Page 200 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

Job Enrichment and Professional Growth C187

Rx: Challenge employees to expand their jobs by identify-
ing unmet needs, by creating job rotation programs, by
providing skills and career interest assessment software
or workshops to help the employee create new job goals,
and by job sharing.
: Information about job opportunities at other locations or
in other units is often not made available.
Rx: Create online job and talent banks with lists of all job
descriptions including a resource and referral section
with lists of books, professional associations, confer-
ences, courses, articles, and other information recom-
mended by coworkers.
: As more management layers are added, the distance
between the average employees and senior leaders
increases, and employees are not kept abreast of the
changes in the company’s plans, which makes planning
their own futures more difficult.
Rx: Senior leaders and managers give open business
briefings where they discuss strategic decisions and
plans that may impact jobs, career paths, and skills that
may be required in the future. These sessions can be re-
corded and made available on the company intranet.
: More management layers can mean more people to leap-
frog on the way to one’s ultimate career objective.
Rx: Emphasize strongly to employees that career growth
is not defined as upward movement and that horizontal
moves are sometimes the most enriching ones, as are
“growing-in-place” options. This means the organiza-
tion’s leaders must endorse horizontal moves, remove
barriers to lateral movement, and be willing to explore
current changes in job assignments.
: It is often more difficult for employees to feel they can
explore job opportunities outside their functional or busi-
ness unit than within their unit.