MULTITASKING AND ITS ROLE IN QUALITY

PERFORMANCE OF HR

PRESENTED BY:

RAJESHWARI RAJGARHIA

09BS0001802
By traditional definition multitasking is defined as” the performance of multiple at one time
rather than focusing all available attention on one task and completing it before moving on.” The
term multitasking is a buzz word over the last several decades and has become something in
which we all consciously or unconsciously take part. In today’s contemporary era of increasing
demand for efficiency and productivity, the ability to multitask is considered an advantage. It has
gained popularity because the end result acquired after multitasking is profitable to today’s
organizations as it helps in accomplishing various tasks within a shorter period of time.

An individual multitasks in different ways and in different roles: as an employee, as a family

person or as a social being. He has to change his role and tasks as per the situation on which he is
currently in. simultaneously his tasks also changes but an individual has more than one role and
task at one time. At a particular time he might be serving the role of an employee but does not
cease to be a husband or a father and has to simultaneously cater to his family and their needs.
Similarly while serving as an employee and a father he can talk to his friends and be a social
being.

Serving so many roles and tasks may create a constant pressure on an individual. He might not
be able to do his office work with full attention and focus if his child is lying ill at home or if he
has to attend a friend’s marriage. It may cause great anxiety or even annoyance at certain times.
There may be pressures from all sides which may be time pressure, peer pressure, family
pressure, or pressures from bosses, or superiors, your spouse or your best friend.

The need and the expertise of multitasking changes its importance according to the job profile. A
manager or authorities even higher in profiles than him need to be well versed with multitasking
skills as his/ her jobs involves supervision of more than one job. They maybe required to manage
various departments of administration, human resources, marketing, technical and logistics etc.
and can be required to handle problems and make decision on issues related to all the above
fields. However a technician or a specialist need not be very good in multitasking. He/she are
experts of their respective fields and masters or their single trade and are limited only to that
domain.

Multitasking is a tool good enough in dividing and distracting one’s attention from a particular
job. It can be practiced in three different ways. Firstly a person may work or two or more tasks
simultaneously, such as watching television while having dinner. Secondly, a person may switch
between tasks repeatedly, such as answering emails and listening to a discussion during a
presentation. Thirdly, a person may complete two or more tasks in rapid succession, such as
scanning a case and a class script right before the class rather than reading it previously.

While multitasking two processing stage occurs- goal shifting and rule activation. In the goal
shifting process the focus of the brain shifts from one task to the other which results in switching
of tasks. In the rule activation process the brain turns off the rules associated with the original
task and turns on the rules associated with the second task. This process takes time away from
the performance each time a task is switched. Even though the time is only several tenth of a
seconds, the delay adds up to a considerable amount as a person repeatedly switches between
tasks.

RECENT TRENDS

The recent form of multitasking can be dubbed more of as HYPERTASKING than multitasking
which is not just restricted to the desktops but exceeds beyond them into all aspects of an
individual’s daily life. The recent trend is termed Hypertasking is coined because it actually turns
a calm, cool individual into a hyper who has to do several tasks in a very short period of time.
This has probably also become the root cause of majority of corporate stress.

Another recent trend which has been evolving is a trade off between the comparision of a
multitasker to a juggler or a pianist. The act of juggling can be explained as a negative
connotation whereas the act of a pianist connotes a positive explanation of the concept of
multitasking. As juggling, multitasking is also not sustainable for long without accidents. As a
juggler inspite of his expertise will drop atleast one ball in the process of juggling sooner or later.
Similarly no matter how good a multitasker an individual might be he/she will fail in atleast one
aspect of their life.

A pianist however works in a contrary way. He produces a beautiful song by using all his ten
fingers. The beauty of the song is brought about only when all the fingers are used. However the
propogaters of this concept say that it is not just the use of ten fingers which results in a good
composer but the constant touch with the instrument piano. This constant touch keeps the pianist
in a kind of a flow which is missing in a juggler’s act. Similarly while multitasking an individual
needs to keep a constant touch with all the projects he is doing rather than focusing on one and
completely ignoring or forgetting the rest. Also instead of viewing every aspect of life as
something very different if we consider all of them as one whole and maintain connection with
all of them simultaneously on a continuous basis and not sacrifice one for the sake of the other.
This will enable all the aspects of the life to stay connected with each other where every role of a
human is fulfilled well and everyone is happy and satisfied with his actions.

