• Cross-training provides many benefits to companies, including flexibility, consistent output, and improved organizational agility.
• Effective cross-training takes time and commitment from employers and employees alike.

Cross training provides backups to critical jobs, allows for flexibility, and improves productivity. In addition to making sure work is always covered, it offers:

• Flexibility and improved productivity. In manufacturing organizations, for example, cross trained workers can pitch in where needed to accommodate production schedules. Cross training can also ultimately result in reducing the number of individual, specialized jobs, because workers can be assigned as needed.
• Consistency of output. Instead of second-guessing how something is done and winging it, which can result in making errors, employees filling in for one another perform to the same quality standards. This requires more than mere training, and the replacement may have to spend a few shifts (even one day per month) performing the job to develop the necessary skills.
• Improved teamwork. When employees learn each other’s jobs, people begin to understand the interrelationships of all jobs and develop a bigger picture of the organization. Employees may also gain an appreciation for the challenges of another person’s job. That promotes teamwork, and teamwork results in improved efficiency.
• Better recruitment and retention. Cross training improves morale, builds skills, and develops employees, all of which lower turnover and give an organization the reputation of being an employer of choice. The bottom line is reduced hiring and training costs.
• Improved organizational agility. In today’s competitive market, change happens quickly. Cross training develops a learning attitude and provides employees with skills that can be adapted to new uses.