Small Business: Company cross-training

In today's competitive and challenging work environment, employees need to be well-rounded and competent in multiple disciplines.

Employees are often being asked to fill in or compensate for times when a co-worker is out, sick or simply overloaded.

Proactive business owners understand that cross-training employees not only means guaranteeing work will go on uninterrupted but also, if done right, can improve employee morale and expand their skills to make them more marketable, say experts.

"Cross-training allows people to be able to better help the organization and better help themselves simultaneously," says Jerry S. Siegel, president of JASB Management Inc., a Syosset-based business management learning and development firm. "It makes everybody more valuable."

Cross training leaves the company less vulnerable, Siegel notes, and also allows the employee to gain new skills that they can take with them even if they leave the organization.

"Presented properly, it certainly can be seen as a potential growth or upgrade," says Siegel.

Communication: The risk comes when there's lack of communication between management and employees and employees don't fully understand why they're being cross-trained.

"It could be misperceived if the employee feels that he or she is being dumped on or if the employee feels that at some point the employer is going to fire one of the employees and the one employee will have to take over the job of the other employee," says David Javitch, president of Javitch Associates, an organizational consulting firm in Newton, Mass.

To avoid this, clearly communicate to employees that the cross-training goal is to increase their value to the company and by doing so employees will gain more importance to themselves as well as the company, he says.

Also, explain they're not filling in permanently and neglecting their own job but that it would be limited "to times when someone is sick or on vacation or overwhelmed with other responsibilities," he notes.

It helps if you can add some sort of financial incentive for them learning the new skill, advises Greg Schinkel, co-author of Employees Not Doing What You Expect (Unique Development; $22.95) and president of Unique Training and Development, a leadership training firm in London, Ontario, Canada.

Being Proactive: "Proactive companies are willing to pay for that extra skill based on the mastery of particular skill sets," he notes, adding that employers should define the expected level of results, so employees understand what's required to reach a higher pay scale.

It also helps to create a training matrix that lists employee names on one side and all the jobs they could be cross-trained in on the other side, he says. You would have a circle next to each task and the circle would get colored in within quarter increments as they master their jobs, he explains.

"When it's visual, then people have a desire to get their circle colored in," says Schinkel

Still, don't be surprised if you get some resistance.

"Most employees are interested and the few who have displayed some resistance after they're trained will come back and say 'I appreciate the fact you showed me how to do this,' because it gave them confidence," says Deborah Pittorino, owner of Cuvee Bistro & Bar and the Greenporter Hotel in Greenport, which has a 12-week training program that includes cross-training in various positions within the hotel and restaurant.

Even a front office manager will see what housekeeping does and vice versa, she notes. "You can't manage a process you don't understand," says Pittorino.

Cross-Training Mistakes

1. Not communicating cross-training goals/purpose to employees

2. Giving no guidance to those cross-training

3. Not following up with feedback/encouragement

4. Letting employee dictate cross-training needs

5. Giving up too quickly if employee resists