Ten ways job crafting can help enhance your workplace coaching.
By Marla J. Albertie
Job crafting is the process of employees intentionally changing the tasks, relationships and perceived meaning of their jobs (cognitive ability) to increase job satisfaction, engagement and well-being (Wrzesniewski & Dutton 2001) 1. This approach can help to increase autonomy in the workplace by allowing employees to have more control over their job duties and structure of their work.
Now here are 10 advantages of job crafting you can promote in your coaching practice to help corporate clients understand how it can enrich the workplace:
- Enhance employee engagement: By allowing employees to craft their roles and responsibilities, job crafting can help improve employee engagement and job satisfaction. This, in turn, can lead to higher levels of motivation, productivity and better job performance. It also can lessen the need for behavioral coaching and offer benefits when coaching for succession purposes.
- Improve communication: Job crafting can help employees better understand their roles and responsibilities, which can improve communication and collaboration among team members. This can be useful because teams need to work effectively together to achieve common goals.
- Build trust: When employees feel more in control of their work (have autonomy), they may feel more empowered to share their concerns or feedback with their managers. This can help build trust and open lines of communication, as well as improve employees’ skills and performace with an eye toward cultivating future leaders.
- Identify strengths and weaknesses: By allowing employees to shape their roles and responsibilities, the job crafting process can help identify areas where employees excel or where they may need additional support or training. This is critical, as the need for coaching continues to increase in the workplace.
- Foster creativity: Job crafting can encourage employees to think creatively about their work and to explore new ways of doing things. In return, this creates innovative ideas that can be used in the workplace. Job crafting allows for employees to think outside the box.
- Develop a sense of purpose: When employees feel that their work is meaningful and aligned with their personal values, they often are more motivated and engaged in their work. Job crafting will allow employees to feel as if they are making a difference, which can be useful when coaching employees to understand how their work contributes to the overall mission of the organization.
- Encourage learning and development: By allowing employees to customize their roles and responsibilities, job crafting can encourage learning and development opportunities. It also helps employees to develop new skills and to improve their performance in their current roles.
- Support work-life integration/harmony: Job crafting can help employees create a better integration between their work and personal lives, which can lead to better overall well-being and job satisfaction. This can be useful in coaching employees to manage their schedules more effectively and prioritize their work responsibilities.
- Promote autonomy: Job crafting can promote autonomy and self-determination among employees by providing them with the freedom to initiate and undertake job duties. As a result, employees can take ownership of their work and feel more in control of their professional growth and development.
- Encourage teamwork: My favorite saying is, “Teamwork makes the dream work.” Job crafting can encourage collaboration among employees, which can be useful when coaching teams to work together more effectively and achieve common goals. This can also help to develop a stronger sense of camaraderie and cohesion among team members.
Coaches, now you have 10 ways you can promote job crafting to your clients. Which ones will you use starting today?
1Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179–201. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2001.4378011
Marla J. Albertie is the founder Truth Speaks Group, LLC, a multi-media coaching company dedicated to creating solutions for integrating work and life to create harmony. Marla loves to read, is a concert and comedy show junkie and a cruiser for life. Follow Marla on Twitter @tspeakscoaching and IG @Tspeaksgroup. Sign up for the Truth Speaks Group LLC Newsletter at https://www.truthspeakscoaching.com/.
