Work and Job Design improving Wellbeing and Productivity

Course Rationale

Jobs are the traditional unit of work in most organisations, although there are increasing opportunities to do work through both broader roles and more discreet tasks, linked to particular skills. Jobs, roles and tasks are therefore key parts of how companies improve productivity and their ongoing performance.

Jobs are also changing quickly, with the rapid implementation of digital technologies and associated ways of working. Jobs may not disappear to the extent that has often been predicted but they will certainly change. It is important that these changes are planned proactively and that they are not just left as the consequence of digital disruption.

And jobs are also vitally important to job holders and are still the main basis of the way people experience their work, and whether they will be engaged. It is therefore a major concern that, according to the World Economic Forum, a growing number of people think their jobs are useless. We need jobs which will allow people to be intrinsic motivated rather than relying on extrinsic manipulation.

Job design used to be a key part of HR but other than at executive levels has received less attention over recent years. However, the need to improve productivity and low levels of engagement together with new opportunities for using digital technologies, and other factors, are all leading to more focus in this area.

Course Description

Attend this training session to consider the impact of having effectively designed jobs which meet the needs of individual employees as well as the employer. Assess how this raises engagement and increases productivity and make a business case for progressive management and design of the organisation.

Conduct role and job analysis including through new workforce analytical tools and acquire the skill to make jobs suitably compelling including  a range of design factors combined with an appropriate level of autonomy and opportunity to find meaning. Apply your learning to develop jobs, engagement and productivity within your own organisation.

The course now also contains specific focus on job design during and beyond the coronavirus pandemic crisis, for example, by providing greater flexibility in broader roles and how jobs are performed, through flexible working, etc.

Key Topics

• Reinventing jobs to improve productivity
• Re-orienting jobs towards good work
• Designing roles and jobs
• Reviewing potential job changes in the 4^th industrial revolution
• Providing better opportunities for progression