Job enrichment is the term used in the context of human resources, job enrichment refers to that process by which the company gives additional work and responsibilities to the worker apart from his or her regular work so as to motivate the employee to excel in the work and give more than 100 percent to the work. In order to get a better idea about this concept, one should look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of job enrichment –
Advantages of Job Enrichment
Adds New Dimensions
The first and foremost advantage of job enrichment is that it adds new dimensions to the monotonous work of an employee because when employees are given additional work their skill set along with their mindset gets a boost as the majority of people want something new and challenging and job enrichment does exactly that. In simple words just like a rainbow in the sky looks more beautiful than a clear sky in the same way an employee doing different work or duties looks better as compared to an employee doing the same monotonous work.
Identification of MultiTaskers
Another benefit of job enrichment is that it helps the company in identifying employees who can multitask efficiently and effectively. Job enrichment requires employees to be good at multiple tasks and not all employees can multitask which is the reason why job enrichment can be a good start if the company wants to identify people with multitasking capabilities so that company can give such employees higher responsibility and accountability.
Aids Systematic Learning
Job enrichment is more systematic in nature as opposed to job enlargement where employees are given all types of tasks that are unrelated to each other thus increasing the pressure on the employees and leaving no scope for learning. In case of job enrichment employees are given additional tasks which are related to the main job role or tasks and hence employee gets to learn new things systematically making the employee satisfied as well as motivated towards the job as well as the company.
Disadvantages of Job Enrichment
Increase in Workload
The biggest drawback of job enrichment is that it leads to an increase in the workload of the employees and when employees are overloaded than chances of them doing mistakes as well as feeling frustrated with the work increases. In simple words, there is a fine line between job enrichment and job enlargement, and the moment that line is crossed it leads to the problem as no one likes to be overburdened constantly with work as employees are human and not robots and thus job enrichment should remain job enrichment and not become job enlargement.
Not Everybody’s Cup of Tea
All humans are not the same and that is the reason why job enrichment is not everybody’s cup of tea as not all employees can handle different types of work simultaneously. In simple words, just like in the case of movies not all actors can play all roles, as some are good at action roles, while others are good at comic roles but there are only a few actors who are good in every role in the same way, not all employees can do all kinds of work only a few employees can do all types of work efficiently and effectively.
Failure can be Demotivating
While job enrichment is primarily designed for motivating employees but sometimes it can lead to a reverse effect that is demotivating employees, particularly in case of failures. Hence if an employee is unable to handle the task given as a part of job enrichment and if that employee is not able to do the task properly then that employee will lose confidence in doing the core work also which he or she was doing previously.
As one can see from the above that job enrichment has pros as well as cons and that is the reason why any company thinking of adopting a job enrichment policy for its employees should carefully read the above points and then only should take any decision.