What is “Job Carving” and how can it benefit both people with disabilities and employers?

First of all, what is it?

“Job Carving” is the practice of customizing a job to fit someone’s unique strengths and skills.

Job carving empowers employers and employees to tailor roles so they make the best use of time, strengths, and skills.

Designing a position to fit the employee can have huge benefits for workers as well as companies.

So how does it work?

Job carving allows employees to be directly involved with designing their own jobs. Managers and employees work together to put together the perfect position for someone.

“It is a strategy in which the individual and the employer negotiate the work environment, job duties and responsibilities and other conditions of the job,” Jennifer Ho of the University of Ottawa wrote in her thesis.

What job carving looks like in practice depends on the needs of the company and the individual employee. Maybe it involves redesigning specific tasks in order to fit someone’s unique abilities. Or maybe it means hiring more than one person to fulfil one role over different hours. Or it could even mean taking tasks from several positions to create a job that suits one person.

“While the carving is focused on creating a collection of tasks that suits the individual, the selected tasks and negotiating with the employer ensure that the business benefits as well,” according to The Job Developer’s Handbook.

Job carving might involve negotiating an employee’s  hours and place of work, their job duties and responsibilities or their work expectations, according to accessibility.com.

A couple examples

Steve Wood gave an excellent example in his blog Steve On Leadership. 

He describes an employee named Bob who works at WalMart. Bob’s job is to take baskets full of cosmetic returns, including dozens of small items like eyeliner and nail polish, and restock those items on the shelves. For many people, finding where a returned item needs to go would take ages. But Bob knows exactly where every item should go. Bob has a form of autism that includes remembering tiny details, which is like superpower for this particular position. 

The Job Developer’s Handbook noted another helpful example:

A woman named Marjorie wanted to work in a shipping center. Because of Marjorie’s limited math and reading skills, it would be difficult for her to accomplish tasks involving paperwork and confirming inventory and shipments. But she would be perfectly able to package and label items and could also excel at shipping prep with some modifications.

An employment specialist proposed dropping paperwork-related tasks from Marjorie’s job description and giving those particular tasks to a co-worker who really liked doing paperwork. In exchange, Marjorie would pick up some of her co-worker’s packaging duties.

It’s important to note that the employment specialist handled the situation carefully, first observing and speaking to the co-worker. Without proposing the change outright, the specialist subtly tried to get a sense of whether the co-worker would appreciate the change of duties. Once the specialist was pretty sure the co-worker would be happy with the proposed arrangement, the specialist proposed the idea to the supervisor. The specialist told the supervisor that she was fairly confident the co-worker would appreciate the change in duties, but the changes should only go forward if the co-worker agreed to them.

Ultimately, Marjorie was hired and the carved job met both her needs and the needs of the co-worker. The distribution center also benefited from two happy employees and increased efficiency and quality.

Who does job carving benefit?

The Illinois Business Journal describes job carving as a “win-win approach” for employers and workers with disabilities.

Employers who are able to tap into their employees' full potential reap many benefits like increased productivity, improved retention rates and access to a broader talent pool.

Businesses benefit from creative, loyal employees. Plus, a diverse workforce better represents a company’s customers, Microenterprise People Inc notes.

Meanwhile, workers are able to pursue jobs and careers that align with their talents and abilities. They are able to excel and feel valued by their employer. 

And job carving can benefit people without disabilities as well. For example, it can create jobs for people who need flexible working hours. Plus, all employees benefit from an inclusive workplace culture.