Job rotation

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Job rotation is an anglicism in human resources that generally describes the change of tasks or functions in the form of the rotation principle for employees .

General

The term has undergone a conceptual development since its introduction in the German-speaking area and is now used with the following connotations :

Job rotation is used in companies and increasingly also in public administration .

Job rotation as a work organization

The job rotation is a systematic job - or task change within a work system . It was first described in 1951 by Eric Lansdown Trist and Ken Bamforth .

If this change takes place within a requirement level , one also speaks of an expansion of activities ( job declaration , horizontal restructuring). If it is activities in different high level of standards we speak of job enrichment ( job enrichment , vertical restructuring). The job rotation thus represents a work organization , which arises from the work structuring of activity expansion and work enrichment .

In this sense, job rotation is understood to mean the systematic change of jobs in alternation rhythms of sometimes less than an hour, with the main goal of realizing a load balance. Here, for example, five workers rotate in a work system over their five workstations at short intervals.

example

During the (earlier) visual inspection of light bulbs by employees, this work only had an alibi function after a good 20 minutes. As a result of the so-called vigilance effect , just as many lightbulbs that were actually OK were rejected ( 1st order error ) as were defective ones (2nd order error). Consequence: The work could sensibly not be carried out longer than 20 minutes, then the employee had to be replaced.

By taking on another job, the recovery time that is actually required can be avoided. In the example mentioned, a rotation of just two (different) workplaces not only increases the quality of the work result considerably, it also promotes efficiency. For job rotation, more highly qualified staff is required than for the original individual work. In short-cycle rotation systems, it makes work more bearable for the employee, often more interesting (note: work orientation ) and can increase identification with work content and goals, but often also entails an increase in pay .

Job rotation without group reference

Later, job rotation was also used to describe the systematic change at a monthly rhythm, even across workplaces in other departments or plants with different goals. Here one speaks of "rotation" even if the vacant workstation is not taken by another employee who is also "rotating". The rotation takes place only from the point of view of the individual employee, who has the prospect of finally returning to the old job after several changes. As a rule, the goal is to provide the employee with comprehensive information on all activities in an area, so that he can, for example, take over the management of this area. In this sense, job rotation is also an essential part of trainee programs .

Another reason can be crime prevention :

  • In purchasing, this prevents too personal contact with suppliers and thus reduces the risk of corruption .
  • When acknowledging goods receipts and approving payments, for example, the likelihood of networks that exploit security deficiencies in user roles and workflows is reduced .

Job rotation as a method of labor market policy

Job rotation is also a labor market policy method developed in Denmark . The aim is to promote further training in companies - especially in those with fewer than 250  employees (so-called small and medium-sized companies: SMEs ).

If a company wants to train its own staff, it receives a deputy for the period of further training. This comes from the group of unemployed. The deputy is trained on the specific job before the actual substitution. Only when this has been successfully completed can the company employee go into further training.

If the in-company training ends, the deputy resigns. The company very often acquires new operational skills through further training, so that the trained employee receives a new function. In this case, the chances are very high that the deputy will get a permanent job , as he was able to show under realistic conditions during the time of the substitution whether he is able to provide the required service.

With regard to the performance review, job rotation is much more realistic than any company internship, in which there is often no real performance review. As a rule, the company also increases its competitiveness through further training and thus secures the jobs that have existed to date.

Job rotation has been tried out in various member states of the European Union since 1996 . In Germany it was included in the Employment Promotion Act ( Sozialgesetzbuch III) in 2002. However, the application of job rotation by the Federal Employment Agency is very hesitant.

In Germany, Jobrotation is represented by the Federal Jobrotation Association based in Berlin .

literature

  • Heidi Oschmiansky, Günther Schmid, Bettina Uhrig: Qualifications and employment: job rotation as an instrument for further training and integration of the unemployed . Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-86077-970-2 . (on-line)
  • PF Coyne: An evidence-based model of job rotation. Doctorate Middlesex University (plus publications and research studies), 2011. (online)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric L. Trist / Ken W. Bamforth: Some social and psychological consequences of the longwall method of coal-getting: an examination of the psychological situation and defenses of a work group in relation to the social structure and technological content of the work system . In: Human relations. 4, 1951, pp. 3-38.
  2. ↑ Karin Ernst-Betocchi, Arbeit und Leben gGmbH (ed.): Job Rotation: Final documentation of the project (1998–2002). ( Memento from March 20, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Bundesverband Jobrotation , accessed: February 19, 2016.