Cross training – a long term beneficial tool to an employer

Abstract

An employer should keep on implementing potential new techniques to reach the business goals and to make the business run the profitable way. One of the technique that makes the employees to learn multiple skills with in the organisation is either with their own interest or by the training programs implemented by the management. Cross training is termed as preparing employees for multiple roles with in the same domain of their skills. Employee having specialised skill cannot function outside their confined roles. Employees may leave the organisation for different reasons internal issues, separation and emergency situations. If there are functions that are handled by one person with specified skills, flow of operations will get affected. In such situations cross training plays a major role bringing benefits to both for employees and also for employers. Cross training will enable the employer to consolidate the skills and abilities of each employee and plan for skill pairing such that the employee absenteeism, production down time etc can be handled easily. This paper explains the benefits that can be gained by an employer by distributing the questionnaire in a manufacturing industry and analyzing their responses.