Job Crafting Workshop
Learning Goals
Welcome to our job crafting exercise.
The goal of this exercise is to learn you a technique on how to shape your job. The goal? To make your job more energizing and to provide a better fit with you as a person and your goals. This exercise guides you to take proactive steps and actions to redesign what you do at work, by changing tasks, perceptions, your context, and relationships. The main goal is to stay in the same job, but getting more meaning and energy out of it.
In this module we learn you:
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how to analyze your job,
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how to analyze your strengths,
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how to get insights into what gives you energy
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Finally, we conclude all this in your job crafting plan.
During this module, we show video’s on how these steps work, which you can do yourself. We also provide theoretical background so you understand how this works. This was you can adapt these exercises into different contexts and different jobs. The goal is to make your current job more energizing, but also to learn you a skill you can use in your future career.
Every module consists of some (theoretical) information and some exercises. However, not everyone likes every exercise to the same degree. Feel free to choose which exercise you think will help you the most. There are different ways to make the exercises. First, we have made a worksheet with all the different exercises and their templates. You can download this and fill it in when you do the exercises. Secondly, you can also just make them on a sheet of paper or in your head. We advise you to write the answers down since this has a positive effect on the transfer.
Introduction
to job crafting
Ex 1: Task
Analysis
Ex 2: your
personal
energy graph
Theory on Job
Crafting
Different
possibilities
Ex 4: Rough
job crafting
plan
Ex 3: Personal
Profile
Ex 5: Finalizing
your plan
Start to Job Craft
Introduction to Job Crafting
In the first video, you’ll find a brief introduction on job crafting. The second video by Amy Wrzesniewski who was one of the first to describe this technique, is optional and gives a more in-depth explanation of how it was discovered and what it can do for you and your organization.
Exercise 1: Task Analysis
In this first exercise, we use part of our booklet. You can download it here. The easiest way to do the exercise is to print it, but you can also use it on your computer or just draw it on a piece of paper. In the video below we will explain how you can do this exercise. You can pause it at any moment or watch it again.
Exercise 2: Your Personal Energy Graph
From Theory to You
The Theory about Job Crafting
There are lots of different models and theories behind job crafting. We will base us on the Job-Demands Resources model. This model is about job characteristics. In short, it views all aspects of our job (i.e. psychological, physical, organizational, and social) as either job demands or job resources.
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Job demands require that we put in physical or psychological effort or skills and they ‘cost’ us something. Emotional strain or demands of a job, but also red tape or role conflicts can lead to costs like stress and exhaustion. These demands are also called hindrance demands. But it’s not all bad. Some demands can also be challenging in a way that, besides the fact that they cost us something, they also have the ability for growth. Time pressure, new challenging projects, etc. are therefore called challenging demands, which will increase burn-out symptoms, but also boost engagement at the same time.
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Job resources help us accomplish our work goals and we can draw on these facilitators to counter the potentially negative impacts of job demands, but they also give u positive energy and motivate us. They can be made available by organizations (job resources) or they can be personal (personal resources). The first entails aspects like career prospects, autonomy, opportunities for development, and support from co-workers. The latter includes aspects of yourself such as optimism.
In job crafting, we take a pro-active approach to this model and try to influence these job demands or resources ourselves instead of waiting for the organization to change these. You can do this in at least two ways.
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First, you can alter your job resources. By adding or increasing different resources you will enrich your job.
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Second, sometimes you can increase job demands to a pleasantly challenging extent. By adding some time pressure or a challenging project you can learn and grow, which will create positive stress.
Exercise 3: Your Personal Profile
Before we start crafting we like to make your personal profile. This starts by identifying the aspects of your job that energize you and the aspects that hinder you. The energizers are aspects of your job that give you energy and can be divided into three different categories:
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Strengths: these are the things you are good at. To identify your strengths you can ask yourself these questions: For which tasks do your colleagues ask your expertise? What skill or knowledge makes you unique in your team? What do others describe as your strengths?
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Needs: these are aspects you find important in your job as contact with others, being able to focus or the possibility to help others. Try asking these questions to discover your needs: What would you miss, if you wouldn’t do this job anymore? What makes you really happy in this job? What gives you satisfaction in this job?
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Interests: these are aspects that intrigue you in or even outside your job. Probably not all of your interests are (at the moment) present in your job. These questions can help: What do you find most interesting in your job? What is the biggest challenge in your job? When do you forget the time at your job (or elsewhere)?
The burdens or hindrances in your job are also important to identify which aspects of certain tasks can be crafted. These burdens can be divided into three different categories:
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Emotional burdens: these are aspects of a task that take an emotional cost. These questions can help: Wat makes you angry at your job? Which topics can cause conflict for you at work? What makes you sad or emotional at work?
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Physical burdens: these are the aspects that strain your body. To identify these you can ask these questions: Which physical symptoms do prevent you to do your job properly? Are there health reasons that cause you to slow down your work pace? When is your job physically too heavy?
