Example: A new cash register system
Britt is a check-out assistant, and she has just completed an introductory course on a new IT system for the cash registers. At the coffee machine, she starts thinking about the new system and becomes uncertain about whether she has understood everything.
She is nervous and a little insecure about having to use the new system the next day: What if she messes up, and a long queue of impatient customers starts to form?
What do demands at work mean?
In this context, demands are about both the quantity of tasks and what they entail. Both should be clear and manageable.
- Demands for the quantity of tasks should be appropriate. This means that there should neither be too few nor too many.
- Demands for the content of tasks should consider the individual employee’s skills and needs for development and challenges. In addition, the demands must be clear, so that it’s obvious when a task has been completed satisfactorily.
The demands imposed on the individual employee should be closely linked to the resources necessary. Resources could be:
- Personal and professional – your abilities/skills, knowledge and experience.
- Organisational – that you have the information necessary to carry out the work and have influence on your own work, for example on choice of tools and aids, for example.
- Social – that colleagues and managers support and help each other, for example.
- Technological – the tools and aids (machinery, equipment, IT) the individual uses in his or her work, for example.
Advantages of a good balance between demands and ressources
Everyone will benefit if management makes clear and realistic demands on the individual employee:
- Employees can better carry out their tasks.
- Employees become more satisfied and pleased with their job.
- Employees get an opportunity to do what they are good at, and perhaps they are even challenged, so that they learn something new.
- Clear demands make it easier to prioritise tasks and to establish a constructive dialogue between manager and employees on how to perform tasks.
- Your customers will be more satisfied because a good working environment rubs off on the shopping experience.