on May 31st, 2007Job rotation in IT
Thanks to Nishant from office, I got this great article from Forrester Research about job rotation in the IT industry and why it makes sense. I don’t really know If can put these things up on my blog, but I shall do it anyway ( apologies Forrester, its for the betterment of mankind) .
I am a firm believer of job rotation in companies. Its just human nature that people tend to get bored of their jobs after a while and they need some change. My parents tell me Im too demanding and that jobs aren’t meant to be that way, but I tell them they are a generation old. Our generation is a bunch of knowledge hungry folks who cannot watch a television channel for 5 minutes straight. Good or bad, we have been nurtured in an environment where we have a choice in everything, right from our breakfast cereal to our television channels, we take pride in the right to choose. Add to the fact that our quality of jobs aren’t really that great which only enhances our boredom at work.
My friend Hardev, while working at GE, told me about their intern program and how it was spaced out over a period of 2 years or so. The program essentially exposed to various types of jobs , right from technology to marketing and after two years or so, let you decide what you wanted to. The program in itself was nice because it gave you the opportunity to get a first hand look at what and how you do the various roles that you see everyday and also let you decide based on your experience where you would fit best. Although many companies cannot afford to encourage such programmes, I think steps towards such an effort will only help build confidence, increase employee loyalty and increase productivity.
Forget freshers, even experienced people need a change sometimes. Its an understood fact that once your learning stops, your interest and motivation levels drops exponentially. With our job quality being so low, how do you expect an employee to stay interested in his/her job for endless years. Job rotation only makes the job more challenging, more interesting and also has many other positives to it. I shall stop here and let you read the pdf.