The concept of multitasking itself is a very relative term and can be viewed differently by
different organizations. Some may view it as a tool to maximize productivity whereas others may
see it as a hinderance to their employee productivity.

For those who view multitasking as a tool for efficient employee productivity identify employees
with multitasking abilities. As per the current day requirements to maximize productivity with
minimum employees, multitasking is best suited. Management favours multitasking because they
find it cost effective as it increases the outputs with fewer employees. The cost is also lowered in
terms of increased time utilization. Multitasking tends to save time and the time thus saved can
be utilized for other productive purposes. Effective multitasking requires knowledge of several
skills of different areas. This vast knowledge base increases the efficiency of the employees
therby increasing their market value.

Multitasking is the concept which worked backstage of the development of today’s successful
information technology. Today all the businesses are done at microchip speed. No business
functions without a proper IT structure in place but no IT works without multitasking as all
information processing require various actions to be conducted simultaneously to finally result in
something productive. Today in the quest of reducing cost and increasing profits, the employees
are recruiting and retaining employees with multitasking abilities.

The definition of an efficient employee has changed in today’s competitive business culture.
Multitasking abilities are considered a virtue in the present era. The demand for experts have
reduced considerably and has created a new need for generalists who are well versed in different
skills. In the debate of generalists vs specialist, the winner is always a specialist with generalist
abilities. A multi-skilled workforce is the need of the day to fulfill company objective of being
a market leader.

The issue of equity arises while looking at multitasking. when employees are multi-skilled, it
becomes the prime responsibility of the management to assign them appropriate tasks, roles and
compensation. Here the issue of compensation is very sensitive and most debatable. It is the
cause of increasing attrition. The companies hire multi-skilled workforce but are unable to pay
them appropriately. Also the technicians or the specialists feel that they are underpaid.
Employees also compare their pay structures to that of their colleagues in different organizations
who are assigned similar roles. If they are paid more then employees tend to shift to that
company. It is considered beneficial to both the company and the employee to pay higher salary
to one employee rather than pay lower one to two different employees. Employee loyalty
therefore depends on the companies outlook of multitasking and the assigned importance to it.

Multitasking benefits both the employees and the employers. The organizations benefit of
multitasking are:

 Optimal utilization of workforce

 Easy deployment of employees across varied job responsibilities as and when required.
 Increased productivity and better quality of deliverables
 Creation of flexible workforce which is well aware of the organizational needs
 Motivation to employee engagement
Employee perspective

A satisfied employee today is the one who maintains high levels of motivation and enthusiasm.
This satisfaction arises from effective recognition of their hardwork and skills. The ability to
handle complex situations at different levels and natures give an upper edge to certain employees
which is the first step to high recognition and acknowledgement. Possession of additional and
varied skills would only give an employee his dream role or desired stature in the company. The
dynamism of multitasking is understood by aspiring professionals also who make best efforts to
get that extra edge over the others. The ability to multitask makes the employee more responsible
and involved in the company affairs. The performance of the firm solely depends on the skills of
the workforce. The extra innovation and out of box thinking can only make them stand out in the
competition and make a name for themselves.

The sole purpose of the organizations incurring huge amount of costs on training is to enhance
the skill sets of the employees as per the needs of the organization. No function works in
isolation and requires the knowledge of the other. For example, an HR head may have
specialized in recruitment but may have to take up additional responsibilities pertaining to
performance management, compensation and talent acquisition activities. He may also be
required to deal with certain legal issues relating to trade unions which require some knowledge
of industrial laws as well. This is possible only through mulgtitasking and multuskilling.
Therefore as a person moves higher up in his carrer path the more skills he needs to acquire in
order to take effective decisions.

