Job enlargement vs. enrichment: Key differences explained

Do your employees complain that their jobs are too repetitive and boring?

If so, you could benefit from job enlargement, which involves adding new tasks and responsibilities to an existing job.

You might want to enlarge a job for many reasons, but the most common is to reduce monotony.

This is especially true for jobs involving only one or two tasks, like working on an assembly line.

In that scenario, you could enlarge an assembly line worker’s job to include a variety of tasks on each item instead of repeating a singular process before moving on.

However, the goal behind enlarging a role should always be to improve job satisfaction, not to squeeze extra value out of each employee.

When appropriately implemented, job enlargement can foster professional growth, teach employees new skills, and improve employee engagement.

Conversely, if you aren’t careful, it can also lead to burnout, job creep, and high turnover.

In this article, I’ll explain job enlargement in detail so that you can determine whether it’s a good fit for your organization. I’ll also distinguish between job enlargement and enrichment, so stay tuned to learn more!

Understanding job enlargement

Job enlargement involves expanding an employee’s role to include additional tasks and new responsibilities.

Reasons for job enlargement include:

• Promoting professional and personal growth
• Increasing the range of tasks available for traditionally monotonous jobs
• Teaching employees new skills that they can use to take on new job roles at your organization (providing internal mobility in the process)

In the early 1900s, there was an increased focus on job specialization, which meant employees focused on becoming adept at only a handful of skills.

This trend began to wade by the 1960s and 1970s, when job enlargement as a concept began to take off. This is because jobs at the time were simple and monotonous, like factory above and assembly line roles.

Human Resources departments at the time recognized that more straightforward jobs were dissatisfying and that employees found engaging with a broader range of activities more motivating.

Job enlargement is still around today and remains as relevant as ever.

Thanks to rapidly advancing technology, today’s work environment is fast-paced and ever-changing, and employees must constantly obtain new skills.

Job enlargement is a great way to expand existing employees’ skill sets while preparing them for higher positions.

However, there’s plenty of opportunity to abuse job enlargement by using it for the wrong reasons.

Increasing an employee’s workload to save on hiring costs will almost invariably backfire. As such, you should focus on your job enlargement aims around improving employee motivation and well-being.

The two types of job enlargement

There are two ways you can approach job enlargement at your organization, which are:

1. Vertical expansion. In this model, you add higher tasks and responsibilities to an employee’s current role to prepare them for future promotions. This job enlargement strongly emphasizes upward mobility, which can improve retention (94% of workers claim they’ll stay at a company if they invest in their professional development).
2. Horizontal expansion. This version of job enlargement involves adding new tasks that are on the same level as the employee’s existing role. In other words, you assign them a more comprehensive range of tasks to ward off boredom and burnout instead of preparing them for higher roles.

Both types have unique advantages for different situations. For instance, if your organization faces a skills gap (which many are right now), you could benefit from vertical job enlargement.

Since your employees regularly tackle higher job responsibilities, filling higher positions with more stringent skill requirements will become easier.

Conversely, suppose your team members only deal with a handful of monotonous tasks. In that case, horizontal job enlargement can add some much-needed variety to the mix, improving engagement and fighting back against burnout.

Job enlargement vs. job enrichment: what’s the difference?

In the employment world, the terms job enlargement and job enrichment are often confused because they are similar.

However, while they are similar, they are two distinct terms.

Job enlargement involves attaching additional responsibilities to an employee’s job to add variety and foster skill development. The overall goals are to increase employee satisfaction and reduce burnout.

On the other hand, job enrichment focuses on making an employee’s work more meaningful and impactful. This includes fostering a sense of ownership through increased access and permissions.

For example, you can enrich a customer service representative’s job by encouraging them to solve issues without the assistance of a manager. This encourages problem-solving and quick thinking and makes the employee’s work more meaningful due to their increased sense of ownership.

This is the essence of job enrichment.

It’s important to note that job enlargement can be a form of job enrichment. If increasing the scope of an employee’s work by adding new tasks makes their work feel more impactful, then it counts as job enrichment.

However, job enlargement only sometimes qualifies as job enrichment, as the goal is only sometimes to make an employee’s work more meaningful.

Common examples of job enlargement

Now that you’re more familiar with job enlargement, let’s examine some common examples in the workplace.

These should help you better understand when and where to implement job enlargement, as it may only sometimes be clear.

Example #1: Content writer

It’s normal for freelance and in-house content writers to expand their roles with additional tasks, mainly if A) they write the same type of content repeatedly and B) they’ve been on your team for a while.

Knocking out blog posts and social media content may become stale after a few years, so you can enlarge their job to include tasks like:

• Adding relevant images and videos to posts
• Conducting SEO keyword research
• Editing articles from other writers
• Uploading articles to CMS platforms like WordPress

Enlarging a content writer’s role in this way provides two-way benefits. On the employer side, you enjoy increased productivity and save money (i.e., not having to hire someone to upload articles to WordPress). On the content writer’s side, they gain additional competencies to help them advance their careers, such as editing and SEO keyword research.

Example #2: Restaurant server

Seasoned restaurant servers may become bored with serving tables only, and enlarging their jobs can increase their satisfaction levels and prepare them for future roles.

