What are the benefits of task rotation in the workplace?

Answer 1

A disadvantage for job rotation is that because staff members would be performing different tasks, if they discover it as a weakness, the task wont be performed as well as by someone that is strong at it. Another disadvantage is that staff could be rotated away from a task that they enjoy, or perform very well to a high standard which could lead to other staff members not performing the same tasks as well.

Answer 2

Possible Impacts and Benefits of job rotation programs

There are over 30 possible advantages for adopting a "second generation" internal movement system. They include:

I) Business benefits and impacts

1. Business results- effective systems improve business results especially in the areas of sales, product improvement and customer service.

2. Increased productivity - because highly skilled innovators and top performers are placed in "the right job," the productivity and effectiveness of these individuals will be multiplied driving and increase in the effectiveness of the overall workforce.

3. Better business cycle "fit" - in larger organizations, some parts of the business are in different lifecycle stages (i.e. seed, start-up, established, expansion, decline, and exit). Proactive and targeted movement better ensures that an individual is placed in a business cycle where their skills and interests are a better fit.

4. Increased innovation and idea generation - moving individuals into new situations provides them with an opportunity to "view things as an outsider" and to propose new approaches that insiders might not see.

5. Best practice sharing - as more individuals rotate between business units, the likelihood that best practices will be shared rapidly increases. Increased internal movement can result in the cross fertilization of ideas between previously isolated business units.

6. Increased agility and flexibility - having the capability of moving talent from areas of low return to areas of high-return increases organizational agility and the ability of management to shift resources as needs change.

7. Better understanding and cooperation - by rotating individuals between disparate business units, individuals from both units can learn to better understand and appreciate the perspective of others. Increased movement helps to break down hierarchical silos and information and talent hoarding. For example, purchasing professionals can better understand the problems faced by the individuals that have to operate under purchasing guidelines if they occasionally rotated into those business units.

8. Improved contacts and relationships - increasing internal movement allows individuals to build their contacts and to strengthen their relationship with individuals outside of the direct team.

9. New people ask the "why" question - you are likely to increase rate of program and process reassessment as a result of rotatees frequently asking your employees some variation of the "why question" (why do we do it this way, why not this way, etc.) As a result of their direct questioning and probing, you are more likely to see continuous improvement in your processes and approaches.

10. Rotations encourage continuous improvement -- because rotation supervisors are frequently involved in the training of multiple rotatees throughout the year, they are "forced" to come up with multiple approaches for teaching a diverse group of rotatees. Rotatees, as outsiders, are also more likely to ask managers "why" things are done a certain way (where insiders are often reluctant to challenge the status quo). This increased questioning helps to force managers to learn how to demonstrate to others the "why" of what they do. Having to explain work processes to others (rotations) often forces managers to analyze their own processes and this can make these processes more effective.

II) People-management related and HR related impacts

11. More talent is available - because individuals are proactively selected and moved faster, there are more and better qualified individuals available to managers with sudden or new strategic needs, than when individuals self select themselves for movement.

12. Improved employer brand image - in a tight economy, everyone is likely to be heavily focused on job security. If you provide and publicize your focus on inside hiring preferences, it will bolster the firm's external brand image of offering long time employment security and a good place to work because you focus on the needs of your current employees. The increased security that you offer may also increase the retention rate of your current employees. Excellent internal movement programs are frequently praised by employees and the business press. If you have an excellent program, it will help you build your external image as an employer of choice and a "best place to work".

13. Allows for more entry level hiring - by filling most jobs internally through transfers or promotions you allow the firm to do to do almost all of its external hiring at the "entry level". This is a good thing because entry-level jobs are cheaper to fill, have a larger candidate pool and give the firm more time to train and assess "unknown" external hires while they are in jobs where they can do less damage.

14. Higher retention rates - rapid movement minimizes frustration and burnout. People working in their "ideal job" are unlikely to find a superior opportunity outside the firm.

15. Leadership development - multiple on-the-job learning opportunities are likely to develop leaders faster and more effectively because the development assignments will include opportunities to lead more teams under a variety of circumstances.

16. More promotional opportunities -- more rapid development and more internal movement creates a greater number of new opportunities for employees to get promoted and move up.

17. Increase motivation and excitement - not only is the individual more excited because they have a chance to grow but each permanent internal movement also provides an opportunity to "back fill" that position, further motivating others to strive for promotions and transfers.

