Staffing shortages have become widespread regardless which industry you work in. With hiring the right employees becoming increasingly difficult, it’s possible the solution isn’t to add new talent, but to work with the employees you already have. By taking the time to cross train your employees, you can bridge the gaps in your staff until a role is filled, or perhaps remove the necessity to hire another employee entirely.
What is Cross Training?
Similar to upskilling your employees, cross training involves training your employees to perform the functions of a separate role in addition to their own. Not only does cross training increase your employees’ skills, but it increases your entire organization’s flexibility when it comes to filling roles or simply bridging gaps. As mentioned above, cross training employees provides a solution for staffing shortages.
Why Is Cross Training Important?
Cross training your employees is something that should be considered within your organization, regardless of your hiring status. Having employees skilled in multiple roles will allow them to fill in quickly if someone is unexpectedly unavailable. As we’ve seen in recent years, the ability to be flexible and pivot when necessary can make or break an organization and having cross-trained employees will allow more flexibility to do just that.
Benefits of Cross Training Your Employees
Cross training employees can have many benefits, not only for you and your organization, but for your employees as well. Here are just a few of the benefits for you and your employees.
Benefits for You:
- Discover and develop future leaders: Cross training will allow you to see who has leadership potential and cultivate that potential for a longer career within your organization.
- Enhance teamwork and boost morale: When employees better comprehend the job functions of their coworkers, they tend to interact more, have more patience and understanding and work more effectively as a team.
- Higher return on investment: By cross training employees and using them to fill in gaps, you’re saving on the costs of recruiting and hiring an additional employee. This also means you’re getting a better return on your investment in the cross-trained employee.
- Increased efficiency: As mentioned above, employees work more efficiently when they have a better understanding of how all the parts of your organization fit together to accomplish your goals.
Benefits for Employees:
- Develop skills: Cross training provides employees with the opportunity to learn and develop new skills they may not have had a chance to master previously.
- Growth: Developing new skills offers employees a chance to grow within your organization, not just through potential promotions but also by becoming better, more well-rounded employees.
- Increased motivation: Investing in your employees and providing opportunities for training leads to increased employee loyalty, and an increased motivation to succeed and do their jobs well.
- New potential career paths: Cross training employees can open up doors they never knew existed. They could find themselves on a leadership development path, or find themselves on an entirely new learning path.
Cross Train Employees with trainingGrid® LMS
Help your employees reach their potential by cross training with the benefits of learning management system (LMS). trainingGrid® is an LMS developed with you and your employees in mind. Its intuitive design makes learning management simple and allows employees to begin training with just a click. This flexible system comes with a variety of robust features customizable to fit your needs in addition to built-in reporting, certification tools that track your compliance documentation, and the ability to customize learning paths.
Request a guided demonstration of trainingGrid® today!
