CROSS TRAINING – AN EFFECTIVE MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUE

Mrs. R. Anitha., M.Sc., MBA., M.Phil, Lecturer, PPG Institute of Technology, Coimbatore
Mrs. G. Sindhu., MCA., MBA, Lecturer, PPG Business School, Coimbatore

ABSTRACT

Motivation plays a critical role in achieving goals and business objectives and is equally as
important for companies that work in a team-based environment or in a workplace
comprised of workers who work independently. Motivation has become increasingly
important for organizations of all sizes that want to reach their organizational objectives in a
competitive marketplace. Many managers, mistakenly believe that employee motivation can
be won through monetary rewards, but money is not the key to employee motivation. A
professional and unified management in a good work environment, is the basis to build
employee motivation. Cross training is an effective training technique which results in
employees' motivation, when implemented horizontally, upward and downward. Today
many businesses have begun to make strides to cross train employees across the
organization. Cross training is training an employee to do a different part of the
organization's work. Cross training is good for managers, because it provides more
flexibility in managing the workforce to get the job done. It also handles office easily when
staff members go on vacation, sick leave or even the times they are out to lunch. This
alleviates a big burden off managers in needing to hire part time or temporary staff to fill
"gaps". Hence, this paper attempts to study the need for cross training in the current
scenario, how it motivate the employees to perform better, the various risk and challenges
involved in implementing cross training programs. When examining the benefits in fostering
cross training, it is clear that this practice helps both a company and its employees in many
ways like promoting employee well-being, handling work overflow, ensuring emergency
coverage, personnel and scheduling flexibility, rejuvenates various departments, improve
overall motivation and finally leading to better coordination and teamwork in sharing
organizational goals and objectives. This paper concludes that all the benefits of cross-
training can be reaped only if it is carefully planned and presented as a learning opportunity.
Introduction

Every other day the world changes and there is constant innovation in almost every field and
so the need for training employees. Training is the key to growth and success of the
organization provided it is imparted adequately. An organization can make hundreds of
dollars by training employees.

Whenever an organization hires an employee, the employer assumes that he should be

perfect on the job. The employee may exude loads of talent and ample of confidence but still
he cannot be an all-rounder, neither can he be hundred percent perfect. There is no such
thing as the complete perfection but, there are employees who can be called as perfectly-
trainable employees. Thus training plays a vital role in shaping an employee’s career in an
organization.

There are organizations that lay emphasis on technical skills but do not pay attention to the
human resources management skills or such other like cash management or operation
management etc. Employees perform their own roles according to their profiles and needs of
every division. But, there has to be coordination between different divisions for the overall
functioning of the organization. And, so, the employees need to know something of
everything and everything of something. The need then arises for cross-training which is
training employees on the skills and responsibilities owned by other segments within
an organization in order to enhance the organizational effectiveness. Hence, it has
become vital to hire a person with multiple skill-sets and a multi-tasker.

Cross-training means that employees will be trained to complete a variety of job functions.
Cross training can be used in almost any position in almost any industry. Cashiers can be
trained to stock shelves and stockers trained to cashier. This allows us to quickly open
additional registers if the customer queue gets too long. There are inter-departmental cross
training opportunities as well that can improve the workflow between the departments.

Need for Cross Training

Cross training an employee gives them the opportunity to learn a new skill. That new skill
can make them more valuable, either in their present job or in a different job. Learning the
new job can keep them stimulated and reduce worker boredom.

Cross training is training an employee to do different part of the organization's work. It is

good for managers, because it provides more flexibility in managing the workforce to get
the job done. Training worker A to do the task that worker B does and training B to do A's
task is cross training. However, done right, cross training is good for the employees too. It
lets them learn new skills, makes them more valuable, and can combat worker boredom.
Cross-training should be carefully planned and presented as a learning opportunity. While
hiring additional staff to help in the office is not a bad solution, one should also keep in
mind those staff members will need to be trained. Having staff already trained will reduce
the costs and resources needed to accomplish this.

Cross training helps to achieve deep understanding of work, continuity of service,

restructure-Proofing and practical Staff Development. Organizations must try to structure
the cross training for job enrichment wherever possible.

Job enlargement is the horizontal expansion of the job, the addition of tasks that are on the
same level of skill and responsibility. The people cross trained to handle walk-in customers
needed to be trained in some new tasks, but the level of responsibility was the same. Still,
being able to sit in the lobby rather than the basement made the job different enough that
they enjoyed the change.

Job enrichment entails a vertical expansion of the job, the addition of tasks that give the
employee more control or more responsibility. For example, a company may decide to cross
train its HR generalists to use the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) so that they
can run their own reports, rather than submitting requests and waiting for someone else to
run the reports. Thus, they have the additional control over their job of being able to get the
reports whenever they need them.

