Cross-Training and Job rotation

The key to a company’s performance lies within the quality and skills of its current workforce. The work related skills possessed by the employees is one big source of the company’s potential performance. This skill pool must be preserved carefully and enhanced regularly with proper planning.

 

Generally, each employee is given specific KRAs to perform. With time, the employees gather the expert level skills related to those KRAs. Many of the operation processes within the company are unique to the company and are well known to its employees. If a person conducting a critical process leaves the organization suddenly or becomes unavailable for a long period, it may hamper the business processes. Sometimes, it may lead to a nightmarish scenario also. Of course, new employees can be trained into these processes, but that requires time and hence they can’t be plugged in soon. For continuous and smooth business operations, succession planning is a must to minimize risk.

 

To improve the organization’s productivity and team performance, more and more employees must be trained for the company’s work related specific processes. So, in addition to the skills possessed by the employees who are currently looking after that activity, an additional pool of employees must be created who are also trained in those skills. These people can be helpful in case of a sudden breakdown in the process. This leads to the creation of a pool of manpower which can act as a backup. Such trained employees can be ready to perform many processes and can help the company immensely in the long run. Creation of such a backup talent pool can be accomplished by Cross-Training or Job Rotation. These approaches can ensure that enough number of backup employees is trained to undertake the company’s various processes all the time and there is no dependence on a single individual to perform that activity. The resultant redundancy lends immense flexibility to the organization in managing the workforce to get work done and in ensuring continuity of its business operations without major interruption or breakdown.

Cross-training

• Through cross-training, employees are exposed to additional skills which are currently outside their current responsibilities or KRAs.
• It prepares the employee for a relatively new skill, beyond her current work responsibilities.
• We may cross-train the employees to learn new skills within their current department. E.g.
  • A person in accounting who looks after accounts receivables only is also trained in invoicing.
  • A machine operator in the production team is trained for quality assurance skills.
• Alternatively, the employees are trained for skills of different departments. E.g.
  • An accounts person is trained in inventory management.
  • A graphic artist in the company may be trained for admin skills.

Job Rotation

• The employees within a department are given different jobs after every fixed time interval. This is called job rotation.
• They take up more than one assignments one-by-one in a cyclic fashion.
• The whole exercise is done in a planned manner to expose the employees to different processes and learn various skills.
• It enhances their job satisfaction and helps in cross-training them.
• Generally, job rotation is implemented within the same department. E.g.
  • All accounts persons are rotated in activities like banking, billing, payments, compliance etc.
  • A marketing team is exposed to telemarketing, back office operations, sales coordination, customer support etc. on turn-by-turn basis.

Advantages

• With the help of cross-training and job rotation, the availability of skilled manpower for quick deployment improves performance and also reduces the cost of the company, because the company won’t need to recruit new employees from outside for short periods. Also, the cost related to recruitment and initial training of new employees can also be saved.
• Done right, cross-training or job rotation can be good for the employees also. It lets them learn new skills, makes them more valuable to the organization and helps them fight boredom in work.
• These practices also help us in determining the right employee-job fit.
• The additional skills learned by the employees can be useful to them in their current as well as future jobs also. So, cross-training and job rotation positively affect overall performance and career development of the employees.
• After being exposed to work outside their own current KRAs, the employees become more aware of the greater scope of their work. This surely improves their level of responsibility.
• Moreover, inclusion of an employee in cross-training or job rotation improves her confidence, motivation and overall job satisfaction because she realizes that her work is more meaningful to the company now.
• All employees can’t be cross-trained equally because of their own limitations or preferences. The employees’ level of participation and success in these skill exchange efforts also expose their own competencies and shortcomings.
• This training helps us identify the more versatile employees in the company who are able and willing to learn new things and who can be more dependable, by fitting into different roles quickly.

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