Cross-Training Employees for a More Resilient Organization

Prepare for the expected and unexpected with employee cross-training

Imagine a key team member—a subject matter expert that’s been with the company for nearly a decade—suddenly needs to step away to care for an ailing parent. The potential implications of their early exit begin to swell in your mind—loss of business continuity, additional hiring and training costs, and a decrease in departmental efficiency from the top down.

On your way to speak with recruitment to get a list of candidates going, you bump into your learning and development director. You air your worries, and that’s when she reminds you: we’ve been cross-training employees for the last year. There’s at least two associate level team members that can, together, step up and cover the SME’s unexpected absence, and one of them is on track to take over the position entirely within the next year.

Cross-training—sometimes called cross-skilling or multi-skilling—involves training employees to perform skills and tasks they weren’t initially hired for in order to fill gaps left by sick, on-leave, or exiting employees. Cross-training programs make organizations more versatile, preparing them for both the expected and unexpected.

In this post, discover the benefits of employee cross-training programs, learn how to implement one effectively, and explore training tips to get the most out of your cross-skilling program.

4 benefits of employee cross-training

Employee cross-training programs help organizations mitigate common effects of employee turnover, sickness, and absence. They also greatly benefit organizations by providing employees with career advancement opportunities and fostering a more collaborative work environment. When implemented in addition to common workplace training programs, cross-training creates a more versatile workforce.

Here are the four main benefits of cross-training programs:

1. Enhancing organizational flexibility

Cross-training equips employees with diverse skills, allowing organizations to adapt swiftly to changes and cover roles during absences.

Adapting to workforce changes

Unexpected departures or leaves can greatly affect operational stability. Having a largely cross-trained staff can help to seamlessly manage workforce changes—both expected and unexpected. If you have an employee whose absence would immediately create a cascading effect on operational stability, investing in cross-training may be your best tactic to create an adaptable workforce.

Responding to market demands

Markets are constantly shifting—consumers age, demographics shift, public values change—and you need a workforce that’s versatile enough to shift with them. Take, for example, the shift away from brick and mortar retail stores and the rise of online shopping. Organizations that cross-trained their retail employees in marketing and digital customer service techniques were able to manage the shifting landscape with ease.

Training tip for a more flexible organization: Let’s say you’re cross-training a warehouse worker in order fulfillment & customer service or a retail stock employee in cashier duties. Think about what the biggest change will be for these employees and the specific skills they’ll need to be successful. In this case, it would be smart to use branching scenarios to help them navigate the customer-facing situations they’ll encounter.

Bonus tip: Alongside or within your cross-training program, teaching the soft skill adaptability will help employees with the transition. One of the most important soft skills to teach, adaptability empowers cross-skilling employees to respond to change more smoothly.

2. Boosting employee engagement and development

Cross-training fosters a culture of continuous learning, enhancing job satisfaction and personal and professional growth.

Promoting skill diversification

Employees cross-trained on diverse skills increase their value to the company, making advancement within the organization more likely. Employees who are consistently engaged in continuous learning—whether it’s upskilling, reskilling, or cross-skilling—are more consistently engaged, boosting production, motivation, and satisfaction.

Encouraging career progression

When organizations show that they value their employees’ potential to advance within the company, employees are more likely to seek out opportunities to learn. Exposure to various roles helps employees identify potential interests and uncovers diverse perspectives to common problems. Additionally, they’ll enhance their sense of discovery and exploration—identified by Harvard Business School as one of the 6 skills leaders need in a digital age.

Training tip to boost employee engagement: Any time you’re training employees on new skills, your goal is to help them retain knowledge, stay engaged, and accelerate real world application to their learning. To do so, make training as interactive as possible. Let’s say you’re cross-training a sales associate into an inventory management position. Use interactive timelines to help the employee manage the many tasks they’ll need to complete in chronological order.

3. Improving team collaboration and communication

Understanding diverse roles enhances empathy among team members, leading to better collaboration.

Fostering interdepartmental understanding

Knowledge sharing across departments can create a more understanding workplace, breaking down silos and encouraging collaboration. Departments that may have only been in contact when issues arise on either end become more consistent partners, uncovering pain points before they grow into larger organizational problems.

Building a cohesive work environment

When employees from different departments understand each other’s roles and responsibilities—and not just on paper, but through experience—mutual respect spreads. Teamwork and collaboration become easier, and the workplace in general becomes a more positive, encouraging environment for all employees.

