Even Manual workers can become knowledge workers

Empowerment holds the key to job enrichment

In his book, “The 8th Habit,” Stephen Covey narrates a true story about a group of janitors.

An instructor in a training program was explaining to a group of first-level supervisors how to enrich the job of the janitors working under them. One of the foremen, involved in maintenance, felt the idea was too idealistic and unrelated to most of the work a janitor did. All the supervisors being trained agreed that there was a problem with the janitors. They were uneducated and were there because they couldn’t get a better job. Essentially their only desire was to clock in and clock out.

Knowing the maintenance foreman was sincere, the instructor abandoned his prepared discussion and began to deal with the janitorial problem directly. He wrote three words on the blackboard: Plan, Do, and Evaluate – three major elements of job enrichment. He than asked the participants to list the maintenance duties and activities associated with these three words.

Under the “planning” part of the job were: establishing schedules for maintenance, selecting and purchasing waxes and polishes, and determining which janitor covered which areas of the plant. During the discussion, the maintenance foreman said that he was about to purchase several new floor polishing and scrubbing machines. All of these planning activities were carried out by the maintenance foreman.

Listed under the “doing” section were the normal activities of janitors – sweeping, scrubbing, waxing, and removing the rubbish and refuse.

The “evaluating” part of the job included such activities as routine daily checks on the cleanliness of the plant, evaluation of the effectiveness of different soaps, waxes and polishers, identifying ways of improving and ensuring that the cleaning schedules were maintained. Additionally, the maintenance foreman also contacted vendors to determine the type of new machine he could purchase.

When the various activities had been listed, the instructor asked, which of these activities could be done by the janitors. For example, why did the foreman determine which soaps to buy? Why not let the janitors decide? How about having the salesmen give the demonstration of the new machine to the janitors and let them decide which of the machines was best? How about having the janitors identify parts of the job they would be interested in taking on?”

The maintenance supervisor started giving the janitors more responsibility for planning, doing and evaluating their work. The janitors tested out new machines and made the final recommendations for purchase. They experimented with different waxes to determine which stood up the best under normal usage. They began examining the cleaning schedule to determine how much attention should be given to each area. The janitors developed their own criteria for determining plant cleanliness and began to exert peer pressure on janitors who did not meet the norms.

Gradually, quality went up, job turnover and discipline problems went way down, social norms developed around initiative, cooperation, diligence and quality, and job satisfaction increased significantly. The janitors no longer needed supervision because they supervised and managed themselves according to the criteria they helped develop.

Soon other foremen began thinking about how they could apply the same principles in their own areas, especially since they could begin to see for themselves the results of the maintenance foreman’s work with the janitors.