Project management deals with a wide range of activities. When looked at closely, these activities can be set down as: planning, organizing, directing, staffing, controlling, monitoring, innovating, and budgeting. When we talk about work rotation in project management, it comes under the activity of staffing; which refers to selecting the right people for the job.

When a company signs an engagement and works on the project details, it might require the expertise of multiple employees who are skilled in their own specific fields. Finding out and putting the right people to the job is one of the most critical areas of project management. However, sometimes it is good to have a mix of employees on a team who not only have expertise in their own field, but also have a good idea of what the other jobs entail. This helps in synchronizing well and understanding team needs and gaps.

Work rotation

The very idea of work rotation is based on the fact that it allows employees to widen their skill sets by letting them work on operations support and small projects, where they can gather useful experience in new tools, technologies, and work formats. And then after a few months, they can put on a larger project that will allow them to use their new found skill set. Work rotation allows employees to keep their skills up to date and increase their work options. This keeps them motivated, engaged, and also helps the company in staffing effectively and efficiently when they are signed up for a new project.

Benefits of work rotation

  • Helps managers find the right employees – While employees are put through job rotation, their managers can take a hint from how they are doing in certain tasks and find out what they are really good at. This can help the managers put employees on projects and activities that they can perform best, thus benefiting both company and employee.
  • Helps employees expand their skill set – Work rotation allows employees to try out new skills and perform new tasks that help increase their knowledge in other technical areas and all them to grow professionally. Which in turn, leads to employee satisfaction and decreases attrition rates.
  • Helps in analyzing training needs of employees – Looking at the performance of employees in different work environments and tasks, managers can assess their knowledge, skill, and attitude regarding a certain job function. Based on their assessment, they can decide whether training can help the employee improve and grow further in the organization.

Work rotation has many benefits and there are multiple ways in which a project manager can use it to align company and employee objectives.