"Working hard for something we don't care about is called stress. Working hard for something we love is called passion."
- Simon Sinek, US author and inspirational speaker

Job enrichment is about enhancing the experiences of workers, giving workers a wide range of challenging tasks and more responsibility at work. This entails more training, upskilling and encouraging workers to take part in decision-making. Workers are involved in a wider variety of tasks, which require new skills.

Job enrichment helps to build employee confidence, competence and a sense of achievement in the workplace. Hence, employers gain from a more motivated and skilled workforce. However, job enrichment has cost implications for businesses - namely the costs of training, developing and upskilling workers.

Job enrichment usually requires training

Job rotation is an operational management technique and form of non-financial motivation that involves workers switching between jobs (tasks) for a period of time. For example, a supermarket employee might operate the tills at the checkouts for a couple of hours, before switching to stacking shelves and then working in the bakery or delicatessen departments.

Job rotation is a common work practice in supermarkets

Job rotation is considered to be a type of non-financial motivation system as it broadens the range of job roles, activities or tasks that a worker gets involved with. It helps to spread the range of skills and expertise within the business. Job rotation creates greater variety of work for staff, so their job is less monotonous and repetitive. On the contrary, workers are more flexible and adaptable.

However, a potential drawback of job rotation is that labour productivity might fall, especially if workers have to perform too many jobs. In addition, there is the greater demand for staff training, which can be both time consuming and expensive.

Job enlargement

Job enlargement is a type of non-financial motivation that takes place when more tasks or activities are added to a worker’s job description. These tasks are usually of a similar level of skill, which is why job enlargement is sometimes referred to as horizontal loading. Job enlargement gives workers greater variety in their jobs, thereby reducing the boredom associated with the nature of repetitive tasks.

Job enlargement involves giving additional tasks to workers

Empowerment is the delegation of decision-making power to workers, thereby helping to boost their morale. It involves granting workers the autonomy and authority to be in charge of their own jobs and to execute their own ideas. It is a type of non-financial reward system because it involves giving workers more responsibility and independence to do their jobs. By contrast, employees are not empowered if they have to follow strict and countless instructions and procedures set by the company.

Empowerment can have positive impacts on motivation as it encourages independent decision making (autonomy under Deci & Ryan's motivation theory), and being able to take ownership and responsibility for the outcome of their work. It shows that line managers have trust in their subordinates, which can help to boost employee morale and job satisfaction. Empowerment also enables senior managers to focus their energies on strategic planning.

Successful empowerment in the workplace requires effective:

• Delegation - The act of line managers entrusting and empowering employees with authority to successfully complete a particular task, project or job role.

• Autonomy - The ability to make informed decisions in an independent or self-governing way.

• Employee participation - This means that workers are given responsibilities and autonomy to do their jobs.

• Continuous professional development (CPD) - Training and learning activities to enhance the professional practice and capabilities of employees.

Purpose is an intrinsic, non-financial type of motivation because people believe they do genuinely meaningful work. Non-financial motivation often involves to having opportunities to make a difference, be it on a personal, professional or social level. Having the personal drive to make a positive difference is not due to financial incentives, but driven by intrinsic motivation and working for a good cause. Examples include:

• Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals

• Firefighters

• Police officers

• Teachers and teaching assistants

• Psychiatrists and counsellors

• Charity workers and volunteers.

People in these professions do not necessarily work because of the pay itself, but the purpose associated with the profession. For example, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals want to look after other people in society; fighter fighters and police officers want to protect the safety of others; teachers want to make a difference to the lives of young people. People in these professions are inherently motivated by having the opportunity to make a difference to others and society as a whole.

Firefighters work to make a difference in society

Watch this short video from Kellogg School of Management about how to keep your team motivated and answer the three questions that follow:

1. What are the four strategies suggested by the Kellogg School of Management to keep employees motivated?

2. Which step can be considered as an example of empowerment?

3. Which step can be considered as an example of purpose?

 Teacher only box

Suggested answers

1.  What are the four strategies suggested by the Kellogg School of Management to keep employees motivated?

• Step 1 - Develop a team contract

• Step 2 - Conduct short frequent meetings

• Step 3 - Stand up and deliver weekly accomplishments

• Step 4 - Create a line of sight for employees to see their impact on the team’s end goal.

2.  Which step can be considered as an example of empowerment?

• Step 1 - Developing a team contract is an example of empowerment as this involves employee participation, used to create a working agreement for the team.

3.  Which step can be considered as an example of purpose?

• Step 4 - Creating a line of sight for employees to see their impact on the team’s end goal is an example of purpose (the opportunity to make a difference) because this allows team members to build ongoing and positive relationships with longer term benefits for the business.

• Empowerment is type of non-financial reward whereby employees are entrusted by their managers with greater responsibility and decision-making power over their own work.

• Job enlargement is a type of non-financial motivation that takes place when more tasks or activities are added to a worker’s job description.

• Job enrichment is about enhancing the experiences of workers, giving workers a wide range of challenging tasks and more responsibility at work.

• Job rotation is an operational management technique and form of non-financial motivation that involves workers switching between jobs (tasks) for a period of time.

• Purpose is an intrinsic, non-financial type of motivation because people believe they do genuinely meaningful work.

• Teamwork refers to the combined efforts of a group of workers to achieve of an organizational goal.