Do we practice Job Crafting subconsciously?
In this guest blog Manahil Syed, Recruitment and HR Officer and MBA student shares her insights and recent findings from her study on job crafting.
This was a fascinating research project sponsored by Tailored Thinking and we were so impressed with it that we convinced Manahil to write a blog on it!
Job crafting sounds self-explanatory, to some extent. Like a sculptor carves a stone, inch by inch, in the same way, we can carve or modify various aspects of our job. But the size of the chisel is limited by our job description defined in HR’s books.
If we closely look at job crafting, we all practice at least some aspects of it. For example, we all have had that one annoying repetitive task at our jobs that we just want to get done with as soon as we can. Our pursuit of streamlining such tasks would fall under the ambit of job crafting.
Job crafting is generally divided into three types of activities, task, relational, and cognitive.
Task Crafting:
We can practice task crafting subconsciously by adjusting our routine tasks to our preferences in order to make them enjoyable. Moreover, a significant portion of task crafting is based on new tasks that you partake in or new approaches for routine tasks.
For example, your task is to arrange quotations from suppliers for required material. You must present all these quotations in a comparable form to the decision-making body, after removing all ifs and buts from quotations. Instead of manually doing all this, you decide to change the process and develop a standardised form which each vendor has to complete as part of their quotation. Needless to say, this is being done with the consultation of your supervisor.
Relational Crafting:
Once done, you visit a colleague that you are on friendly terms within the IT department and ask him to provide consultation regarding uploading this form on the company’s portal so that you can download it in the desired format. Your colleague/friend does not directly deal with such stuff and he invites you for a cup of tea at the company’s cafeteria so that he can introduce the relevant person to you. All three of you discuss the feasibility, in terms of cost, time, and resources, of doing this exercise. Somehow, you manage to execute your plan and the new portal is up and running. Now you simply have to download the worksheet from the portal and review it for any bugs and present it to the decision-making body.
Cognitive Crafting:
After a successful presentation, you feel relaxed and elevated as you have brought in a structural change to your job description. You imagine positive word-of-mouth about your contribution to the company and how other departments will try to follow the lead of digitization.
This hyper-simplified example was presented to highlight aspects of job crafting. The whole thing starts with your overt motivation to improve your work and save yourself some extra time. A gap was identified, which even left unattended would not have affected your performance, when looked at from the supervisor’s point of view. The mere act of kicking off this project would come under the umbrella of task crafting, whereas approaching your supervisor and other colleagues for executing it comes under relational crafting. When the project is completed, your accomplishment-based gloating stems from your contribution to the company. Anything, that is out of the scope of your pre-defined work might come under job crafting. It is unlikely that anyone would make such a claim, that he/she does not work over and beyond the pre-defined scope.
If this is the case, then why do we need to know about job crafting?
My research at the University of Sheffield, in collaboration with Tailored Thinking, suggests people who knowingly practice job crafting have a greater level of workplace well-being as compared to people who obliviously practice it. This is related to the dynamics of awareness, cognition, and perception. A person using a smartphone of a prestigious and renowned brand is likely to have a better experience as compared to a person who uses a smartphone of an unknown brand.
At the end of the day, we are all trying to do our best at balancing various aspects of our lives; get comfortable with whatever we have. Job crafting helps us by activating various primitive motivators to get the job done. Its benefits have the potential to go beyond one’s workspace.
Task crafting stimulates your creative problem-solving skills, relational crafting can help you develop relations that become long-term, even when you leave the job. Cognitive crafting helps in picturing yourself as an integral cog in the wider system.
It is better to practice job crafting knowingly as its benefits are much greater than the meagre cost of simply equipping yourself with its rudimentary knowledge.
If you want to find out more you can download our job crafting guide here.
Also, you can connect with Manahil on LinkedIn here.
5 reasons you need our job crafting guide
Job Crafting Guide 2021
Did you know that over 41% of the global workforce are considering leaving their current roles within the next year, according to recent research from Microsoft.
What if there was a way to make your current job better, so you didn’t have to look elsewhere?
Job crafting allows us to bring a personal approach to work. Making work more meaningful, enjoyable and productive.