It is difficult to retain a multi-tasker by a company as its competitors always have a close watch
on its efficient employees. One negligence on the part of the company may result in its loosing
its best employees to the rivals. Multitasking increases the market value of an employee who can
get its way out just by the advantage of his ability to multitask as the organization would do
anything to retain such a beneficial employee. Whether it is recession or the period of blooming
economy, multitasking never fades out and is a demanding need. In the times of recession layoffs
occur and the organizations at that time as a part of their cost- cutting strategy prefer to retain
multitaskers. Similarly, during a boom when the companies are hiring fresh blood they look for
multitaskers who can provide a competitive advantage to them.

Benefits of multitasking to the employees are:

 Reduction in job insecurity

 Greater individual productivity
 Better growth prospects
 Holistic perspective regarding the organisations’ business
 Can achieve his personal goals quicker
Just mere passion to multitask is not enough for a successful career, what is important is the
ability to excel in every task that an individual does. A person needs to be competent enough to
be able to multitask. And only competent people should be assigned multiple projects otherwise
none of the projects will succeed and the organizational will ultimately lead to become a failed
company.

Multitaskers are an important source for profit generation of a firm. As they finish tasks quickly
and save time for other tasks. This calls for more business for the company and thus higher
profits. This is the reason why companies prefer to higher new employees with multitasking
abilities so that they can help the organization into new business ventures and undertakings.

There are various areas of caution while developing an individual into a multitasker. Being
multi-skilled is not as easy as it might seem. It involves a lot of risk and challenges which need
to be dealt with while developing an individual into a multitasker. Firstly, every individual
should have a target or a goal to meet. He/she along with the management should have a very
clear understanding of the objectives and strategies of the organization and should work towards
achieving it. Secondly, while an employee is being trained on various skills, his core competency
should not be lost. In such a case he would not be able to excel in any field because the drive to
make him multi-skilled might deprive him of his areas of interest and competency. Multitasking
in organizations is also responsible of high stress in the employee mind because the overburden
of work prevents him from balancing all the aspects of life and in return ends up in hampering
the organization’s productivity. Employee work life balance is negatively impacted. Forced
multitasking may also increase the loss of interest of the employees in their work.

One of the major challenges to the organizations these days is that of retaining such a multi-
skilled employee. His/ her market value increases with the increase in skills. The organizations
therefore have to work really hard on satisfying such employees and retaining them in the
organization. Job rotation, job enrichment, job enlargement and cross functional team meetings
are certain ways in which the organization can make the employees stay back with them. Also
internal rewards and recognition for their good work and contribution to the organization needs
to be acknowledged so as to make the employees motivated and encouraged for good work in
future. Employees would then feel connected to the company and would involve themselves in
the proceedings of the company. Taking care of the areas of employee life cycle like training,
compensation, succession planning, performance management and a healthy workplace would
motivate them to spend long innings at your company.

There are certain tips which need to be implemented in order to be a effective multitasker which
are:

 Planning the day meticulously

 Having mini goals for the day
 Prioritizing the assigned tasks
  Getting encouraged to focus on the task at hand
 Getting trained to handle each task immediately without delay
 Allowing free time or intervals to avoid stress and frustration.

Multitasking takes place everywhere, at every step. This is possible due to the easy accessibility
of technology which stays with us where we go. Our laptops and mobile phones are mandatory
gadgets which we cannot do without. We might forget to carry cash but we never forget our
credit cards or or our mobiles and laptops. This availability of technology in itself makes an
individual dwell into multitasking as people check their mails and mobiles even when they are
on the golf course.

New employees with multitasking abilities can solve problems more easily, they do not hesitate
in taking up complex issues. They like to deal with challenges and emerge out as winners. They
are successful because they are new to the organization, so they can contribute new ideas and
eliminate redundancy in the company. They are innovative and believe in bringing out something
different which is new and attractive to the market. On the other hand newly hired employees
low on multitasking fumble which dealing with complex problems. They want to restrict
themselves to their domain areas of interest. They fear to explore new avenues, and are
constantly worried about the results rather than creativity and innovation.