Cross training is good for both the company and its employees. The employees should be
chosen carefully. The cross training for job enrichment has to be structured properly. One
should look creatively for opportunities to cross train within the department or between
departments. The benefits of cross training are worth the effort.
Cross-training involves teaching an employee who was hired to perform one job function
the skills required to perform other job functions. Cross-training offers a wide variety of
benefits for small businesses. Cross-training program can help reduce costs, improve
employee morale, reduce turnover, and increase productivity. It can also give a company
greater scheduling flexibility, and may even lead to operational improvements. Perhaps the
most important benefit that accrues to companies that implement cross-training programs,
however, is greater job satisfaction among employees.

Cross -Training : A Motivational Factor

Cross-training demonstrates that the company has faith in employees' abilities and wants to
provide them with opportunities for career growth. In an age when companies are always
trying to accomplish more work with fewer workers, anything that helps to motivate and
retain employees can be worthwhile. "Cross-trained employees usually feel that their jobs
have been enriched, and they often suggest creative and cost-effective improvements,"
Rogerson noted. "Cross-training can lead to productivity gains that help you stay
competitive."

Cross-training can also enable operations to continue if a key employee becomes ill or
requires a leave of absence. The ability of cross-trained employees to fill in during absences,
vacations, and peak demand periods can reduce the costs involved in hiring and training
temporary workers or new employees. Cross-training enables to promote qualified
candidates internally also will reduce overall orientation costs. External hiring cannot be
completely eliminated; cross-training will decrease the need to look outside.

Employees are a valuable asset in small businesses, which often must maintain only a bare
bones staff in order to remain competitive. This makes it even more important to make
maximum use of employees' skills and talents. "Investing in on the-job training clearly
proves that individual career growth is a valuable and necessary part of the company's
overall growth," Employees will be more productive and loyal, and overall morale will
improve."

Cross-training benefits individuals, the team, the department and the company, and has
results that are both immediate and long-term. Few things enhance performance like
knowing how things work and why. Cross-training gives people a clearer view of the big
picture rather than just their small piece of it. It can have a positive effect on team working
as staff learns to appreciate each others’ work and recognize how interdependent they are.
But cross-training can also help employees do their own jobs more efficiently because they
have a better understanding of what’s needed and how to best manage their time.

A department where workers can quickly step into each others’ shoes can absorb the
temporary absence of one or two individuals without a noticeable drop in service. This is
especially important if the work involves strict deadlines, needs to maintain good customer
relations or serves as a crucial link in a processing chain.

Good staff development includes both long and short term strategies, and potential gains as
well as practical ones. As part of a development program cross-training has both short and
long-term benefits. It requires little in the way of extra resources, is easy to grasp and
relevant to people’s day-to-day experiences. Cross-training can unearth individual talents
and interests that aren’t apparent in people’s current roles and provide areas for future
development.

From time to time, companies decide to change how processes are organized. Restructuring
doesn’t always involve job losses, sometimes it’s an attempt to raise output by slicing the
same pie in a different way. Staff whose expertise has become highly specialized will face a
steeper learning curve adapting to new structures than those with a head start from cross-
training.

While high employee turnover reflects on low morale and lack of motivation, when seen
from another angle, the absence of turnover quickly results in de-motivation since the
possibility of motion and forward-motion is taken away from employees. It is against human
nature to remain static, performing the same duties day in, day out, without expectations of
change in routine or opportunities for advancement.

An effective training technique which results in motivation is cross-training, when

implemented horizontally, upward and downward. Department heads, assistants and
employees can cross-train in different departments or within the department itself. With
background support, employees can have one day training in the role of department head
"King for the Day". When a General Manager is away, department heads can take roles
replacing him, which is a form of cross-training.

Cross-training technique achieves the following objectives:

•Prevents stagnation
•Offers a learning and professional development opportunity
•Rejuvenates all departments
•Improves understanding of the different departments and the hotel as a whole
•Leads to better coordination and teamwork
•Erases differences, enmity and unhealthy competition
•Increases knowledge, know-how, skills and work performance
•Improves overall motivation
•Leads to the sharing of organizational goals and objectives.

Sending people to work in another department at a moment's notice is not what cross-
training is about. This has to be an effective planned process. Employees must "buy" into
the idea, be encouraged to give feedback and make suggestions for improvement. They
become "partners". Departmental communications meetings can be used to share lessons
learned. When employees think "the grass is greener on the other side of the lawn" they
soon realize their mistake after exposure to other departments. They return to their job with
a better attitude.

Cross-training can also be used to "shake up" supervisors or employees who have lapsed
into poor performance. Upon being moved to a different position or department, albeit
temporarily, they hear "warning bells", shape up and usually return to their positions as
exemplary performers.

