Overview
Job customisation focuses on ensuring that a role works for both the employee and the employer, instead of ‘forcing’ a fit where a person is recruited to a specific position description that may not match their strengths and needs.2
Job customisation is sometime called job crafting, job shaping, job negotiation or job carving. This process can include:
- reallocating tasks
- altering the hours e.g. changing the start or finish time
- altering the work location
- exchanging duties between colleagues
- redesigning parts of a job so that the right person is doing the right tasks at the right time.3
Making sure the jobseeker’s conditions for success are in place involves negotiation.4 It is not about lowering expectations of what a person can offer the workplace – it’s about reshaping how work is organised so that productivity, safety and inclusion are all enhanced.
The benefits of this approach include:
- stronger matches between the person and the role, supporting long-term job retention
- improved workplace productivity through more efficient redistribution of tasks
- solving workflow or staffing challenges for employers.5
Key strategies for success
Job customisation involves balancing the jobseeker’s conditions for success with the employer’s priorities, while putting in place adjustments that make the role work for everyone. Strategies to support this include:
- being curious and observant – asking engaging questions, and noticing patterns and unmet needs in the workplace
- using creative problem solving – seeing alternative ways to structure tasks and workflows
- being collaborative and respectful – working alongside the employer, their staff, the jobseeker and their supporters in genuine partnership.6
If, despite your best efforts and negotiation skills, the job isn’t a genuine match or the employer can’t make the necessary adjustments, it’s wiser to step back, knowing that walking away respectfully often leaves the door open for ongoing relationship with the employer.