Job crafting gets a new lease of life

The tran­si­tion to remote work­ing since the start of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has piled addi­tion­al strain onto employ­ees, exac­er­bat­ed by iso­la­tion. While some peo­ple enjoy work­ing per­ma­nent­ly from home, many have strug­gled to stay moti­vat­ed. In a study of UK employ­ees by insur­er Avi­va last year, 43 per cent described their well­be­ing as being less than good, while research by advi­so­ry firm Gallup found two thirds of peo­ple world­wide are not engaged at work.

With most com­pa­nies now reimag­in­ing office spaces to fit into a more hybrid mod­el of work­ing when the pan­dem­ic ends, it’s clear this is not a tem­po­rary trend. In a sur­vey by Actus, 65 per cent of UK work­ers said iso­la­tion and dis­en­gage­ment were major hur­dles to be cleared in the hybrid world of work. An employ­ee dis­en­gage­ment hang­over from the pan­dem­ic is like­ly to loom over organ­i­sa­tions for years to come, pre­sent­ing a tru­ly busi­ness-crit­i­cal chal­lenge to over­come.

Though increas­ing employ­ee engage­ment is a clear pri­or­i­ty among human resources, and learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­fes­sion­als, some employ­ees are not will­ing to wait for this to hap­pen. The tur­bu­lent jobs mar­ket caused by the COVID-19 cri­sis may have left some feel­ing stuck with their cur­rent employ­er for the fore­see­able future, but they don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly need to feel stuck in their role.

“Work­ing remote­ly has been around for decades, but the cir­cum­stances of the last year have meant many organ­i­sa­tions had to deploy poli­cies they might not have done oth­er­wise or indeed that their employ­ees would have want­ed,” says Patrick Brig­ger, chief oper­at­ing offi­cer and co-founder at getAb­stract, an e‑learning plat­form with the world’s largest online library of sum­marised con­tent. “It can lead to feel­ing dis­con­nect­ed or demo­ti­vat­ed, espe­cial­ly among those for whom team­work and social inter­ac­tions were a pri­ma­ry source of their job moti­va­tion.

“By tak­ing a proac­tive approach to your job, you can increase how sat­is­fied you feel with­in your role. These are impor­tant skills now that many peo­ple might feel dis­con­nect­ed from their work.

Inse­cu­ri­ties sur­round­ing devel­op­ment or the future of your role can add to this feel­ing, so lots of peo­ple are seek­ing ways to give mean­ing to their jobs while stuck at home. They may not be able to change their cur­rent employ­er, or the fixed para­me­ters of their cur­rent job, but they can change how they approach and relate to their dai­ly tasks. This is where job craft­ing comes in.”

Though not new, job craft­ing has gained new-found rel­e­vance dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. It is a con­cept based on assign­ing mean­ing and con­text to dai­ly tasks. Employ­ees take charge of their work­ing hours. While still per­form­ing the duties laid out in their job descrip­tion, they active­ly shape their work and reframe their job approach with the goal of enhanc­ing their own well­be­ing.

Most jobs have at least some flex­i­bil­i­ty around how much time and effort are allo­cat­ed to indi­vid­ual tasks, which makes job craft­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty for near­ly any­body feel­ing dis­en­gaged at work. But there are no writ­ten rules. Employ­ees may just want to put more time and effort into the tasks they enjoy or that chal­lenge them in a pos­i­tive way. It may mean expand­ing the scope of one task or nar­row­ing the scope of anoth­er. It may even be per­form­ing tasks in a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent way than orig­i­nal­ly taught, to make them more stim­u­lat­ing, time effi­cient or reward­ing.

“Job craft­ing boils down to tak­ing charge of your approach to work and it’s a great way to address per­son­al strug­gles with moti­va­tion,” says Brig­ger. getAb­stract recent­ly released a white paper on the sub­ject and its library of book sum­maries offer a wealth of fur­ther resources. “While you might not be able to shift the para­me­ters of your role, you can choose how to approach your tasks; it’s an act of self-care and a very smart career devel­op­ment strat­e­gy,” he says.

“The skills involved in job craft­ing are more per­ti­nent to career suc­cess than ever before. Employ­ees engaged in job craft­ing shape their work tasks, devel­op their work rela­tion­ships and give mean­ing to their jobs to enhance their per­son­al well­be­ing and job sat­is­fac­tion. But the respon­si­bil­i­ty doesn’t lie just on the employ­ees, lead­ers can do a lot to fos­ter employ­ee engage­ment and cre­ate the con­di­tions that will allow employ­ees to devel­op and thrive. Lead­ers need to cre­ate the con­di­tions that allow job craft­ing. This is ulti­mate­ly about empow­er­ing peo­ple to take charge of their devel­op­ment and growth.”

Cru­cial­ly, job craft­ing doesn’t just ben­e­fit employ­ees, who find more mean­ing and engage­ment in their work, but also employ­ers, who ben­e­fit enor­mous­ly from increased pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and high­ly rel­e­vant skills. Employ­ees who engage in job craft­ing demon­strate intrin­sic moti­va­tion, some­thing that can’t be taught, and a strong growth mind­set. Com­pa­nies gain huge val­ue from peo­ple who approach work tasks as learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Accord­ing to social sci­en­tist Car­ol Dweck, organ­i­sa­tions embrac­ing a “cul­ture of genius” view tal­ent as fixed or sta­t­ic, while those that sup­port a “cul­ture of devel­op­ment” treat their employ­ees’ skills as some­thing that can grow.

In the war for tal­ent, it’s also impor­tant to note the com­mit­ment dis­played by job crafters. They are not pas­sive­ly wait­ing for their employ­er to give them the moti­va­tion to stay with them long term, instead they seek ways to learn and make their work more engag­ing and reward­ing. This is very per­ti­nent to the grow­ing num­ber of busi­ness lead­ers recog­nis­ing the val­ue of inter­nal upskilling and side­way mobil­i­ty, includ­ing their ben­e­fits for agili­ty, resilience and growth.

“Job craft­ing is an employ­ee-dri­ven process,” says Brig­ger. “HR depart­ments and lead­ers should sup­port this process. It often not only leads to a hap­pi­er, more engaged work­force, but a more suc­cess­ful one too. Find­ing tal­ent takes less time and peo­ple who’ve worked at the com­pa­ny before become pro­duc­tive team mem­bers more quick­ly. Reten­tion grows because peo­ple who are ready for new chal­lenges will stay if they have new oppor­tu­ni­ties. Lead­ers can help devel­op these skills by embrac­ing a cul­ture of devel­op­ment.”

For the past 20 years, we’ve helped organ­i­sa­tions build cul­tures that pri­ori­tise learn­ing and growth. Down­load our job craft­ing guide at getab.li/jobcrafting

Pro­mot­ed by getAb­stract