Volume 15 Number 1 • 2002

Job Carving: Finding Goodness of Fit

By Cary Griffin and David Hammis
reprinted with permission from the Job Training Placement Report
(http://imact-publication.com/JTPR/)

Job carving involves melding job seeker and employer needs through systematic workplace analysis and person-centered career planning. Contrary to popular belief, job carving does not begin with the employer or the worksite. Instead, carving is based on the concept of using a person’s unique contributions and matching those to an employment setting.

Contribution is a concept firmly established in person-centered career planning (Griffin & Hammis, 1996; Griffin & Hammis, 2002, in preparation; Callahan & Garner, 1997). Contribution relates to the specific sets of skills (present and potential), personality traits, and potential assets an applicant offers as “exploitable resources” for the employer. Exploitable resources can be skills, tools, personality, or other valued attributes that create profit, increase efficiency, and/or offer psychological or cultural enrichment in the workplace environment. For instance, consider someone with a welding certificate from a local vocational school. For many employers, this person’s contribution includes potential sales to customers based on having qualified staff. Assume also that this welder has a good personality and fits in well with the other workers. Further, this welder publicly displays her commitment to the employer by personally calling each customer after a job is completed to check satisfaction with the end product. This welder contributes traditional welding skills, help builds a strong corporate culture by blending well with other workers, and shows dedication and commitment by following up with customers. This applicant is rich in contributions, beyond just the welding skill set.

Sometimes it is difficult to discover and demonstrate the contributions of individuals with significant disabilities. Getting to know the person well enough you can use their gifts and talents (contributions) to guide a job search is the first step to employment. For many individuals, person-centered planning techniques create a list of likes and dislikes, talents and desires that guide the Employment Specialist in developing an overall vocational profile of the job seeker. The inventory of desirable jobs or situations from the person-centered career plan provides a foundation for transition aged students that leads to in-school, after-school, and summer jobs that help to build a complete resume. Adults too benefit from multiple paid jobs, which refine the career focus and lead to lasting job retention and personal satisfaction.

Only after the employment specialist has a good “picture” of the job seeker, should job carving proceed. Remember, job carving is generally reserved for individuals who are not likely to succeed, even with support, when going through a typical competitive employment application and interview process. In other words, if the hiring process is likely to focus attention on the individual’s shortcomings, then job carving is used to accentuate their unique assets or contributions. Job carving should not be used to pull undesirable tasks from other workers’ duties. This simply creates a job description fashioned from the refuse of others, and devalues the worker with a disability. Job carving should always highlight an employee’s gifts, not the tedious tasks of others (Griffin, 1996).

The process of job carving will be unique for each individual and each employer. But, the process generally involves these steps:

• Reveal the contributions, potential, and dreams of the individual.

• Seek out employment opportunities that utilize, exploit, or highlight the contributions.

• Perform a formal (i.e. written) job analysis in order to determine task sequencing, natural supports, operations that may require additional instruction, modification, alternative production methods, or that may need to be performed in partnership with or by another worker

• Engage in interest-based negotiation that highlights the individual’s contribution to the workplace and offers a reasonable and understandable re-arrangement of work tasks in order to employ the individual. Interest-based negotiation, in this instance, assumes that the applicant and the employer both have common desires: one person wants to work and the other needs someone to work.

• Provide quality consultation to the employer and co-workers so that they can teach the individual the job.

• Provide on-going support to the employer and the worker.

While employers may not recognize the term “job carving,” they constantly create new job descriptions or rearrange duties based on new customer orders, new equipment purchases, or changes in product or service specifications (Bissonnette, 1994). Examples of job carving are numerous. In one instance, a young man really enjoyed visiting a local department store. Even with support, because of his health and limits on the hours he could work, he was unable to fulfill the duties of the typical warehousing job description. A four hour-a-day, six days-a-week, job was carved for him unloading trucks using a dolly. No such position had existed before, but his loyalty to the company and his hard work while he was there were obvious to the store manager and the co-workers. He loved his job and this seemed to mean more to the manager and co-workers than his actual job performance, which was just fine, by the way.

In another scenario, a young lady with a significant disability revealed a deep passion for the medical field. The local clinic needed a medical records clerk and a job was negotiated and adapted that centered on filing patient charts. Unfortunately, the young woman really wanted to be close to the action, working alongside doctors and nurses. A new job was carved from the nurses’s duties. This involved sprucing up each exam room following use; refilling the tongue depressors, band-aids, and other supply containers in each room; and changing the paper cover on the exam table. This re-engineering relieved the nurses of a duty they felt detracted from their real purpose of assisting patients and increased efficiency. It increased staff morale, and probably increased patient satisfaction as well, which possibly decreased turnover. And it highlighted the new employee’s contribution, while taking attention away from her disability.

Of course, job carving can sometimes go wrong. The lead author, for instance once created a job in an auto parts store for a full-time delivery person. The job was a perfect match for the new worker, but the corporate culture had not been sufficiently analyzed before negotiating the job. Typically, the men and women working the customer counter took turns throughout the day driving the company truck and delivering parts across town. Driving the truck was an unofficial break, a chance to get off one’s feet, and an opportunity to visit with other friends in the automotive industry. By focusing solely on the job duties and the efficiency of the workplace, this job developer misread the corporate culture and put an unsuspecting individual into what became a hostile work environment.

In conclusion, always begin with the person. Find their talents, contributions, and desires; perform an analysis of the work routines and corporate culture; and negotiate employment that is mutually satisfying to the employer and the worker.

References

Bissonnette, D. (1994). Beyond Traditional Job Development. Chatsworth, CA: Milt Wright Associates.

Callahan, M.J. & Garner, J.B. (1997). Keys to the Workplace: Skills and Supports for People with Disabilities. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Griffin, C. (1996). Job Carving as a Job Development Strategy. In DiLeo, D. & Langton, D. (eds). Facing the Future: Best Practices in Supported Employment. St. Augustine, FL: TRN Publishing.

Griffin, C. & Hammis, D. (1996). Streetwise Guide to Person-Centered Career Planning.

Griffin, C. & Hammis, D. (2002, in preparation). Self-Employment For Transition Age Youth and Adults with Disabilities: A How-To Manual. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

This article is used courtesy of The Job Training and Placement Report.