In response to the growing importance of employee retention and engagement, global HR consultancy McLean & Company has published the “HR Guide to Job Redesign.” The guide emphasizes that by aligning job tasks, duties, responsibilities, and interactions, organizations can boost productivity, reduce turnover, and enhance employee well-being.

However, when done ineffectively, job redesign presents risks to organizations’ increasingly employee-focused priorities. To avoid such risks, McLean & Company advises that organizations involve employees in the redesign process to best address expanding employee needs alongside the needs of the organization.

According to the firm’s recently published guide, several scenarios can prompt organizations to redesign jobs, including shifts in organizational needs, decreased employee engagement, integration of new technology, imbalanced workloads, limited budgets, or changes in the workforce.

“Job design is not one-dimensional. Impactful redesign requires deconstruction and intentional analysis of each job component to address pain points and promote efficiency while balancing the needs of the organization and employees,” says Grace Ewles, director of HR Research & Advisory Services at McLean & Company. “It’s important that the human element of the job is not taken for granted. Redesigning jobs without incorporating the employee voice risks significant resource investment with limited return as changes may not effectively address underlying pain points.”

McLean & Company’s new guide includes four easy-to-follow sections for HR leaders:

1. Uncover. In the first section, HR leaders will review guiding principles for effective job redesign, confirm the need for job redesign using data, and invite key players to be involved in the process. Next, while remaining mindful of project constraints, they’ll prioritize jobs to be redesigned based on team and individual impacts while involving employees in the process.
2. Analyze. In the second section, the resource provides leaders with insights to successfully review prioritized jobs to identify underlying pain points, strengths, and opportunities to inform job redesign and the selection of goals and metrics to track success.
3. Design. In the third section, HR leaders will review and select methods for job redesign based on the insights gathered in the previous section, identify impacts to adjacent jobs, and build a roadmap for implementation.
4. Implement. In the fourth and final section, HR leaders will find guidance to help them identify areas to align with redesigned jobs, such as job descriptions and performance management. Finally, they will prepare managers and employees for change and plan to monitor impact and adjust the design as needed.

To access the full blueprint, including sample accountabilities for key players, sample interview questions for managers and employees, and additional job analysis methods, please visit HR Guide to Job Redesign.