“The payback experienced by evaluating new hires with multitasking abilities compared to new
hires with low multitasking abilities can be validated with the help of various examples in
different industry. In all the examples, new hires meet minimum requirements to perform the job.
There performance differences are probably much greater when highly ability new hires are
compared to failed candidates.

Example 1 – insurance / financial services organization

• High-ability multi-tasking employees had:
o 13% better quality scores
o 9% better average handle time performance
o 14% better overall performance

Example 2 – communications organization

• High-ability multi-tasking employees had:
o 25% lower 30 day turnover
o 14% better calls per hour performance
o 11% better productivity performance
o 11% better performance ranking

Example 3 – outsourcing firm

• High-ability multi-tasking employees had:
o 65% better sales performance”
The quality of work in multitasking differs in different aspects of our lives. Also the importance
attached to the quality of work is different in various aspects of our life. Like in workplace
quality is of prime importance. Quality cannot be compromised for anything else, so the
employees have to multitask keeping in mind the quality of work. In our personal lives however
quality of work does not matter much as it is not of prime importance. Here the work needs to be
completed irrespective of the quality. A mother might be cooking food while feeding the baby.
But at the end of the day all the work needs to be done. Similarly in our social lives we might be
out with our friends while checking emails on our phones. This does not hamper the
accomplishment of task regardless of the quality of our social outing.

Along with quality of work while multitasking, time is also considered. At workplace time is
given importance as every project has an assigned timeline attached to it within which it needs to
be accomplished. If the project gets delayed it will hamper the productivity and thereby the
profits of the company gets reduced. On the other hand in our personal lives, time is not an
important factor to be considered while multitasking just like quality. As long as the task is done
the time holds no value. Same is the case with our social lives where there is no time attached to
our social outing. As long as we are out with our friends whether we are spending five minutes
or thirty minutes multitasking, it does not matter.

Job description and job analysis for all the posts in the company need to make space for
multitasking. the drafters of this description needs to judge whether the job role of the new hire
requires multitasking abilities and accordingly set its criteria for recruitment. It is a tough job to
hire such multitaskers before the competitors because every company is in the lookout for such
efficient professionals .

Multitasking is also described as the modern day madness as a contrary view to the above stated
points say that multitasking diminishes employee productivity rather than enhancing it. It makes
a simple issue more complex by dividing the attention of an individual to other things. The loss
of focus, or distraction deviates an employee from his/ her goals thereby hindering the
productivity or growth of the organization.

 According to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology multitasking

makes people inefficient.
 A report published in Neurolmage reveals that when multitasking, brainpower is reduced
because the mental abilities of employees are divided between several tasks.

It becomes difficult to memorize so many tasks at once. The excessive burden of knowledge can
result in short memory lapses where the person forgets certain terms while in a conversation. It
can also lead to confusion between several projects which may cause the information to be
placed wrongly in unlikely position instead of its original place. These memory lapses can
sometimes become fatal and hinder organizational growth. Also multitasking causes high levels
of stress which can lead to ill health among the employees and hence high rate of absenteeis.
The main ground level workforce comprising of trade unions are also highly apprehensive about
multitasking. According to them there is absence of performance related pay . The multitaskers
are not compensated for their additional skill sets. They complain that overtime is also not
compensated. Even though the workload increases the pay remains the same. There is no
recognition of that extra task or skill done by the workers. It does not improve the already low
working standards of the workers rather reduces productivity due to overburden which in return
causes them to loose their jobs. Their already low living condition becomes even lower.

Contrary to what the supporters of multitasking had to say it also reduces the quality of work
specially in service industries. The backbone of a service industry is quality and if the quality is
only hampered then there is no place for multitasking. multitasking in a hospitality industry may
be very fatal. An employee there might neglect the demand of a customer inorder to fulfill his
other tasks. This may cause the customer to get angry, becoming dissatisfied with that particular
hotel and may decide never to return back there. This results in the company loosing its most
valuable customer just because of little negligence caused due to the effort to multitask.

