Job rotation is an approach to management development where an individual is

moved through a schedule of assignments designed to give him or her a breadth of

exposure to the entire operation.

Job rotation is also practiced to allow qualified employees to gain more insights into
the processes of a company, and to reduce boredom and increase job satisfaction
through job variation.

The term job rotation can also mean the scheduled exchange of persons in offices,
especially in public offices, prior to the end of incumbency or the legislative period.
This has been practiced by the German green party for some time but has been
discontinued.

At the senior management levels, job rotation - frequently referred to as

management rotation, is tightly linked with succession planning - developing a pool
of people capable of stepping into an existing job. Here the goal is to provide
learning experiences which facilitate changes in thinking and perspective equivalent
to the "horizon" of the level of the succession planning.

For lower management levels job rotation has normally one of two purposes:
promotability or skill enhancement.

In many cases senior managers seem unwilling to risk instability in their units by
moving qualified people from jobs where the lower level manager is being
successful and reflecting positively on the actions of the senior manager.

Many military jobs use the job rotation strategy to allow the soldiers to develop a
wider range of experiences, and an exposure to the different jobs of an occupation.

Importance of job rotation

Job rotation is the surest way of keeping the employee away from complacency and
boredom of routine. It is difficult for an employee to sustain his interest in a given
job for any substantial length of time as humans have the tendency of outgrowing
their jobs through the learning and experience that they gain over a period of time.
Stimulating human mind through diversity of challenges is a sure way to bring to
forefront its creative instincts and in taking the individual and organizational
performance to a higher plane. This is where job rotation can prove to be a handy
tool.

Potential of job rotation

A well planned job rotation programme in an organization has immense potential of
positive impact on job satisfaction, engagement of people and finally on retention of
people. Few of the outcomes of job rotation with respect to the individual are:

Job enrichment
Overall development
 Intrinsic motivation to perform caused by newer challenges

Career development

Where as for an organization, the benefits could include some or all of the following:
Leadership development
Aligning competencies with organizational requirements

Lower attrition rates

Performance improvement driven by unique view points of new people

The ritual of job rotation

Today, in the industry, job rotation is viewed as just another transfer rather than
as an important tool for implementing HR strategy of the company. Job rotation has
become a ritual at best, with out any focus on the outcomes that can be achieved
through a little planning and implementation effort. Today, job rotation is a means of
punishing poor performers, settling scores arising from organizational politics, or
going through percentage rotation scheme, where a certain percentage of
employees in a certain area are shifted to pre-designated areas every year.

Realizing the potential of job rotation

In order to realize the true potential of job rotation, there must be a planned system
in place with the policy taking into account,

Organizational interest employee commitment, attrition rates, specific

business issues etc.
Eligibility of the employees qualification, prior experience, aptitude,
competence etc.

nature mandatory or voluntary

Duration

Basis of selection etc.

In the absence of aspects brought out above, there is every possibility that the
seriousness with which the job rotation scheme is implemented in the company may
get diluted and become a cause of sagging employee motivation.

Job rotations at different levels of management

For job rotations at a slightly higher level, it is absolutely necessary that the
business problems in various areas are identified. This calls for the active
involvement of top management. Select most suitable people to be shifted from
their current jobs to tackle the challenges at hand by considering individual
attributes already described above. This will not only provide an insight for the
future leaders in various aspects of the business but also will enhance their
confidence levels as they solve these critical problems for the organization.
Job rotation at junior and middle level executives may be pivoted around their
strengths and attributes and the future roles expected of them. Focus must be on
exposure in all related areas of his domain of expertise, so that as they grow to
higher rungs of the management, they have an overall experience of their domain.

Job rotations for workers must include aspects related to work environment, also
along with other individual attributes already explained, so that it adds to his
satisfaction derived from balanced distribution of work load, working conditions and
learning opportunities.

Done this way job rotation gets aligned with career development, leadership
development and employee satisfaction which would finally result in higher levels of
intrinsic motivation among the employees and hence may contribute in retaining
talent.

Benefits of Job Rotation

Some of the major benefits of job rotation are:

It provides the employees with opportunities to broaden the horizon of knowledge, skills,
and abilities by working in different departments, business units, functions, and countries
Identification of Knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) required

It determines the areas where improvement is required

Assessment of the employees who have the potential and caliber for filling the position