Challenges in implementation of Cross-Training

Depending on the budget at hand and the objectives to be achieved, the time for cross-
training can vary from one day to a week or more. A more sophisticated form of cross-
training is job rotation, which usually involves extended periods. With job rotation, the
employee's role is of a different nature. The employee is not considered as trainee, but is
responsible over certain job functions, for which he has to prove himself.

To be effective, a cross-training program must be carefully planned and organized. It cannot

be implemented all of a sudden during a crisis. For one thing, there are a number of
decisions that a company must make before the program can get started. For example, it is
important to decide who will be eligible for training, whether the training will be mandatory
or voluntary, whether the training will be restricted within job classifications or open to
other classifications, and whether it will be administered internally or externally. Prior to
implementation, it might be helpful to set up a task force of consisting of both management
and employees to research the pros and cons of cross-training for the business, assess the
feasibility of setting up a program, work out the implementation issues, and set up a realistic
schedule for each position.

The various tasks can be prioritized to decide which should be included in the cross-training
program. Cross-trained employees must be given the time they need to absorb the new
information. Their workload should be reduced both during the training and during later
practice sessions so that they will not feel as if they are being penalized for participating in
the program. It may also be helpful to evaluate newly trained employees' progress on a
regular basis.

The cross-training must be carefully planned to help achieve organizational objectives, in

harmony with the career objectives of the Supervisors and employees being cross-trained.
Unionized properties face some difficulty in implementing such techniques due to the
rigidity of Union policies and labour agreements. It is up to management to win over Unions
on this concept and convince them of the benefits to employees' careers. Union
representatives can be made to understand that company-wide cross-training involves
substantial investment in time, effort and payroll. The benefits, however, are enjoyed by the
three main stakeholders: employees, management and guests. Employees enjoy the rewards
of added know-how, skills, career opportunities and future security due to business success.
When effectively planned, with a custom-tailored system, it helps create the ideal learning
organization. It involves serious preparatory work and should not be haphazardly planned or
implemented by the inexperienced, new to the field of organizational development and
training. An effective cross-training program has to be created with the involvement of all
members of the management team. No more miscommunication or lack of coordination.
Antagonism between individuals and departments will evaporate. Shortcomings should be
discussed and corrected. Solutions have to be found to all problems by those directly
involved. The cross-training strategy turns the organization quickly into a “learning
organization”.

Cross-Training: Success Factor

One of the most important factors in the success of any cross-training initiative is gaining
the full support of top management. To be truly dedicated to cross-training, the traditional
idea of one job per person must be replaced with a broader definition. It is extremely
important to communicate to employees that cross-training is not a management scheme
designed to eliminate jobs and that it is a benefit to both the individual employee and the
company.

The biggest benefit or pro of cross training an employee is that the organization will have
someone to do the job if someone is sick, quits, or when it have to downsize. If someone
quits without warning, we will have someone who can do their job. We have someone who
can train the other person that comes in if need be. When a company needs to downsize,
they will need people to do more than what they are currently doing. If they have people
cross trained, then they will already know some of the responsibilities of the other job.

The biggest negative of cross training employees, has to be theft or having someone
detrimental to the company. Cross training employees can lead to one employee knowing
too much about the business. The employees to be cross trained should be carefully
selected. Some people like to learn new things. Some are more comfortable sticking to what
they know. Selection of employees should not be based on their age or performance, but
based on their willingness.

Creating a successful cross-training program is not necessarily easy, and small business
owners should expect to encounter some resistance from employees. One way to help ease
acceptance of such a program is to address compensation issues ahead of time. Companies
must be willing to compensate employees for increasing their skills. Employees must be
made to feel that their efforts are being recognized for a cross-training program to be
successful.
Conclusion
Cross training enable staff members gain a strong knowledge on the jobs of others, which
ensures daily processes can still be completed in a timely fashion and the customers and/or
stakeholders remain satisfied. Giving employees the chance to learn new things will keep
them interested and from a business perspective it makes good sense. If production workers
are cross trained, then we could be training them to run their own company and thereby
training our own competitor. On the other hand, if we want to downsize, we will need
people to do more than what they were currently doing. In that situation, if we have people
cross-trained then they already know some of the responsibilities and could manage the
business. Though cross training benefits the organization and employees in number of ways
like filling-in absence, employee satisfaction, scheduling flexibility, internal promotion, job
rotation, personnel flexibility, overall motivation, sharing organizational goals and
objectives, but still the top management should be very careful in selecting employees to be
cross trained and the implementation of cross training program in well planned manner.
Therefore, it is concluded that cross-training the employees makes good business strategy
because it's a proactive way to keep the departments running smoothly in the event of a
sudden empty position.