Job Rotation - Meaning, Importance, Types & Example
Published by MBA Skool Team, Last Updated: August 30, 2021
What is Job Rotation?
Job Rotation is the process of shifting employees between two or more tasks or job positions within the same organization in order to improve and motivate the employee. This rotation is done at regular intervals of time. The objective behind job rotation is to reduce monotonous schedule and also to train them to all verticals and/or horizontals of an organization so that they can find the right set of skills they want to learn for future.
This is critical is identifying the opportunity areas for an employee and what are best fit areas of an employee. Also, from an employee perspective, job rotation shows the difficulties, time-taken, skills required etc. to perform the other jobs as well. Hence an overall development of an employee takes place.
Job rotation is very important when it comes to breaking monotonous and stressful schedule for employees. Employees can be rotated in different roles and positions to make sure that they are not stuck in the same kinds of tasks and roles. Job rotation acts as a very effective motivational tool for the HR.
Also, Job rotation is one of the methods of identifying an effective job design for an employee. It gives an exposure to an employee across different verticals and domains of business operations. The employee is rotated across various job profiles, which shows the employees where they best fit. It also showcases the apt skills which an employee possesses and areas where training and development is required.
Types of Job Rotation
Job rotation can be of 3 types:
1. Task Based
This is the type where an employee is rotated based on tasks which can become monotonous and repetitive. Such tasks can be very demand and taxing for the employee leading to unnecessary stress. Job rotation makes sure that the employee gets a sufficient breaks by doing some other tasks in the same department, may be. These other tasks might be different and less demanding. This is also applicable to the situations where there are early morning or late shifts. Employees are given normal shifts regularly so that they are not stuck doing the other shifts.
2. Position Based
This type of rotation is more permanent and stable where an employee changes positions within the same vertical or a different vertical. A good example is moving a sales executive to marketing roles. Position based rotation can help employee grow in an organization and can see different career paths. It can motivate an employee and also help organization to retain employees and the find the right fit for them.
3. Geography Based
This type is used where a company has a lot of locations and geographies where it serves. Many a times, some locations might be better than others in terms of pay, responsibilities, opportunities so employees might prefer them. Not all the employees can be sent to the best locations so geography based rotation is used sometimes to give chance to good employees to go to different locations to get better roles and opportunities. Many a times client side roles are in locations where employees might want to go for better pay. This rotation can be long term as well as short term.
Advantages of Job Rotation
Job rotation helps in testing the employee skills and competencies which in turn helps in placing him or her at the right place. Also it
1) Reduces the boredom and monotony of the job
2) Provides a wider experience to the employees across different functions
3) Helps to gain more insights about the skills with an employee
Disadvantages of Job Rotation
There are certain aspects of job rotation which also cause issues
1) There is lack of quality and stability because of job rotation
2) Employees are unable to perfect an particular skill and they become jack of all trades
Example of Job Rotation
When an employee works across different departments or job profiles after a specific time interval, it qualifies as job rotation. One real-life example of job rotation is that of doctors. Doctors in a hospital work across different departments and gives them exposure across various verticals of medicine. A doctor can work in different departments in the hospital. This gives the doctor an opportunity to learn skills across verticals and shows their best fit.
Another example can be of IT industry in which an employee can work in various roles like being a developer, quality analyst, requirement analysis, solution design etc. This way the employee remains motivated and can learn various skills and can become a better resource and contribute and learn more.
Hence, this concludes the definition of Job Rotation along with its overview.
This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.
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