In this episode of Meaningful Work Matters, host Andrew Soren speaks with Rob Baker, a leading expert on job crafting and founder of Tailored Thinking, a pioneering evidence-based positive psychology consultancy. Named as one of HR Magazine's Most Influential Thinkers (#8 in 2023), Baker is a TEDX speaker, author of "Personalization at Work," and a Chartered Fellow of both the CIPD and the Australian HR Institute. His mission is simple yet profound: making work better and making better work.
Throughout the episode, Baker shares practical insights on how individuals can shape their work to better align with their strengths and values, making small yet meaningful changes that boost performance, well-being, and job satisfaction. They explore concrete strategies for crafting various aspects of our jobs and discuss what managers need to know to support their teams in this process.
What is Job Crafting?
Job crafting is about personalizing and shaping how we do our work so that our jobs align better with our passions, strengths, and interests. Baker explains the concept using a simple yet effective metaphor:
“If you can imagine your job like a jacket or a dress that you buy off the peg, you often hope it’s going to be a good fit for you. You don’t know until you put it on. Job crafting is about shaping that job in small ways to make it a better fit for you as an individual.””
The key insight here is that while approximately 90% of most jobs are fixed (the "color" or "fabric" of the jacket), there are always opportunities to shape around the edges. These small adjustments can significantly impact how we experience our work.
This concept isn't just theoretical - it's backed by substantial research. Baker notes that over 170 peer-reviewed papers have explored job crafting, consistently finding positive outcomes in three core areas:
Performance: People who craft their jobs tend to have more energy and zest, leading to better performance as measured by self-assessments, manager evaluations, and even customer service ratings.
Well-being: When people feel in control of their job and can shape it, they report higher levels of well-being, satisfaction, and engagement. Job crafting can also buffer against workplace stress.
Development: Job crafting is strongly linked to career progression, adaptability, and satisfaction. Those who report crafting behaviors tend to experience greater career mobility and fulfillment.
The Five Dimensions of Job Crafting
Baker identifies five distinct ways people can craft their jobs:
Task Crafting
This involves adjusting the activities you do or how you structure your day. Examples include:
Restructuring when you do certain tasks
Taking an existing task and approaching it differently
Using new tools or technologies to complete familiar tasks
Skill Crafting
This focuses on how you develop and apply your skills and knowledge at work. It might involve:
Seeking opportunities to learn new skills
Finding ways to use underutilized abilities
Adapting your approach to leverage your strengths
Purpose (Cognitive) Crafting
This dimension is about connecting to what's meaningful and purposeful for you:
Finding aspects of your work that align with your values
Reframing how you think about your role's impact
Bringing external passions into the workplace (like starting a running club)
Relationship Crafting
This involves shaping your connections with others:
Amplifying relationships you enjoy
Fostering connections outside your immediate team
Adjusting how you interact with challenging colleagues (what Baker refers to as "energy black holes")
Wellbeing Crafting
This focuses on approaching work from a healthier perspective:
Creating rituals that support mental or physical health
Establishing boundaries to protect energy
Developing strategies to manage workplace stressors
Baker shares the example of a physiotherapist who, finding his work stressful with back-to-back patients, decided to take "100 mindful steps" when walking from his office to reception to collect each new patient. This simple well-being intervention helped him recenter and transition mindfully between patients.
Challenges and Considerations
While job crafting offers tremendous benefits, it's not without challenges. Baker addresses several potential concerns:
Management Skepticism
Some managers worry that giving employees permission to craft their jobs will lead to chaos or people shirking core responsibilities. Baker counters this with evidence:
"The reality the research shows, and this is my practical experience, is that most job crafting is in budgets of five to ten minutes a day, or like an hour a week max. People haven't got the bandwidth, the time, or the energy to go beyond that."
People tend to be realistic about what they can change, and they understand that most of their job remains fixed.
Implementation Without Follow-Through
One guaranteed way for job crafting to have a negative effect is if organizations introduce the concept but don't allow actual implementation:
"If you give people the rhetoric about it, you might give people the training about it, and then you don't allow people to execute...people will say, 'Well, hang on, you asked me to do one thing, and actually you are acting a different way.'"
This disconnect can lead to frustration and disengagement. Baker recommends starting with pilot groups to collect success stories before rolling out job crafting more broadly.
