As we move into September, and children go back to school, a sense of a fresh new start can be felt in the air. Before we rush back into work projects, and get busy for the autumn, it can be worthwhile stopping and taking a moment to look back over first half of the year and take stock. What has worked well for you to make you feel engaged and motivated at work?
The concept of job crafting is the process of employees redefining and reimagining their job role in a meaningful way them personally (Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Job crafting is all about making small changes to the role that you are in, in order to make you feel happier and for the role to suit your individual skills better.
So what does this look like in practice?
Job crafting can be done in three different areas of work according to Wrzesniewski & Dutton (2001), and these are:
1. Task crafting
‘Task crafting’ can be around adding or dropping tasks to suit your personal preference and skill set or changing how high a percentage is allocated to each task. For example, changing from being 70% responsible for marketing and switching to making it 20% of your work duties. It could also be around adding a task that interests an employee especially, such as looking after induction weeks for new employees, taking an active role in sustainability, or inclusion work or managing health and safety for the office. It could also be around taking temporary responsibility during a short project such as a COVID-19 task force or project managing a new software installation in the organisation.
2. Relational crafting
‘Relational crafting’ is all about changing how, when or with whom you interact with when you perform your job. Perhaps this means working with a new colleague in a collaborative way, learning or exchanging knowledge and skills from colleagues in different departments or offices or perhaps mentoring a less experienced colleague or being mentored yourself by a more senior colleague.
3. Cognitive crafting
‘Cognitive crafting’ involves changing the way one thinks and perceive the job duties and relationships at work. This can be all about understanding how your role fits into a bigger picture of the work the organisation is doing. For example, if you are a hospital administrator, seeing your work being an invaluable part of keeping patients healthy and well, and not just processing paperwork.
These three types of job crafting can be used in any combination with each other and can have a tremendous effect on how we view our work and if we find it engaging and meaningful. It is also important to know, that it is not an isolated event that happens once, but rather a process that is continuous.
Both employees and organisations benefit from job crafting due to its effects on engagement. Have you done any job crafting yourself or do you work in an organisation that encourages it? Let us know about your experience