Our job crafting guide enables people to bring job crafting to life and help make work better so we can make better work.
5 reasons why our guide can help you:
1. Bring the power of personalisation to your workplace
We personalise all aspects of our lives, including our cars, our clothes, our coffee cups and much more. When we personalise something we tend to value it up to 2x more [1].
Our guide shares how you can bring this personalisation advantage to our work.
2. An introduction to job crafting
If you’re new to the term job crafting then don’t panic.
The guide will provide you with an overview to the what, why and how of job crafting. We go into detail on what job crafting is and the different ways we can craft our work. We’ll also share with you the benefits of job crafting and how it can be brought to life.
The image below is a sneak peak from the guide, showcasing some of the benefits of job crafting.
The benefits of job crafting
3. Stories and examples of job crafting in action
Like people, job crafting comes in all different shapes and sizes.
The guide will provide you with a variety of stories from different sectors and walks of life. Ranging from customer service advisors to executive directors.
4. Ideas to bring job crafting to life
Job crafting happens when people have the space, opportunity and encouragement to personalise their roles.
The guide will provide you with the range of ways that we can bring job crafting to life and make work better.
5. Case studies
We like to provide you with case studies to show how job crafting works in action. Two organisations we partnered with are Connect Health and Virgin Money.
Connect Health are the largest, independent provider on integrated community MSK (musculoskeletal) and physiotherapy services in the UK.
Virgin Money serve 6.4 million customers across the UK through through a digital-first approach that offers leading online and mobile services, supported by telephone, branch and business banking centres.
So, what are you waiting for? You can grab the guide here.
If you want further information on job crafting or the services we offer then go to our website.
References
[1] Franke, N. and Schreier, M., 2010. Why customers value self-designed products: The importance of process effort and enjoyment. Journal of product innovation management, 27(7), pp. 1020-1031.
The Five Ways to Wellbeing- Keep Learning
Was there any skill or activity you wished you had learnt when you were younger, that you now feel is too late to learn?
If so, don’t worry- It’s never too late to learn. In the third blog in our Five Ways to Wellbeing series, we reveal the multitude of benefits that lifelong learning can bring to you, and suggest ways in which you can integrate learning into your everyday routine.
How can job crafting support Diversity & Inclusion?
We all perceive the world differently. Difference is what makes us human. However, despite our differences, we possess a desire to feel included and that we belong - this is as true at work as it is elsewhere. Yet it can be challenging for organisations to know where to start with creating diverse and inclusive workplaces. In some organisations the diversity & inclusion (D&I) agenda is perceived as a ‘tick box’ exercise designed to ensure legal compliance. A lack of genuine desire and commitment to create diverse and inclusive workplaces can result in strategies which fail to include the very people they are designed to support. Even in more progressive workplaces managers typically don’t recognise, and therefore make the most of, our diversity. At worst, it is ignored and even stifled.
How can you job craft?
So we know why job crafting is beneficial for employees and organisations. We know what the different types of job crafting are. But what about the How of job crafting? How do we make job crafting a reality in our working day-to-day? And how do we measure this and the outcomes of job crafting?
How can you encourage job crafting in the workplace?
A beneficial way of encouraging personal reflection on how work is being carried out is by asking yourself the following six question themes. These questions are designed to stimulate thought, energy and excitement about the aspects of your work you are interested in personalising and crafting further, as well as helping identify opportunities to shift and change.
What are the different types of job crafting?
In our last blog, we presented an introduction to job crafting and focused on the Why of job crafting - why personalising your work matters and the benefits it has been found to bring to employees and the wider organisation. This blog explores the What of job crafting - what the different types of job crafting are - to build a clearer understanding of the forms job crafting can take in the workplace. There are five core types of job crafting.
Why does job crafting matter?
We eagerly welcome personalization into our lives - whether that is the opportunity to personalise our clothes, tins of chocolate or designing and printing amazing customisable greeting cards online. Being able to tailor things to our own personal preferences, style and values creates meaning and worth for us.
Job crafting enables employees to bring this personalization to the workplace.