Vulnerability in Trying New Approaches
Employees may feel vulnerable when first attempting to craft their jobs, especially in cultures where this hasn't been the norm. Baker notes that providing support and reassurance during this transition is crucial.
Practical Applications and Implications
How to Start Job Crafting
Baker offers several practical approaches for individuals looking to craft their jobs:
Energy Mapping Exercise: Draw a line with "gives energy" on one end and "takes energy" on the other. Plot your daily tasks along this spectrum, then consider how to amplify energizing activities and reshape draining ones.
Focus on One Thing: Instead of trying to change everything at once, identify one aspect of your job you'd like to improve and start there.
Schedule "Me Meetings": Baker notes that while we attend countless meetings for others, we rarely schedule time for ourselves. Set aside 30-60 minutes to reflect on what you'd like to change about your work.
Reframe Unavoidable Tasks: For tasks you dislike but can't eliminate, consider their deeper purpose and create a system to make them more palatable. Baker shares how he became "frenemies with expenses" by recognizing their importance to the business and rewarding himself with a KitKat Chunky after completion.
For Managers Supporting Job Crafting
Managers can foster an environment conducive to job crafting by:
Creating Space for Honest Conversations: Ask questions like "What are you enjoying about your job?" or "If you could make your job 1% better, what would you do?"
Listening Sincerely: Show genuine interest in employees' ideas rather than merely going through the motions.
Embedding Job Crafting in Performance Reviews: Some organizations have successfully integrated job crafting discussions into regular performance check-ins, focusing on different dimensions each quarter.
Adopting an Experimental Mindset: Encourage employees to try small changes with the understanding that not all experiments will succeed.
Believing in Employee Capability: At its core, supporting job crafting requires trusting that employees can thoughtfully reshape aspects of their work while still meeting core responsibilities.
Connections to Broader Themes
Soren and Baker discuss how job crafting connects to larger workplace themes, particularly autonomy and the post-pandemic shift in work arrangements. They note that job crafting shares elements with Self-Determination Theory (discussed in a previous episode with Ann Bradford [link]), especially the power of choice and autonomy in creating meaningful work.
The conversation also touches on how job crafting relates to the ongoing debate about remote versus in-office work. The backlash against companies requiring office returns after offering flexibility parallels the frustration that can occur when organizations introduce job crafting but later restrict it.
Future Directions and Ongoing Work
Looking ahead, Baker sees job crafting becoming a core skill in the changing landscape of work:
"If you think about pre-pandemic...wouldn't it be great if we could get everyone to top up their well-being and resilience skills? I think job crafting is a skill set that enables people to be able to change and agile flex in terms of how they pursue their role."
Further, as artificial intelligence and automation transform jobs, Baker suggests that job crafting capabilities will become increasingly valuable. He encourages organizations to involve employees in harnessing new technologies rather than imposing changes without consultation.
An intriguing potential application involves using AI tools like ChatGPT to support job crafting - not just for efficiency but for energy:
"Most organizations or most people want to talk about using AI in their own roles, they talk about seeking efficiency. And I'd love people to use the E word, but change it to energy...rather than doing the same things faster, can you bring more energy and lightness to what you're doing?"
Key Takeaways
Job crafting involves making small, intentional changes to align your work better with your strengths, values, and interests.
There are five dimensions of job crafting: tasks, skills, purpose, relationships, and well-being.
Research shows job crafting improves performance, well-being, and career development.
Most people craft their jobs in small increments (5-10 minutes daily or an hour weekly).
Managers can support job crafting by creating space for honest conversations, listening sincerely, and adopting an experimental mindset.
Job crafting offers a powerful framework for anyone looking to find greater meaning and satisfaction in their work. By making small adjustments across the five dimensions - tasks, skills, purpose, relationships, and well-being - individuals can transform their experience of work without necessarily changing jobs.
As Baker reminds us, the question we should all be asking is: "What can bring you more energy?" By focusing on energy rather than mere efficiency, job crafting provides a path toward work that is not just better performed but more deeply fulfilling.
Resources for Further Exploration
Visit Tailored Thinking for more resources on job crafting
Rob's book: "Personalization at Work"
Original job crafting research from the University of Michigan