Job design is all about the tasks and responsibilities that are grouped into a specific job.

Job design can have a significant influence on labour productivity – through the link with motivation. Boring, repetitive jobs can often lead to poor quality and low productivity.

The key influences on job design include:

Maintaining quality

Perhaps the most important factor. Jobs should be designed so they support the required level of quality – particularly for customer service.

Operational efficiency

Job design should be closely integrated with operational requirements – e.g. to ensure that employees have the resources required to be productive.

Labour retention

Poor job design is a common cause of high staff turnover and low employee retention.

Skills of the workforce

Employees can only undertake jobs effectively if they have the skills required.