Another essential point to be noted while practicing multitasking is that enough free time should
be allowed between two tasks so as to relax the mind. If there is no break or gap in the middle
everything will get muddled. The result of this mixture might be a failure of an important project.
Job satisfaction can only take place on the completion of a job successfully. A job will be
completed successfully without any errors only if it is done with full focus and determination. If
a job is completed with divided attention, it will finish but might not produce satisfactory results.
The employees need to learn to prioritize the assigned tasks. The task which is of prime
importance need to be completed first and accordingly assign a time frame to it. Also effective
training should be provided to the employee so that they can handle each task without delay.

Even though multitasking is considered to be cost effective, there are certain ways in which it
ends up encurring more cost to the company than it would have in the absence of multitasking.
The cost is high in the context of the amount of time wasted by each person. If a person works on
more than one project, the cost associated with each project increases because of the delay
caused in the completion of the project. Also the cost associated with the time taken in the shift
of projects is extra. With each shift from one project to another there is certain amount of time
which is wasted. Simple interruptions like phone calls, having tea, coffee etc. can cost as much
as some fifteen minutes of recovery time. “Jerry Weinberg showed the escalating context
switching costs accrued if each task has a 10% penalty, in reality the costs are frequently higher.”

Today’s corporate culture is more like a rat race where everyone wants to win. The winner is the
one who is willing to take up and complete the ‘most’. Eventually its only him/her who goes
ahead. But the question arises here is, is this win worth it? The answer to it maybe ‘no’. Even
though the employee might win, its not worth the brain drain it causes. Research also shows that
constantly switching tasks may be a lot more inefficient than it might seem. Multitasking causes
frustration as there is too much to be done in too little a time. Constant switching of tasks makes
a person very unstable and he starts switching tasks in his other roles also which may not be
required and might be harmful for the nature of the job.

Imagine a situation where a person gets up in the morning and he is already piled up with lots of
work. It seems that the day has ended even before it begins. The person does not feel like going
to work with the thought of so much work to be done. This takes away the mental peace of a
person thus making him agitated. He can be compared to an octopus, with all his arms and brain
moving in multiple directions at the same time. Every minute of a person’s life, he/she goes in
answering phone calls, emails, fax, letters etc. He/ she is never relieved even though they might
not be at the workplace. Multitasking has turned a human mind into a machine which needs to
keep processing all the time without any rest.

There are few reasons not to multi-task:

 Multi-tasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch gears for each new task, and the
switch back again.
 Multi-tasking is more complicated, and thus more prone to stress and errors.
 Multi-tasking can be crazy, and in this already chaotic world, we need to reign in the
terror and find a little oasis of sanity and calm.

Therefore , the more we multitask, the less efficient we become. Thinking of a situation where a
person is already working on multiple projects, while his boss places two new demands on him.
He is on the phone answering an important call while three new emails come in and he is called
for a meeting. At the same time his co-worker requires certain information from him. Such a case
is a real example of “multitasking as the modern day madness”.

CONCLUSION

Therefore multitasking in organizations can both increase and decrease the productivity of
employees. It is mainly beneficial in the positions of higher management where the leader is
suppose to come out in case of emergencies to the rescue of the situation, he might have to deal
with various issues simultaneously and accordingly make decisions. However on the contrary in
cases where employees are doing specialist tasks their focus on more than one task might reduce
productivity as a result of divided attention and overburden. Hr employees today in most
organizations work as a generalist where the do multitasking in various arenas. This has become
the usual thing now but the technical employees still do specialist tasks in various organizations.
Most organizations are of the view that multitasking is beneficial to the organization as it also
has one person trained in various arenas but what they do not realize that if that employees
leaves the organization the cost of training another employees in those several skills might be
high and he might not have the capability to multitask. A multitasker has a higher chance of
being porched by other competititors who become successful at the loss of your talent pool.

Also even though multitasking might reduce the number of employees it increases the burden on
the employees which requires them to put in lots of extra hours of work. This overtime might
bore them of their work which might result in attrition and dissatisfied employees. Also it might
hamper the personal life of many employees as the overburden at work might not allow them to
spend quality time with their family who might complain constantly. As a result we have highly
stressed out employees who have a failed personal life and a dissatisfied work life.
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 Multi-tasking Ability: Can it reduce turnover and improve job performance?.pdf