How to Assign Duties to Employees
An assigned duty means those specific responsibilities or tasks designated by an employer for particular job responsibilities. As a manager of an organization, assigning roles and responsibilities to your employees will help you run the organization smoothly. As employees differ, so they also differ in abilities and expertise; assigning roles to employees will help each employee to contribute his/her quota to the growth of the organization. This division of labor syndrome will also help the organization avoid redundancy. Some projects are individual and some are team projects; assigning the right employee for a project will boost staff morale.
Importance of Assigning Duties to Employees
Increased Productivity: Dividing duties or responsibilities between employees will help them to identify the role they are to play in the organization. Each employee will work very hard to perform his/her duty which will lead to high productivity in the organization. If employees’ roles are not divided among them; it can lead to duplicate functions.
Increased Motivation: When employees’ responsibilities are clearly defined; this will help the employees to be motivated at work. If an employee identifies his duty at work; it will make him work hard to play his role as required. Employees are usually demotivated if they cannot identify what they are to do in a work environment. In addition, it will also help employees to meet up deadlines.
Assessment of Employees: Most organizations assess their employee’s job performance to see if they are competent. Dividing task between employees brings about an easy way of assessing employees based on the particular role they play in an organization.
Cost-Effectiveness and Time Management: Assigning duties to employees helps you to spend less, and it is very easy for your organization to complete the task in a very short frame. It also helps employees to efficiently carry out team projects.
How to Assign Duties to Employees
Identify the Roles or Task in your Organization
The first step to assigning duties to employees is to identify the role that is vacant in your organization. Start with the primary roles before the minor roles for easy assessment. You can write the entire role on a piece of paper.
In addition, write the job description for each role and the skills a role in your organization needs.
Compare the Roles Identified with Employee Skills and Qualifications
This is very crucial; after you have identified these roles compare them with the skills and qualifications of employees to assign roles to employees. Employees that are suitable for a particular responsibility should be assigned for effectiveness in the organization. For instance, an employee that is good in graphic design should be assigned to that department of the organization.
In addition, interview your employees and ask them to give suggestions about their areas of interest. Assigning an employee to work in his/her area of interest will reduce the menace of job dissatisfaction
Evaluate Each employee’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Assess each employee’s strengths and weaknesses to know the area of their capabilities. If an employee is very strong in a particular area but is very weak in another area of the job; consider assigning another employee to cover that area of the employee’s weakness. Employees differ in abilities and as a good employer, engage employees in the field of their expertise to increase your organization’s efficacy. It is very paramount for employees to keep expanding their skills on the job set.
Consider Employee’s Past Success
The best way to assign tasks to employees is to reflect on the employee’s past success. An employee that has exceptional past success should be given a huge role in the organization. Some employees are more exceptional than others; if you have such an employee then challenge the employee with a huge role to increase the employee’s productivity. For instance, as a Bank manager, if you have an employee that has been working for you for years, you can delegate that employee to be the tea leader of a particular task an organization want’s to carry out.
Employee Development
The employer should consider assigning roles to employees that will boost their careers. Every employee wants to build his/her career, and it is very paramount. Sometimes as a manager, you can assign roles to employees for the employee to acquire new skills and build their professional career life. Most times, the employee may not have the required skill for the job, but you can assign such an employee to inculcate skills in the employee. This kind of role is to challenge the employee to do better.
Assign the Right Employees
After you have considered employees’ skills, past success, qualifications, and development opportunities; assign the right employees for the task. Encourage employees to ask questions and give them complete information about the deadlines for each task.
Monitor Employees
Regularly (bi-weekly or bi-monthly) check-in employees as they carry out their duties. Evaluate their overall performance and motivate them when necessary. Employees that you have assigned to carry out a team project should report about the progress of the project. Support employees that are not performing as expected so that they can get back on track. It is the responsibility of a manager to ensure a task is carried out effectively; this does not imply that you should micromanage your employees but supervise them as expected.
Feedback
Ask your employees for feedback after assigning roles or duties to them; this will signify that you care about their insight and opinions. One of the benefits of asking employees for feedback is that it will help you to know if you assigned duties to your employees effectively. At this juncture, you can swap employees on different tasks if the feedback you received is poor. This will build a clear form of communication with your employees.
Acknowledgment
Once a particular project is complete, it is very important to appreciate the team or the employee for the job done and give constructive feedback. Communicate the lapses of the project and the success of the project and also how the project can be improved.
In conclusion, if employees are properly assigned to tasks, the organization will be productive. Follow the tips accentuated above to assign duties to your employees.