You can add tasks such as training and mentoring new employees, brainstorming fun promotions, and helping create employee schedules. Taking a vertical approach like this will not only increase their engagement but also prepare them for managerial roles in the future.

Example #3: Registered nurses

If your nurses or other healthcare providers are eager to take on additional training and responsibilities, you could consider the following:

• Having them aid with research
• Engaging in quality improvement initiatives
• Training new staff
• Heading patient education programs

These are all great ways to reduce boredom and prepare your staff for higher roles down the line.

The advantages of job enlargement

When appropriately implemented, job enlargement can provide your organization with many advantages.

Enlarging a narrowly focused role can boost engagement and motivation, improving productivity and efficiency.

Focusing on vertical expansion will also close skill gaps and prepare employees for future promotions. As stated previously, investing in employee career development drastically improves employee retention.

Besides that, 80% of workers say learning adds purpose to their work (enrichment), with 70% saying it also improves their connection to the workplace.

Other advantages include:

• Promoting employee autonomy. Enlarging a job means you trust the employee enough to handle new tasks and responsibilities, which can be empowering. This is especially true if you include managerial-level tasks like scheduling and aiding in decision-making.
• Closing skill gaps and reducing talent shortages. According to McKinsey and Company, 87% of companies either have a skills gap or will face one shortly. Talent shortages are also rising, meaning companies need more top talent. Job enlargement is excellent because it teaches employees new skills. When implemented with a vertical focus, job enlargement can help close skill gaps and reduce talent shortages, making filling open positions easier.
• Improving productivity and efficiency. Adding new tasks to employees’ jobs will not only teach them new skills, but it’ll also sharpen their existing ones. As a result, you’ll enjoy higher efficiency and productivity, assuming you provide the necessary training.

The disadvantages of job enlargement

Now, it’s time to consider the other side of the coin. Job enlargement is only sometimes good, primarily when implemented with the wrong intentions.

Your goal should never be to increase an employee’s workload solely to save money.

For example, eliminating a position and merging its tasks into existing roles is typically a bad idea (although it can sometimes work if the position is unnecessary).

If you aren’t careful, job creep can enter the picture.

What’s that?

Job creep is when the additional tasks added to a position pile up to the point where it becomes nearly impossible for the employee to complete everything in one shift.

This is a surefire recipe for burnout, high levels of stress, and increased turnover, so you should avoid it at all costs.

Other potential disadvantages of job enlargement include the following:

• Lower quality of work. If you are careful, your employees’ work quality may improve if given fewer tasks. This is why you should only add a few new tasks to an employee’s workload. Doing so will likely overwhelm your team, which will cause your productivity and efficiency levels to dip instead of improve.
• More training costs. Adding additional tasks to a role can be challenging and costly. After all, it’s different that employees can instantaneously learn new skills. Instead, you’ll have to invest in additional training resources, especially if you want good results. These can quickly add up if you aren’t careful, causing you to go over budget.

How to implement job enlargement properly

Okay, now it’s time to learn how to implement job enlargement without experiencing any disadvantages.

This involves creating a job enlargement strategy that covers adding new tasks to each role, the costs involved, and monitoring your success levels.

Step #1: Add new tasks IV-drip style

First, you should only add a few skills to an employee’s plate. Instead, take an IV-drip approach, slowly adding one skill at a time.

After you add just one new skill, give the employee a few weeks (or months) to master it fully. This means you’ll have to keep track of their progress on the new task, so remember to schedule some 1:1 check-ins.

Adding skills slowly will ensure you don’t accidentally overload employees, which will help you avoid dropping their quality of work.

Step #2: Build hype around the idea

You should create a PR campaign to build hype around enlarging your employees’ jobs.

Let them know that the goal is not to cut corners or overload them but to increase their satisfaction levels and prepare them for promotions.

In other words, make it clear that the strategy is entirely employee-focused, meaning you have their best intentions.

Step #3: Monitor your progress and tweak tasks accordingly

Lastly, you must monitor your employees’ progress with their new tasks. In particular, you will need to make sure that they A) understand their new tasks and B) have the skills necessary to complete them.

If you notice an employee falling behind on a new task, you should pause and determine whether to invest in more training or abandon the task altogether.

If an employee is struggling with a particular task, don’t force it. Instead, remove it and replace it with another that the employee finds easier.

Final takeaways: Implementing job enlargement

We’ve covered a lot so far, so here’s a quick recap:

1. Job enlargement adds new tasks to an employee’s job to reduce burnout and monotony.
2. Job enrichment involves modifying a job (which may or may not include adding new tasks) to make the employee’s work more meaningful and impactful.
3. Vertical job enlargement prepares employees for higher roles, while horizontal job enlargement adds new tasks at the same level.
4. When appropriately implemented, job enlargement can improve retention, aid career development, and boost productivity.
5. When implemented poorly, job enlargement can lead to job creep, reduced productivity, and high turnover.
6. As long as you add new tasks slowly and monitor employee progress, you should find success with job enlargement.

As stated before, you must decide whether job enlargement is right for your organization.

It can be the perfect remedy if you notice employees yawning and complaining of boredom.

Additional resources:
Diversity recruiting: Two heads are better than one
Gainsharing: The key to rewarding smarter, harder work
Leadership weaknesses: How self-awareness & feedback drive growth