Get Enriched Quick

Job enrichment means a change in what your employees do (content) or how they do it (process) and it inevitably involves learning. Enrichment helps employees to find the growth, challenge, and renewal they seek without leaving their current jobs or employers.

An enriched job is composed of one or more of these features:

• Gives employees room to initiate, create, and implement new ideas

• Promotes setting and achieving personal and group goals

• Allows employees to see their contributions to an end product or goal

• Challenges employees to expand their knowledge and capabilities

• Allows employees to “job sculpt” and make the job they have a job they love

A job can be as neatly tailored to a worker’s peculiar goals and requirements as a pair of Levi’s [jeans] to an online customer’s imperfect physique.

—David Ulrich and David Sturm

If enrichment is so beneficial, why isn’t it a standard part of every job? One good reason is this: what enriches one employee is different from what enriches the next. Courtney, devastated by her job’s predictability, craves variety in each day’s tasks. Marcos, tired of being told how to do his audit reports, is ready to teach someone else how to do them. Sofia sees that her computer programs meet the needs of her superiors and now wants to spend more time creating useful applications for her colleagues. How do you tailor job enrichment to individuals and their needs? Ask them what would enrich their jobs! (Duh.)

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