Job Rotation: A Full Guide with 5 Examples - AIHR 12-11-24, 4:32 p.m.

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Rotation: A Full Guide

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Job rotation is a technique used to increase employee learning and

motivation. In this article, we will explain what job rotation is, list its benefits Subscribe to our
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and drawbacks, and give 5 examples of companies who successfully apply job
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rotation in their activities.
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Contents
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What is job rotation? A definition

Job rotation benefits

Try it
Disadvantages of job rotation

Job rotation best practices

Five job rotation program examples

Contents


Job Rotation: A Full Guide

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Before you go with 5 Examples

FAQ
What is job rotation? A
definition

Job rotation benefits

Disadvantages of job

What is job rotation? A definition rotation

Job rotation best

practices
Job rotation is the practice of moving employees between jobs in an
Five job rotation program
organization. These rotations are predominantly lateral, meaning that they examples

happen between jobs on the same level and are not considered promotions. Before you go

They are also often temporary with people moving back to their original job FAQ

after a certain time. Relevant


Articles
Rotating jobs has a number of key benefits that we will cover later in more

detail, think for instance of; starting a new job is exciting and challenging, it

reduces boredom, stimulates motivation, helps to assess person-job fit, and

it’s a great way to acquire new knowledge and competencies through

practicing di!erent jobs.

Job rotation is a well-known organizational development technique. It is an

essential part of job (re)design, together with job simplification, job

enrichment, and job enlargement. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of

job rotation.

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Job rotation is a an essential part of job (re) design.

Job rotation benefits

Rotating jobs has a long list of benefits for both the employer and the

employee. Although there is some overlap between the two, let’s first focus

on the benefits of job rotation for the employer:

Learning. Job rotation is an excellent way to transfer specific skills,

knowledge, and competencies, leading to human capital accumulation.

For example, an employee may learn the full production process

because they have served in di!erent roles that provide them with a

holistic perspective. Similarly, managers may need to experience

di!erent departments before they’re ready for a senior leadership

position in which they need this experience.

Another example is that many HR professionals lack business skills. A

good way to build these skills is by rotating HR professionals outside

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the HR department – and having people from the business rotate in the

HR department. This is a practice recommended by John Boudreau and

Ed Lawler.

Flexibility. Rotation allows employees to do di!erent jobs leading to a

more flexible workforce. If people can be deployed into two or three

roles, your total available workforce will be larger and much more

flexible to fill any of the available roles.

Employee replacement. When a critical employee suddenly leaves,

their role will have to be replaced by someone in the company. Here,

job rotation can play a role. By (temporarily) deploying a peer who is

somewhat familiar with the role and very familiar with the company,

the critical role can be filled quickly.

Orientation and placement. An area where rotation is often applied is

in traineeships. During a traineeship, a graduate usually works four

di!erent roles in the timespan of two years. This enables the graduate

to explore hidden talents and identify the roles that they like and are

good at.

At the same time, it enables the organization to explore where in the

organization the new hire can add the most value, which is also

referred to as job-employee matching. This is a great way to ensure

that new talent will be optimally deployed. Similarly, when someone

desires a di!erent role, they can be rotated in the company to try this

new role. If it does not work, the person is free to come back. This may

prevent a talented employee from leaving.

Satisfaction & attrition. When someone is stuck in a job for 4 or 5

years, they may be at a high risk of leaving. Job rotation o!ers the

opportunity for a change of scenery and challenge people, leading to

increased satisfaction and lower employee attrition.

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Similarly, job rotation also has benefits for the employee:

Motivation. One of the drawbacks of staying in a role for too long is a

loss of motivation. Job rotation ensures a change of scenery with new

responsibilities that challenge the employee to learn and adapt. This is

a great way to reduce boredom, motivate employees, and increase

their personal agility.

Learning. Learning is not only a benefit for the employer but also to

the employee. Especially people who entered the workforce recently

have a strong need for learning and development. Job rotation – for

instance in combination with peer coaching – can o!er these

opportunities.

Disadvantages of job rotation

We cannot conclude this article without briefly mentioning the disadvantages

of job rotation.

Ine!ciencies. When an employee joins a new role, they need to learn

the ropes before reaching their optimum productivity level. Because of

this, rotation can lead to frequent interruptions in work and

corresponding ine"ciencies

Misunderstanding. Another disadvantage is that the person who

rotates out of a role may still have superior (tacit) knowledge and

connections. This may result in this person staying (partially) involved in

the role, leading to role unclarity. One way to tackle this issue is by

having a peer mentoring program in place.

Disgruntled employee. Rotating people out of a job they like may

reduce their motivation. A potential disadvantage is disgruntled

employees who will not like the new job, lack motivation, and may even

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consider leaving the organization.

Lack of opportunity. Job rotation is often horizontal, meaning that

people will not get a promotion but rather a di!erent role on the same

level. This may feel like a sidestep instead of a next step, throwing

people o! their envisioned career path. Assessing their level of

ambition and framing the rotation as an opportunity to learn more

diverse skills that will benefit them later in their career is a best practice

here.

Job rotation best practices

As you have now realized, it is absolutely possible to ‘rotate the wrong way’.

