Job crafting to improve employee engagement

The study responds to a new research agenda that concentrates on the jobs low paid women are doing, as well as exploring why women workers may be reluctant to take up opportunities for career pathways as they are currently structured in low paid work.

It seeks to draw on ideas relating to job crafting and customer-worker interactions in front line jobs to explore how low paid front line jobs can be enriched. It will respond directly to the University of Manchester’s challenge of improving employee engagement.

Furthermore the University has implemented a living wage rate for the lowest paid catering staff. The research is therefore well placed to explore the relative impact and interactions between job design and pay increases on women workers’ engagement with their jobs and the University of Manchester as a whole.

The University’s Head of Hospitality and Events, and Head of Equality and Diversity, are committed partners and collaborators in the proposed research and the funding will help us build on this strong partnership to create a high impact case.

The research will also build on previous contacts in the social care sector to generate data on different roles in the sector and what factors are conducive to job crafting to facilitate learning across low paid sectors.