Job Rotation

Administrative control and organizational strategy used to reduce continuous exposure to musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) hazards.

NOTE: Job rotation on its own is not an effective MSD hazard control.

• Use job rotation as a secondary control measure after evaluation of more effective solutions - follow the hierarchy of controls
• Job rotation requires intentional planning and consistent application

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Benefits 

• Positive impact on employee job satisfaction
• Reduces monotony and boredom
• Develops skills with training on more jobs
• Increases understanding of the overall process/workflow
• Job rotation schedules including jobs of low MSD risk may be helpful in achieving an equal level of risk exposure between workers
• Reduces the duration of exposure to MSD hazards
• Could create variation in physical demands and recovery time for different body areas
• Reduces human error and improves quality
• Increases flexibility to account for staffing changes and absenteeism

Limitations 

• Exposes more workers to the MSD hazards
• Job rotation schedules including jobs of high MSD risk may not reduce the effect of high-risk job(s) on MSD injury risk
• Job rotation as the only control measure may not change overall MSD injury risk between low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk jobs
• Does not work well if physical demands and MSD risks at body areas are similar for jobs within the rotation schedule
• Dependent on buy-in from management and workers
• Difficult to maintain consistency and fairness in schedule when accommodating for individual factors and absenteeism

Tips for creating effective rotation schedules 

Developing job rotation schedules can be a complex task due to many factors:

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Tips:

1. Improve job design to eliminate and/or control MSD hazards and risk exposures:

• RACE (Recognize hazards, Assess for risks, Control/eliminate risks & Evaluate solution)
• Prioritize elimination, substitution and/or engineering controls
• Include workers in development of solutions for buy-in and to improve safety culture

2. Identify MSD risks/physical demands within jobs by body area:

• Introduce variation by rotating workers between jobs with tasks requiring different physical demands

3. Understand worker capabilities:

• Job-fit: account for workers’ physical & cognitive limitations

4. Ensure workers are trained:

• Train workers on all jobs within rotation
• Increase worker cross-training to account for absenteeism

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