Job carving

In today’s complex world multi-tasking (which doesn’t actually exist but …) is the name of the job game. This results in more and more people with limited intellectual ability being left without gainful employment. Teach the boss to type and he doesn’t need a secretary (at least not for sending letters etc), get everyone to dust their own desks and you don’t need a cleaner and so it goes on, apparently.

Now, however, Stockport Council has turned round its recruitment process in order to provide equality of opportunity for people with learning difficulties. Instead of identifying an individual for a job the recruiter is identifying a job for the individual – and this is where the carving comes in. Many complex jobs today have elements of repetitive work within them, if these can be carved out of the main role they could provide a separate role that would suit the talents of someone with learning difficulties.

It seem that it’s taken me a while to catch up with this story. It was reported on the IDeA website in January of this year, in the Equal Opportunities review Number 190 in July and only just in 2009 at all by me.

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