Known as an employee motivation strategy developed by psychologist Frederick Herzwig, job enrichment has been utilized by employers all over the world. It taps into people’s natural desire to succeed by helping them take advantage of their workflow. Its main focus is creating jobs with meaningful tasks, a range of diverse challenges and consistent feedback and communication between workers and supervisors. While it isn’t suitable for every businesses or every role, it can be a huge boon if used properly with the right people. Below, we outline some of the reasons why you might want to adopt a job enrichment process for your next role and why job enrichment matters.

Reduce boredom and increase engagement

Let’s face it, no matter how interesting it might be initially, performing the same duties day in and day out gets tiresome. Job enrichment allows a single role to take on extra dimensions and become less rote and mind numbing. Engaging work has a tendency to keep people interested, and a more focused workplace is always a plus.

Personal growth

Having a wider variety of responsibilities naturally requires the employee to expand their skill set. This is not only beneficial for the company, but for the individual as well, since it will give them real-world experience performing all sorts of tasks that they might not otherwise have been exposed to. These skills can be key to helping them advance their careers in the future. They will also feel more valued by a company that invests effort into developing in this way. This is especially true when they are offered constant feedback, so that they are constantly aware of what their strengths and weaknesses are. By allowing them to monitor their own progress, they will naturally take a greater interest in where their development is headed.

Increased autonomy

Micro management is bad for business, and job enrichment is a great way to allow workers to slowly develop their role into a more autonomous one. Employees function better when they’re given real responsibility and the freedom to overcome challenges in their own way. Likewise, companies can breathe easier knowing that their employees can handle multiple facets of the business without constant supervision. This enables them to focus their attention on the bigger picture rather than having to supervise every little action.

Be careful not to confuse job enrichment with increased workload. The idea is to attach more depth to a role by allowing the individual to develop on their own. That doesn’t necessarily mean just piling on extra things for someone to do. Also, keep in mind, there is no “one size fits all” with job enrichment. Some jobs and employees just aren’t built for it. There has to be a real desire to stretch the boundaries of a role on the part of both employer and employee for it work. It should never been forced on anyone – especially if the role is already particularly demanding. As long as you keep this in mind, job enrichment can do wonders for both the company and your next hire.

L. Wang | DBPC Blog