Employers’ Investments in Job Crafting for Sustainable Employability in Pandemic Situation Due to COVID-19: A Lens of Job Demands-Resources Theory

Job crafting is beneficial for employees and organizations, more specifically, in the current COVID-19 situation. Sustainable employability is another leading challenge for organizations. A little is known about how job crafting contributes to employee’s sustainable employability. Framing in Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, this study examines how employers’ investments through job characteristics engage employees in job crafting behaviors that lead to sustainable employability through a motivational process and accumulation of job resources. Data was collected from knowledge workers of healthcare (n=193) and universities (n=290) located in Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates a positive relationship between employers’ investment, job crafting and sustainable employability. A moderated-mediation analysis confirms that high work uncertainty strengthens the job crafting process while examining the indirect relationships between employers’ investment and sustainable employability through the mediation of job crafting. Organizations need to design jobs while developing human resources management policies and practices to promote job crafting and enable employees to maintain their sustainable employability