Professional Documents
Culture Documents
If you're
considering taking this approach, you'll discover there are a great many advantages in doing so. When examining the
benefits in fostering cross training, it's clear that this practice helps both a company and its employees in many ways:
*Office coverage is easily handled 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". While
hiring additional staff to help in the office is not a bad solution, you 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.
*Nurtures a team-oriented environment. By encouraging cross training, employees get a chance to see what others
do and it allows them to become involved with one another in supportive roles. When employees have a vested
interest in the jobs of others, it helps increase understanding of business processes which will ultimately improve both
*Your employees get the opportunity to learn new skills and gives them valuable diversified work experience.
Organizational studies indicate that staff typically likes to be challenged; cross training provides a great way to let
them increase their proficiency. This is also a great morale booster, which in the long run will increase productivity.
*Encouraging cross training breaks the monotony because staff members are able to switch up at any given time and
do someone else's job for the day. By permitting employees to periodically "trade places" it keeps them current in
other positions and makes for a change of pace which is a win-win scenario for everyone.
*Employees can all participate in cross training one other which helps take the burden off you having to find
appropriate people to train and it allows staff a good opportunity to develop leadership skills. This can be looked upon
*If an employee were to abruptly quit, the interruption this would cause is minimized because other staff members
can easily slide into the vacant position because they have already been familiarized with other business processes.
Cross training provides a way for tasks to have continuity and reduce "down time" instead of you being forced to
Cross-training your employees makes good business strategy because it's a proactive way to keep your departments
running smoothly in the event of a sudden empty position. If staff members have a strong knowledge on the jobs of
others, it ensures daily processes can still be completed in a timely fashion and your customers and/or stakeholders
remain satisfied. Giving your employees the chance to learn new things will keep them interested and from a
business perspective it makes good sense. Looking at all the positive impacts cross training has on your
Before you look at ways to enrich the jobs in your workplace, you need to have as your foundation a good, fair work environment. If there are fundamental
flaws – in the way people are compensated, their working conditions, their supervision, the expectations placed upon them, or the way they're treated – then
those problems should be fixed first. If they are not resolved, any other attempts to increase satisfaction are likely to be sterile.
These forms of job enrichment can be tricky because they may provide increased motivation at the expense of decreased productivity. When you have new
people performing tasks, you may have to deal with issues of training, efficiency, and performance. You must carefully weigh the benefits against the
costs.
Identify Project-Focused Work Units – Break your typical functional lines and form project-focused units. For example, rather than
having all of your marketing people in one department, with supervisors directing who works on which project, you could split the department
into specialized project units – specific storyboard creators, copywriters, and designers could all work together for one client or one campaign.
Allowing employees to build client relationships is an excellent way to increase autonomy, task identity, and feedback.
Create Autonomous Work Teams – This is job enrichment at the group level. Set a goal for a team, and make team members free to
determine work assignments, schedules, rest breaks, evaluation parameters, and the like. You may even give them influence over choosing their
own team members. With this method, you'll significantly cut back on supervisory positions, and people will gain leadership and management
skills.
Implement Participative Management – Allow team members to participate in decision making and get involved in strategic planning.
This is an excellent way to communicate to members of your team that their input is important. It can work in any organization – from a very
small company, with an owner/boss who's used to dictating everything, to a large company with a huge hierarchy. When people realize that what
they say is valued and makes a difference, they'll likely be motivated.
Redistribute Power and Authority – Redistribute control and grant more authority to workers for making job-related decisions. As
supervisors delegate more authority and responsibility, team members' autonomy, accountability, and task identity will increase.
Increase Employee-Directed Feedback – Make sure that people know how well, or poorly, they're performing their jobs. The more
control you can give them for evaluating and monitoring their own performance, the more enriched their jobs will be. Rather than have your
quality control department go around and point out mistakes, consider giving each team responsibility for their own quality control. Workers will
receive immediate feedback, and they'll learn to solve problems, take initiative, and make decisions.
Job enrichment provides many opportunities for people's development. You'll give them lots of opportunity to participate in how their work gets done, and
they'll most-likely enjoy an increased sense of personal responsibility for their tasks.
Tip:
Don't just accept these points wholesale – they'll work in some situations and not in others. Apply these ideas sensibly and in a way that is aligned with the
realities of your workplace and your organization's mission.
Key Points:
Job enrichment is a fundamental part of attracting, motivating, and retaining talented people, particularly where work is repetitive or boring. To do it well,
you need a great match between the way your jobs are designed and the skills and interests of the employees working for you.
When your work assignments reflect a good level of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, members of your team are likely
be much more content, and much less stressed. Enriched jobs lead to more satisfied and motivated workers.
Your responsibility is to figure out which combination of enrichment options will lead to increased performance and productivity.
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