Have you rotated your staff recently?
No, I don't mean set them all spinning on their office chairs - tempting though that might be.
I'm talking about rotating their roles. Getting them to do one another's jobs for a while. Or even better, having a policy of switching every six months or year so that over time everyone gets to do all the jobs in the office.
If you're a typical manager, as I am, you'll already be listing the problems this would bring. Productivity would drop. Some would struggle to get to grips with new tasks. Skills built over months or years would be wasted. Why put your business at risk in this way?
As a freelancer one of the services I offer is CV writing. In 2009 I wrote over a hundred Curriculum Vitaes for professionals. Some that stand out are the successful managers who achieved recognition and promotion by creating effective teams, and one way they did it was through staff rotation.
As I said, you've probably already listed the negatives, so let's look at the positives. By changing their job people get a deeper appreciation of what's involved in different roles. They discover that Sam in marketing isn't just surfing the internet all day or that Jo isn't as slow as they thought because it really can take all morning to input a pile of invoices
This new knowledge sparks creativity and better ways of doing things, as people realise how one job impacts on another and they begin to find ways to making the office work more effectively. It also means it's easier to find sickness or holiday cover for a specific task.
Another benefit is the cut in the risk of fraud. People in positions of trust can be tempted to take advantage of gaps in the system and help themselves - it happens at all levels. Suspicious activity may only be uncovered when they leave or take an extended break. Rotation of roles reduces the opportunities and temptation, and prevention is always better than fixing the problem.
Of course there are some jobs that can't be shared across the office. You can't ask Sam who does marketing to take over from Jo the bookkeeper, or vice versa. But not all organisations have roles with such sharply defined skills, and it's possible that Jo has some great ideas about marketing. In turn, Sam may bring a useful perspective to managing the finances, if given the opportunity to get involved in some way.
What would happen if you were to spin everyone on their chairs, at least metaphorically? Would it create disruption to long-established working patterns and practices? Would it allow you and your staff to see things in a different way?
Perhaps you should give it a go to see what happens. You might be surprised at the benefits that it brings.
