Optimum Job Design
A practical tool for clarity, psychological safety and sustainable performance
The Optimum Job Design Tool and Manager Guide is a practical co-design approach to help managers and employees improve how work is designed, experienced and delivered.
The approach helps identify where the design of the role may be creating unnecessary strain, confusion or inefficiency for the employee.
By using the tool, managers and employees gain a clearer, shared understanding of how the role works day-to-day. This creates an opportunity for making realistic, thoughtful changes that support both performance and psychological safety.
Why use the Optimum Job Design Tool?
For managers, this tool helps you to:
Identify whether challenges are related to job design rather than performance or capability
Create clearer role expectations and priorities
Support psychologically safe, structured conversations about work
Move from reactive problem-solving to proactive role design
For employees and teams, this tool helps to:
Clarify what the role is responsible for and how success is defined
Align work with strengths, capacity and ways of working
Identify sources of overload, inefficiency or frustration
Improve communication, expectations and working relationships
Experience work that is more sustainable and effective
What’s included
Optimum Job Design Tool (instant download)
A structured, conversation-based tool to explore how work is designed and experienced across key areas of role clarity, workload, supports and decision-making
Optimum Job Design Manager Guide (instant download)
A practical guide to support safe, effective and ethical use including how to facilitate conversations, maintain boundaries, and prioritise actions
Designed for manager/employee co-design conversations
Suitable across industries and role types
Ideal for use in 1:1s, role reviews, onboarding and when challenges arise
Grounded in psychological safety, neuroinclusive and strengths-based practice
How this approach works
The Optimum Job Design Tool is a structured conversation and can be used in your regular 1:1s with employees.
It supports managers and employees to:
build shared understanding of how work is currently experienced
identify what helps and what hinders effective performance
make practical, prioritised changes within real organisational constraints
This is not a performance management process, diagnostic tool or compliance exercise.
It is a thoughtful, human-centred approach to improving the design of work.
Optional support
For those who would like guided support, you can purchase up to 3 hours of 1:1 coaching with an experienced Neuroinclusion Coach.
This can help you to:
navigate more complex or sensitive job design conversations
apply the tool effectively in your specific context
build confidence in balancing performance, wellbeing and organisational needs
embed job design as an ongoing leadership practice
This is an optional add-on for those who value deeper, guided support alongside the tool.
