Job simplification involves streamlining work responsibilities to boost productivity. This article discusses its history, benefits, and five-step implementation method.
By Brad Nakase, Attorney
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Job simplification, which is sometimes called “work simplification,” is an intervention in job planning. This piece will define job simplification, examine it in detail, and provide several suggestions for effective implementation.
Job or work simplification refers to the practice of streamlining current responsibilities by eliminating superfluous duties. Streamlining processes with the goal of increasing productivity and decreasing overhead is what job simplification is all about.
Here is an example of how job simplification can be used at work.
Amy is an employee at the front desk of a rapidly expanding business. She is responsible for greeting visitors, taking care of administrative tasks, and maintaining order in the workplace. Amy genuinely enjoyed her job. But she began to slack off on her administrative duties and exhibit signs of fatigue as the company expanded from fifty to one hundred fifty employees in just two years. While Amy’s duties remained constant during the two years, the number of individuals requiring her attention grew by a factor of 300!
Her supervisor subsequently took her aside and inquired as to her favorite aspects of her position. Although Amy enjoyed the housework and entertaining guests, she eventually felt overwhelmed by the administrative duties. Consequently, the business chose to establish a new position for an office manager whose sole responsibility would be to handle such paperwork. The other two tasks were now Amy’s sole responsibility.
Frederick Taylor was a leading figure in the movement to simplify work. Dissecting complicated tasks into their component parts was something he really believed in. In comparison to other duties, these are simple and straightforward to master. A low degree of expertise is necessary, it is less expensive for the company, and specialization reduces the likelihood of mistakes.
Workers in Taylor’s approach hone in on a particular area of expertise. Henry Ford pioneered this method and was able to mass-produce automobiles at a steep discount compared to his rivals.
Hiring highly specialized individuals whose talents are easy to learn also has the added benefit of making the employee more replaceable for the firm. Workers are thus interchangeable parts of the manufacturing process. The engineering approach was the guiding principle behind these design decisions, with output (productivity) serving as the primary metric.
The rise of automation and heightened public awareness of workers’ rights in the workplace caused job simplification to lose favor. They advocated for a motivational strategy rather than an engineering one. The goal of this strategy was to increase intrinsic motivation in the workplace, particularly among skilled employees.
Although it has lost some of its luster, job simplification is still an important design principle. Furthermore, in a time when complicated work can cause stress and health concerns, one could argue for the return of job simplification as a method to simplify responsibilities.
Along with work expansion, job enrichment, and job rotation, job simplicity is one of four job design approaches that are essential to organizational success.
The work simplification strategy consists of five steps and is identical to any process for job redesign. After a thorough analysis, the job or position is fine-tuned according to many standards. Here are the steps for making a job simpler.
1. Choosing the task or occupation to be explored
Something that takes a lot of time or isn’t very efficient can serve as a starting point. If this isn’t something you’ve done before, you should talk to others who have experience with it to learn more about what it entails. It makes the task easier to understand.
2. Gathering relevant facts and data for the chosen position
Gathering all the necessary information and making a detailed record of each step is of utmost importance in this case.
3. Inquiring about every aspect of the job’s function
Here, you’ll examine everything by going over each step and fact and asking “why,” “where,” “when,” “who,” and “how” questions. The next step is to look into different processes and scenarios.
4. Creating ideas for possible changes
For each activity, you can use one of the four criteria provided above. You can simplify, combine, rearrange, or eliminate them. Simplifying, securing, or improving the efficiency of work is the objective here. At this point, it’s important to remember that you have access to tools, such as physical instruments, digital technologies, and automation. The next step is to document the findings and develop a brand-new approach.
5. Reviewing outcomes and putting the new approach into action
You may put your new prototype through its paces here, make any necessary adjustments depending on the findings, and then put the refined process into action. Part of this process can involve managing stakeholders or persuading a higher-up.
Even though it was published in the 1950s, the technique in question is quite similar to the design thinking process that is used today. You put in the effort to learn the ins and outs of the work (place an emphasis on this), identify the issue, examine the process, come up with a working model, and then test it.
This concludes our little primer on streamlining your work process. Ultimately, the point of streamlining tasks is to find ways to get more done for less money. This method is, hence, task-oriented. But there are further considerations, such as whether the job is inspiring and whether the person is a good fit for the new, streamlined position. There needs to be a human element to work simplification as well; Amy wouldn’t have been pleased to give up administrative duties if she had enjoyed them. Even if job simplification is a good idea, never forget the humans in those jobs.
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