Wickland Westcott

Beware the Greener Grass...

It's a good time to...

Think just how well suited you are to a job if you are considering a new position.

Nobody likes unpleasant surprises, especially when it comes to their job. When considering a new position it therefore pays us to step back and consider just how likely it is that a job will give us the high levels of job satisfaction that most of us want from our work - even if we might not always realise it! The grass might seem greener on the other side, but is it really?

There is a well proven model of job satisfaction that distils down into what is effectively a simple and practical checklist we can use to evaluate a possible new job.

The model looks at five areas: skill variety, task significance, autonomy, feedback, and task identity. Pooled together, they have the ability to determine our level of motivation, our likely effectiveness, and importantly, our level of job satisfaction.

It is worth looking at each of these in a little more detail. We all possess a variety of different skills, abilities and talents. The greater the extent to which our role calls on us to bring these to bear, the greater the likelihood we are going to feel a sense of satisfaction with our work.

Gauging how significant the work we are doing is in terms of its impact or influence on other peoples' lives, on the organisation for which we work or indeed on the environment as a whole, will also determine our level of satisfaction. Consider for a moment the work of the world leaders who attended last week's G20 summit.

The level of autonomy we have to determine how quickly or in what way we will complete our work also impacts on us. If this is something we value highly then working for a line manager who is prone to micromanaging their people and being highly directive in their management style, is unlikely to suit us or prove satisfying for very long.

Seeing the outcome of our labour as well as receiving feedback from our line manager are both important if we are to understand just how effective we are being in our job. Not all of us are motivated by recognition from our boss, but working blind of any knowledge of how well we are doing is not going to keep us motivated for very long either.

Lastly, it is as well to know the degree to which a role will require us to complete a whole piece of work or just simply a small part of it. Do we have to have involvement in determining the organisation's overall marketing strategy, or are we happy to cease our contribution once we have emailed off our division's plan to the Sales & Marketing Director?

When considering a new position, it is wise to give thought to these issues. Look at what is known about a proposed role. If it scores highly against these criteria then we are likely to perform well and be happy. If it scores poorly, maybe we need to ask some more questions or coolly consider if it would be a sensible move for us to make.

 Evaluating a Change

• Stay objective - compartmentalise the following aspects and ask yourself what is important.
• What are the skills, abilities and talents that you most want to use in your work?
• How important is your work to you in terms of its influence over others, over your organisation, or the over environment in general?
• Do you like to be given a lot of autonomy?
• Where will you get feedback from on how effective you are in the job?
• Must you have a say at the big picture level or are you happy contributing an integral part?

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