- Jack be nimble,
- Jack be quick,
- Jack jump over the candlestick.
- Jack jumped high,
- Jack jumped low,
- Jack jumped over and burned his toe.
Jack would be perfect for today’s working world — quick and nimble. Businesses often use cross training, learning a functional area of the business that is not your primary responsibility, to shore up their workforce. Cross training helps mitigate lost hours or entire skill sets by spreading the wealth of knowledge across many different employees; this is the basic definition of diversification. There are benefits to cross training no matter which side of the coin you fall on.
Benefits of the Owner/Management
- Prevents “brain drain” — a talented individual leaves for greener pastures
- Minimizes the employee becoming “brain dead” — performing the same task(s) daily
- Allows for flexibility of scheduling if someone is sick, becomes disable, or voluntarily leaves
- Sets tasks for performance based reviews and raises
- Raises the potential for process/work consolidation
- Empowers employees to keep happy customers — employee can better service the client by doing more, answering more questions, etc.
- Puts downward pressure on hourly wages and salaries — knowing multiple employees can perform the same duties gives the employer leverage
Benefits to the Employee
- Skill development and growth to a new position within the company
- Marketable to a greater pool of employers because you know more
- Focus on becoming the expert in the more favorable duty/task
- Flexibility of schedule for vacations, doctor appointments, etc.
A huge oversight to most cross training efforts is focusing solely on departmental level training. For the print shop owner this might translate into the folder operator learning how to use the stitcher and vice versa. Challenge yourself, however, to focus on the skill sets, attitude, and interests of the individual employee to maximize training results. A prepress operator with interest in web design could pioneer your Web 2 Print revenue stream. A bindery assistant attending night school business classes could add to your telesales operations. In both cases the purpose is to identify the strengths, and more importantly interests, of the employ to allow for unimpeded growth upward within the organization — UpTrain instead of cross train.
Uptrain: discover the interest, harness the talent, and reap the benefit of an energized workforce who climbs the corporate ladder through targeted training
Uptraining your staff will result in the same redundancy benefits throughout the company with the added benefit of happier employees. Remember to aim high with UpTraining, lest you end up with a burnt toe.
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