Let’s go over a series of best practices on how to create a more positive

impact while reducing negative e!ects.

A means to an end. Rotation can be used for many di!erent purposes.

What is important to keep in mind is that the goal of job rotation should

be clear from the beginning. Mindlessly rotating employees into

di!erent jobs creates ine"ciencies, role unclarity, and interrupts work.

These ine"ciencies can only be justified when there is a clear goal, or

benefit, to this practice of job rotation.

Employee buy-in. Another potential disadvantage is that rotation may

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lead to disgruntled employees. It is, therefore, crucial to create buy-in.

This can be done by clearly explaining the benefits of job rotation for

the employee and convincing the employee rather than coercing them.

Creating employee buy-in can turn something perceived as a bad

situation into an opportunity.

Training. Third, ensure that people are properly trained before they

are rotated into a di!erent job. Entering a job while lacking the required

knowledge and skills to perform well will decrease motivation and

increase the time required to reach optimum productivity level. As

mentioned above, both peer coaching and peer mentoring can be very

valuable here.

Monitoring and feedback. Once someone has rotated into a role,

ensure you monitor them closely, and provide ample feedback. Over

time, people will become more independent and require less structure.

In addition, create clear success criteria for the job and communicate

these. This helps the employee understand what is expected of them.

Planned job rotation. A more formalized approach to job rotation is

called job pathing or career pathing. Here, a specific sequence of jobs is

lined up to reach a career objective.

Five job rotation program examples

Let’s now go over five real-life job rotation examples.

The Slumber Yard

Traineeships where people rotate

Job rotation in factories

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The e!ect of rotation on nurses

Edelman

1. The Slumber Yard

Our first job rotation example comes from a company named The Slumber

Yard, which is the biggest online resource for mattress reviews. The main

reason for The Slumber Yard to launch a rotation program was to try and

reduce the company’s turnover. As Matthew Ross, co-owner and COO puts it:

“By training employees to be competent in multiple disciplines, we’re able to

reduce the negative e!ects associated with employee turnover. If an

employee leaves, we have other employees who can easily slide in and

assume the role.”

Naturally, di!erent jobs take di!erent amounts of time to learn. This implies

that it’s important to determine accurate training times and the

corresponding length of the rotation program. At The Slumber Yard, people

rotate once every quarter.

2. Heineken’s Technologist Program

Our second job rotation example comes from Dutch beer brewer Heineken.

The company has several traineeships for graduates, including a Technologist

Program. Selected trainees will get several assignments and each assignment

lasts 6 months. As such, they’ll be rotating in various departments such as

Packaging, Product development, Brewing, Quality Assurance, and Packaging

development.

Projects Technologist trainees could be working on include:

Safeguarding product safety and assessing quality risks;

Developing new beers or packaging;

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Tackling day-to-day production issues through thorough analysis and

elimination;

Coming up with creative solutions for new problems.

Once they’ve completed the program, trainees are equipped to start as a

Technologist in various Heineken departments. This traineeship is a good

example of how rotation enables people to obtain di!erent skills and

competencies, leading to a more flexible workforce in which people are able

to do more than one job.

3. Job rotation in factories

In factories and on plant floors, there can be an important additional reason

for job rotation: providing physical injuries and chronic work-related

musculoskeletal issues. While rotating jobs can indeed help with this (and

also to cope with boredom), it’s no miracle solution and should ideally be part

of a larger e!ort of redesigning work.

4. The e!ect of rotation on nurses

A study among nurses in the US investigated whether or not a rotation

system would encourage nurses to understand, relate to and share the vision

of the organization, consequently increasing their job satisfaction and

stimulating them to willingly remain in their jobs and commit themselves to

the organization.

According to the nurses themselves, job rotation inspired them to achieve

higher performance, allowed for continuous growth at work, extended

knowledge and skill, and increasing clinic patient care-taking quality. They

agreed that it could help employees to acquire multiple capabilities and

expand vision and that it could be an approach to reduce job burnout.

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5. Edelman

There are many di!erent job rotation programs. At Edelman, an American PR

and marketing consultancy firm, they have a rotation program for their high-

performing, high-potential employees. Employees who are selected are sent

to an international location to work, live, and learn for up to 18 months.

The idea behind Edelman’s program is to give people the opportunity to learn

from varying perspectives around the world and to diversify their work

experience (to ultimately better serve the company’s clients).

Before you go
As you know by now, rotating jobs can have many benefits for both the

organization and the employee. However, when done randomly, it will reduce

e"ciency, introduce errors, and lead to role unclarity. It is therefore key to

clearly specify the reason why rotation should be leveraged. These and

(many) more tips about job rotation, job design, and organizational

development can be found in our upcoming certificate program about

organizational development!

FAQ

What is job rotation? 

What is the main strength of job rotation? 

What is a drawback of job rotation? 

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trends

Erik van Vulpen

Erik van Vulpen is the founder and Dean of AIHR. He is an expert in shaping

modern HR practices by bringing technological innovations into the HR context. He

receives global recognition as an HR thought leader and regularly speaks on topics

like People Analytics, Digital HR, and the Future of Work.

Learn more

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