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Job experimentation helps staff don different roles
The concept of having a learning organisation has become a much discussed and debated topic across companies. Though the concept came into existence more than a decade back, it has been implemented in organisations more in the recent past.
The concept has raised the awareness that innovation and learning are the key if companies have to come out on top in an increasingly competitive business world.
The concept itself is more of a philosophy that embraces the whole organisation instead of being a set of practices and policies to be followed or a training module for employees to undertake.
If an organisation has to evolve with the changing times, be it the economic situation, technology or business practices, it has to learn to adapt.
The primary asset in this process of adaptation is the skills of employees.
Each employee comes with his own set of skills, talents and aptitude, which is often not fully utilised in the job he does.
Taking note of this companies have begun implementing plans which allow employees to try out different roles or in other words do some job experimentation.
In their bid to become a learning organisation when employees are allowed to experiment with different job roles, they become attuned to the systems and processes required to solve problems.
So the learning process becomes internalised and the company and its employees find it easy to adapt to change.
The employee often gets frustrated when his strengths and capabilities are focussed on a single task when he is capable of using it in diverse areas.
It also limits his growth in the organisation.
Experimentation helps the employee to utilise his unique set of talents and the company to harvest the benefits from it.
Some companies encourage employees not only to adopt roles in their core skill areas but also try out job roles in related areas of work.
This will help employees discover their strengths and weaknesses and promote employee growth.
For the company it helps to develop an employee pool where employees are experts in more than one area.
This helps companies to adapt to changes, handle crisis situations, solve problems and overcome talent shortages.
With so many benefits, job experimentation holds a lot of promise to companies willing to implement it. Besides it can be an important factor to retain employees because it allows them to try diverse roles instead of being stuck to a single, monotonous role.
However when it comes to implementing such an initiative, managements must be aware of the business objectives they want to achieve by doing it.
This is important if the programme has to achieve its goals.
It will be a wasted exercise if there are no clear defined objectives to be gained from the initiative.
Another inherent risk of experimentation is that employees may become skilled in different roles in varying degrees and lose sight of their primary role, a tale of ‘Jack of all trades and master of none’.
It is important to maintain a balance between the versatility and expertise of every person who undertakes this process.
An employee who is good in certain areas can be allowed to handle related areas of the business and gain more expertise in the process.
For instance, someone who is good in sales can be allowed to participate in discussions on marketing strategies.
In a business environment that is constantly changing and where various functions are interrelated, it helps if employees are adept in more than one area of work.
This not only enhances their skills sets but also allows them to understand the organisation.
It also builds loyalty because they are allowed to experiment and discover what really interests them.
For the organisation, such experimentation results in employees equipped with multiple skill sets who can fill in talent gaps, handle problems efficiently and meet the changing needs of the business.
In short job experimentation is a win-win proposal for both the employee and the organisation.
HEMA.G
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