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HR Guide to Job Redesign

Meet the evolving needs of the organization and employees through job redesign.

  • When done ineffectively, job redesign presents risks to employee engagement, retention, and the employee experience.
  • To avoid common mistakes, organizations must involve employees in the redesign process to inform solutions and proactively manage resistance, identify opportunities to upskill employees based on changes to job requirements, and identify the impact of job redesign to adjacent roles.

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  • Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
  • Go through a Guided Implementation to help you get through your project

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Don’t take the human element of the job for granted. Redesigning jobs without incorporating the employee voice risks significant resource investment with limited return, as changes may not reflect the reality of the job.

Impact and Result

  • Organizations exploring job redesign must first identify the driving need through organizational data and employee feedback to ensure job redesign is the best solution.
  • Next, conduct a thorough review of prioritized jobs using job analysis, the job architecture framework, and employee experience data to uncover pain points, strengths, and opportunities.
  • Lastly, select appropriate job design methods to address pain points while maintaining strengths and incorporating opportunities.

HR Guide to Job Redesign Research & Tools

1. Uncover

Review guiding principles, uncover the need for job redesign, involve key players, prioritize jobs to redesign, involve employees, and recognize project constraints.

2. Analyze

Conduct a job review, examine external data, uncover job design components to address, and select goals and metrics.

3. Design

Explore and select job design methods, outline job modifications, identify and plan to address implications to adjacent jobs, and create a roadmap for implementation.

4. Implement

Identify areas to align with redesigned jobs, prepare managers and employees for change, and plan to monitor impact and adjust design as needed.

HR Guide to Job Redesign preview picture

About McLean & Company

McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Uncover the need for job redesign.
  • Call 1: Review guiding principles for job redesign, uncover the need, and plan to involve key players.
  • Call 2: Discuss prioritizing jobs to redesign based on team and individual impacts and potential project constraints.

Guided Implementation 2: Analyze prioritized jobs.
  • Call 1: Discuss conducting a job review, including reviewing external data to inform the redesign.
  • Call 2: Review job review findings, determine job design components to address, and select goals and metrics.

Guided Implementation 3: Design the job.
  • Call 1: Explore job design methods and discuss potential modifications to address pain points
  • Call 2: Identify and plan to address implications to adjacent jobs and discuss creating a roadmap for implementation.

Guided Implementation 4: Implement the redesign.
  • Call 1: Identify areas to align with redesigned jobs (e.g. job descriptions, performance management).
  • Call 2: Discuss preparing managers and employees for change and plan to monitor impact.

Contributors

  • Thomas Bertels, Founder, Purpose Works Consulting & Author of Fixing Work
  • Julie Cincotta, Principal Consultant, CLA Organizational Solutions
  • Dr. Ellen Frank-Miller, Founder and CEO, WORC (Workforce & Organizational Research Center)
  • Dr. Blake Jelley, Professor of Management, McDougall Faculty of Business, University of Prince Edward Island