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Cognitive burdens: these are aspects of the job that can make your job difficult to do. Ask yourself these questions to discover these burdens: What do you find difficult in your job? When is your job boring or annoying? At which times/occasions, is it difficult to concentrate?
Up to you. In the booklet you’ll find in exercise three someplace to put your own strengths and burdens.
Tip: If you find it difficult to discover these or you really want to get to know yourself: Interview a peer (partner, colleague, supervisor) on how they view your profile. Compare his/her insights with your own opinions. You can also think back about a moment or event at work where you were full of energy or had a really good feeling about a task. Write this down and reflect on what happened at that moment, with whom and when. Ask yourself what was different in this situation and whether you have had the same feeling in a similar situation. These reflections can help you identify your strengths, needs and interests. To identify burdens you can do a similar refection but about a moment where you felt exhausted at work.
Your Job Crafting Plan
Exercise 4: A Rough Job Crafting Plan
In the next video, we will explain how you can make a first start on your job crafting plan. You can do this exercise in the booklet or on any other type of paper.
Job crafting: the possibilities
Usually, we define five types of job crafting. Because you know your job the best, it is up to you to decide for each task which type of crafting is the best option. Below you’ll find an overview of each type of crafting, with some examples to inspire you!
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Task crafting: this involves activities to change the job or task itself, usually by adding or delegating different aspects of the task. You might drop a task that isn’t energizing or ask a colleague to swap (parts of) a task. You can also dedicate less or more time for a task, so the impact on your job will change. Adding a task might also be a possibility. A chef, for example, may not only serve food but can create a beautifully designed plate. You can decide to take an extra role as a mentor or try to facilitate a meeting.
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Process crafting: this involves changing the timing of different tasks. As your energy levels are not the same every day and during a day, it may be worthwhile to reschedule some tasks to a moment where you usually have a lot of energy (e.g. in the morning) and do a task which gives you a lot of energy on a moment where you usually have less energy (e.g. after lunch).
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Time crafting: is a way to counteract the negative consequences of experiencing a misfit between your chronotype and organizational and social requirements. Job crafting or modeling your job includes managing your time and agenda. Based on your circadian rhythm, you can decide when you start or stop working when you want to take a break, etc.
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Relationship crafting: this involves changing the interactions you have at work. You might, for example, feel very inspired when you talk to a particular colleague. So, you can ask him/her to help you with a project. Also, if you have a not-so-energizing task that you have to do by yourself, you can do this together with a colleague. Doing so, you add a relational aspect of the job, which might make it more joyful. Sometimes the presence of a person costs energy. Rather than avoiding this person, you can try to understand why you feel that way and try to talk about it with this person, solving this issue for you.
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Cognitive crafting: this involves changing your mindset. By changing perspectives on what you are doing, you can create more meaning. Especially for tasks with lots of burdens, which cannot be task crafted, cognitive crafting is useful. Ask your colleagues, supervisor, customer, what it means to them if you do this task. Usually, there is a more profound significance to this task. Making weekly reports, might not be used a lot, but indicate when a crisis is coming. Changing sheets in a hotel is more about making a customer's journey more comfortable, then about cleaning a room.
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Context crafting: this involves changes in your working environment. As other types of crafting are not possible, you can always look at your surroundings and try to change them. This can be very simple by adding a plant or a personal touch to your office. But this can also involve working in a different room or location for where you need to focus.
Exercise 5: Finalizing your Job Crafting Plan
Now that we have looked at different types of crafting, it is up to you to reflect on your tasks and create possibilities to change your tasks and job. In the next video, we’ll finalize your job crafting plan, but it is just the start for you towards a better job!
Summary
What have you learned?
Job crafting is a proactive behavior, where you shape your own job to feel and perform better. You can do this in 5 steps:
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A task analysis where you list and categorize your tasks
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An energy graph, where you plot your categorized tasks visually
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A personal profile based on your energizers and burdens
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A rough job crafting plan based on your tasks and roles
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Your job crafting plan based on your personal profile
A reminder that you can do these exercises regularly to continue shaping your job
The next step: Team Crafting
Are you ready for more? You can do the same exercise, but with your team. As with individual job crafting, you start with the first exercises, but between exercises 4 and 5 we add a team component. In this part you interact (virtually or in real life) with some of your team members to see whether they can come up with different types of crafting or maybe you can swap tasks between team members. Do you want to find out more? Click on the button to go to the team crafting workshop.
Do you want to learn more?
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Van Vuuren, M., & Dorenbosch, L. (2011). Mooi Werk, naar een betere baan zonder weg te gaan. Boom, Nederland.
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Wrzesniewski, A., & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a job: Revisioning employees as active crafters of their work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179–201.
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Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2007). What is Job Crafting and Why Does It Matter? https://positiveorgs.bus.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/What-is-Job-Crafting-and-Why-Does-it-Matter1.pdf
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Berg, J. M., Dutton, J. E., & Wrzesniewski, A. (2013). Job crafting and meaningful work. In B. J. Dik, Z. S. Byrne, & M. F. Steger (Eds.), Purpose and meaning in the workplace (p. 81–104). American Psychological Association