18. Increased learning - as individuals move more frequently not only will they gain more knowledge but they will also develop mechanisms for learning faster when they enter future situations.

19. Increase technical skill development - moving between diverse projects provides an increased opportunity to develop current technical skills and to learn new skills.

20. Increased exposure for top talent - increased movement across broader areas allows more managers a chance to work with top talent. This provides individuals with more opportunities to be coached by multiple managers while giving individual managers a chance to observe and assess talent they might someday want to add to their organization. As a result of managers seeing more exciting talent, they might become less tolerant and be more willing to "release" their poor performers.

21. Reduced time to fill - transferring people internally allows you to just fill jobs faster; assessment can be done more quickly because you already have a great deal of information about a current employee skills, performance and weaknesses. Because few internal candidates reject internal offers and it takes them less time to accept, the overall hiring process takes less time.

22. Lower cost of hire and starting salary - internal searches don't require expensive external advertising and other recruitment costs. External reference checks are not needed and interviews can often be shorter because so much is already known about the candidate. Internal candidates generally have no other external offers so there is less likelihood of a bidding war and they are less aware of market salaries so they're less likely to demand a higher pay rate than what was offered.

23. Decreased time to productivity - your current employees already know the culture, the company jargon and they already have a range of contacts. As a result, internal transfers and promotions can begin the job sooner because they don't need a great deal of orientation to get up to speed and they don't need to give notice before they begin learning and helping out.

24. Lower "job failure" rate - because you're hiring individuals that already know the culture and you know their skill set and performance better than external candidates, the job failure and termination rate is generally lower with internal transfers. External hiring costs are significantly higher than the cost of internal transfers.

25. Increase manager excitement - having different employees with their excitement and new ideas rotate in and out will serve to relieve boredom and help to excite your managers.

26. More diverse ideas -- by having more diverse employees moving in and out of your department, the team will gain diverse ideas, as well as learning how to better understand the value of having a diverse workforce.

27. Decreased need for layoffs - having a large percentage of your workers that have a broad set of skills as a result of frequent movement means they are more capable of moving into new jobs or business units. This added capability and flexibility means that more workers can be transferred rather than laid-off from business units need to be reduced or shut down.

28. Individual employee benefits - individual employees will also receive benefits from faster internal movement including more opportunities for development and learning as well as a faster overall career movement because they are proactively placed in the "right" job.

29. Increase understanding between overhead in the line -- the formerly isolated individuals that work in overhead functions will spend more time working in-line functions. As a result, there will likely be more cooperation and less bureaucracy emanating from overhead functions.

30. Improving managers - with the increased number of rotations, and the feedback emanating from rotatees, it will be increasingly difficult to remain a "hidden" bad manager anywhere in the organization. Having more workers join the team might force managers to develop procedure manuals and templates so that new hires can get up to speed more quickly.

31. A competitive advantage -- intramovement programs are designed not in isolation, but instead to provide a competitive advantage over competitors. As a result, the initial design of the program and its periodic updates are designed to ensure that program is superior to what is offered at competitive firms.

32. Increased employee interest in learning -- because they occur in the actual work environment, as opposed to the classroom, rotations seem more relevant and as a result they increase the employee's interest in learning. And because "rotatees" see the immediately results of their learning, they are more likely to develop a passion and an interest in additional learning.

33. Better results-- several firms have found that a side by side comparison of normal classroom/book learning with on the job learning shows that job rotation learning lasts longer and has a bigger impact on productivity.

34. Increase flexibility -- because rotation program participants and their managers have opportunities to work with many new and diverse people during their rotation program, they may become more flexible and agile.

Answer 3

Creates an interest and leads to less boredom..also your workers are interchangeable, so if one calls in sick or leaves another can do their job

Answer 4

I think if you are going to have this website you should have a answer. Not to be mean but people or kids are going to ask questions you cant just say this question has not been answered :)

Answer 5

Describe how job rotation can be used to combat the problems caused by job specialization.

Answer 6

Job rotation advantages are that people get trained on a variety of tasks. A disadvantage to job rotation is that no one will become proficient at any of the jobs.

Answer 7

Staff rotation allows business to get the most out of their employees. Employees will be able to work any job in the organization.

Answer 8

you get to experience different jobs.