Imagine, for example, marketing employees and sales reps with a mutual understanding of each other’s roles. Sales reps can help the marketing team thoroughly understand what parts of the product potential clients are most interested in, and the marketing team can help sales reps align their language with organizational goals.

Training tip to improve team collaboration and communication: Creating a more positive workplace culture based on mutual respect and inclusivity starts with soft skills training. When you focus your training efforts on soft skills—better communication, problem-solving skills, leadership, teamwork, creativity, and more—your workforce will be more apt to collaborate and listen empathetically to diverse perspectives and solutions.

4. Ensuring business continuity

A cross-trained workforce minimizes disruptions during emergencies, peak periods, and unexpected leaves or absences.

Mitigating operational risks

To reduce dependency on individuals with key roles in the organization, cross-skilling can help employees step into those roles as needed. Services provided to customers can go uninterrupted, strengthening brand image through consistency. Where organizations would normally see their quality control standards drop, a cross-trained workforce can jump in and ensure standards remain high.

Enhancing succession planning

Dealing with unforeseen circumstances—like a key employee unexpectedly leaving—is a pain point that many organizations aren’t ready to deal with. In fact, only 35% of businesses have a succession plan in place for critical roles. Plan for key role succession—whether expected or unexpected—with cross-training programs to ensure a smooth transition and keep new hiring costs low.

Training tip to ensure business continuity: While soft skills training creates a more collaborative, inclusive workplace, technical skills training helps employees master the tasks and skills they need to keep up with shifting technological landscapes. For example, cross-training a customer service rep in tech support skills would require detailed, but engaging course content.

Implementing effective cross-training programs

Strategic planning is essential for successful cross-training initiatives. You must consider your audience—their learning preferences and abilities—and match course content to the skills or knowledge gap you’re trying to fill. A well-rounded workforce has many benefits, and that starts with effective training courses.

Identify key roles and skills

Cross-training can benefit many roles within an organization. Administrative assistants can be trained on HR tasks, IT staff can be trained in cybersecurity, and waitstaff can be trained to do kitchen prep if needed. Accurately assessing your organizational needs—starting with key roles and responsibilities—can help uncover gaps that cross skilling can fill.

Develop structured training plans

Creating comprehensive training programs involves a few steps:

1. Make your objectives clear. What skills or knowledge need to be taught?
2. Set a timeline. How soon does this need to be addressed?
3. Evaluate. Which employees need to be fully trained, and which employees may only need a refresher course?
4. Stakeholder feedback. Consistently obtain feedback from users, during the course creation process and after to maintain relevance.

Create relevant training materials

You already know to keep training interactive, but staying relevant is just as important. Mobile learning allows for a flexible learning process where employees can complete training from any location and at their own pace. Especially useful for frontline employees that are constantly on-the-go, it can be helpful to use a learning management system capable of seamless course distribution to learners anywhere, any time.

Make it accessible to all learners

Make your courses accessible to learners of all abilities and skill levels, enabling more commonly underserved employees the opportunity for growth. Using online training software with accessibility features built in makes it easier to create custom, engaging courses for everyone. Whether the need is closed captions, screen readers, color contrast, or customized layouts, making learning accessible is simpler than ever!

Addressing potential challenges with cross-skilling

While cross-training has many benefits, it’s important that it is properly managed to avoid common pitfalls.

Preventing employee overload

Overwhelming employees with additional responsibilities is not helpful. You’ll want to balance employee workloads to show them you value their time. If an employee is already doing additional tasks, now may not be the time to start their cross-training plan. Similarly, if an employee is showing interest in the responsibilities of another role, reduce their current workload and start cross-training efforts to keep them engaged.

Tip to prevent employee training overload: Adopt a microlearning approach to provide users with a variety of short form training modules built to boost knowledge retention and engagement. Adaptable to any screen size, microlearning modules are great for training on mobile devices, tablets, desktops, and more.

Maintaining role clarity

With improperly managed cross-training programs comes avoidable role confusion. Make expectations clear from the beginning, and help employees manage their role transition one step at a time. It may be helpful to provide interactive step and process modules to help workers understand their new position.

Create a more resilient organization with cross-training opportunities

Cross-training employees is a strategic approach that enhances organizational agility, fosters employee growth, and ensures operational resilience. Implementing well-structured programs can lead to a more versatile and engaged workforce, ensuring business continuity even when the unexpected happens.

Curious about how to cross-train employees for the resilience of your organization’s future? Check out how GP Strategies helps elevate and empower employees with the skills they need to be successful.