered job rotations?

JOB ROTATIONS AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Keeping employees interested in their work can be tricky. What can you do if they’re looking to expand their skills but feel stuck in their current role? What about employees who have already outgrown their jobs, but have nowhere to go?

These situations can be especially difficult in a strong hiring environment where other opportunities might be waiting around the corner.

Job rotations can help create new experiences for employees.

Workers who take part in a structured job rotation program gain chances to develop skills, connect with other coworkers, and potentially contribute to the organization in new ways. We’ll explore job rotations below, and offer tips that can help you if you’re considering setting up a job rotation program.

YOUR JOB ROTATION PROGRAM

A job rotation program can provide employees with specific assignments that give them a new look into the business, and new chances to make a difference. The scope of your job rotation program will depend on a number of things, including:

• The size of your company
• Known or perceived issues with employee engagement
• Time and budget
• Workflow challenges and current needs

In addition, while job rotations can help create new levels of employee engagement, you also want to be sure that a program helps your organization achieve specific objectives.

Job rotations don’t come without challenges.

You’ll want to keep the following in mind as you consider a job rotation program:

• They can increase an employee’s workload.
• They can decrease productivity in certain areas when employees are in learning mode.
• They might also create workflow disruptions, or cause managers to have to jump in and pick up the slack.
• And, there can be hard and soft costs involved in training, and/or cases where managers or other employees will need to step in and correct errors.

How can you prepare to create and manage a successful job rotation program?

Here are four tips to consider when you’re setting up a job rotation program:

1. DEFINE THE REASON WHY YOU WANT TO LAUNCH A JOB ROTATION PROGRAM IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Is employee engagement an issue? What about retention? Have you tried other measures to help increase engagement and retention?

2. IDENTIFY YOUR OBJECTIVE.

Perhaps it’s not about engagement or retention. Instead, maybe you want to build a more agile workforce to handle workflow needs, and you need key employees to gain new skills.

3. GET A SENSE OF COSTS.

This includes costs associated with implementation, training, communication, and cases where managers will be asked to jump in and help. Do these costs square with the benefits you envision? With these numbers in mind, does a job rotation program make fiscal sense?

4. DEFINE AND COMMUNICATE YOUR POLICY. 

Before you launch your job rotation plan, be sure to put clear policies in place that explain which employees are eligible, along with restrictions. For instance:

• Will your program be open to all employees, or only workers in certain departments?
• Will employees be able to work across departments, or just within their own department?
• Will employees be able to opt-in/opt-out at different times, or do you intend to build specific dates and durations into the program’s design?

With a structured way to take on new challenges, employees can re-engage with work, and grow professionally. A job rotation program can also help your organization become more agile, and provide you with a strong retention tool.