Feature

How to make cross-functional training more effective

As horizons broaden, the need to know and master every skill set deepens. Renuka Vembu on why it is no longer only relevant to know one’s job, but also necessary to add value to other job functions as well

A growing career means a well built-up resume, and developing a heap of valuable job experiences in the portfolio means amassing maximum opportunities and working in varied areas in the given work environment. Many organizations encourage employees to be multi-skilled and add value to other functional aspects as well, which fall beyond their routine purview of job description laid down. As organizations face the heat from customers and competitors, combating attrition, adapting to business continuity, and maximizing outputs with optimum resources, it is all done for the indispensable need of the hour to stay in the hunt. Cross-functional trainings are not just business obligations for companies, but an effective a mechanism to cater to individual interests and career growth prospects as well.

The imperative need

Companies are increasingly indulging in cross-training their skilled staff who show the potential spark, not only to satisfy their business interests, but also to help employees satisfy their personal appetite for sharpening the skill sets and broadening the knowledge base. Arun Rao, Vice-president, HR, Applabs, said, “The increase in the rate of change especially in the IT/ ITeS segment is fast leading to obsolescence. Cross-functional trainings are not confined to HR or finance, but extend to areas like strategy and marketing as well. Cross-skilled employees mean active deployment of resources for organizational development. It essentially boils down to deriving maximum bank out of the buck. These trainings help companies to build general managers, and employees to break out of their role fatigue by providing opportunities of vertical growth in career track, opening up multiple career tracks, and applying the business acumen in day-to-day activities, thereby adding significant value to their own profile.”

Giving the organizational perspective, Anita Venugopal, Vice-president, HR, SAP Labs India added, “Cross-functional training is essential for organizations today to understand and derive business process knowledge across busines lines and to implement the best practices into respective teams. It facilitates organizational learning, enabling the employees to perform a wider variety of tasks and infusing flexibility in work scheduling, leading to an improved coordination.”

The ideal team

To embark on a safe and sound beginning, every journey must take into account a view of people from across the board. People form the most important component and the ultimate channel of conduct in any project undertaken. An important aspect of recruitment in all companies is the personality-job-fit. This key area should not be overlooked in situations like these, where the company decision cannot be imposed upon as the employee choice. Also, none of the measures undertaken for implementation in the work area can be seen as a one-off investment giving immediate results; these require concentrated efforts of planning, sincere adoption and constant measuring.

Abhay Valsangkar, Senior Director, HR, Symantec India, gave a view from both the ends, “The organization should have faith and show perseverance in building a workforce with multi-faceted capabilities. And as far as employees are concerned, there should be an understanding and enthusiasm on their part to participate in lateral growth opportunities and not rely only on the conventional vertical growth avenues. Cross-functional training should be viewed as a mutual learning process for both the parties.”

Rao asserted that organizations need to give their employees space to learn, perform, fail and relearn yet again by formulating policies which pave way for the functioning of such a framework. They should be given space to experiment, but should not be reprimanded, he viewed. According to him, the much needed characteristics expected of a desired cross-functional team which will do justice in carrying forward the task assigned will comprise of one with a fetish to learn with no blocks in psyche, be ready to seek inputs from the experts in that specific field and have a willingness to practice and apply it their own sphere.

Drawing a plan

After identifying the areas in which there is a scope to educate and train additional members from other departments, processes, or teams, and then finalizing the team that will take up the new task, comes the stage of charting out a plan which needs to be stringently adhered to. Venugopal said, “While drawing up a cross-training plan, the organization needs to identify the training needs which are common or relevant for the target audience and provide them with a platform to share and learn the best of the other functions. Also, for the strategy to be successful, a cross-training program must be carefully planned and organized. It cannot be implemented all of a sudden during a crisis. Factors like who will be eligible for training, whether the training will be mandatory or voluntary, restricted within job classifications or open to other classifications, and if it will be administered internally or externally, need to be addressed. Only after all these parameters are considered can a program be planned, organized and implemented successfully.”

Key reminders

Valsangkar was of the view that a disciplined cross-functional training initiative leads to a favorable atmosphere that allowed a whole generation of leaders to be groomed. He asserted that as more employees are trained beyond their functional duties, they tend to develop qualities and skill sets that prove to be useful in building strong leadership traits.

As employees, processes, paths and resources are zeroed in on, the most critical of all who need to be handled with sensitivity and maturity are the people themselves, this inclusive of the top management for their consent to lower down the ranks, for their active participation. Venugopal explained, “The challenge in this kind of programme is bringing together different levels of people with varied set of knowledge and intellect. Also, these programmes should have the complete buy-in from the top management as well as the employees themselves, in order for it to be effective. It is extremely important to communicate to employees that cross-training is not a management plan designed to eliminate jobs and that it is beneficial to both the individual and the company.” He pointed out that successful participation and effective networking between participants, with achievable objectives, intensive team building exercises and noticeable results for it to attract more employees and make it a valuable experience for them, act as the perfect recipe for a success strategy.

Business advantages

Every move designed by any company, directly or indirectly, in the larger pictorial frame, is for their own business good—increasing brand value, goodwill and market share. Valsangkar lists the pointers as companies compete in the race to gain business advantages:

• Cross-training not only helps employees to learn about different operations but also creates more value for the customer—where the customer gets a service from those who have a much broader understanding of business processes.
• It enables the organization to deepen its bench strength.
• It breeds a culture of mutually beneficial co-existence and professional growth amongst employees, thereby leading to their higher involvement in the mainstream business processes.

Value additions

These initiatives address issues like curbing monotony, facilitate job rotation, expand the career scope of employees, help networking, build team spirit and enhance bonding between the members of various teams as they not only interact and learn about the discovery of new facets on their professional front but their personal lives as well, and lightens up the best in people’s creative talent. Rao stated, “Cross-functional training leads to a pipeline of all-round individuals, with multiple people for multi-positions. It takes care of succession planning and employee retention schemes. The quality of delivery will also improve because there is much more awareness that is created amongst employees.”

Reinforcing the learning

As it is rightly said, ‘Learning is a continuous process.’ Education imparted to employees must be constantly reiterated and reinforced for it to take root and stay put.

Likewise, employees who are not performing par the requirement level must be recognized, skill gaps detected and then enrolled into special trainings to fill the vaccuum. They need to be provided with due assistance, co-operation and also extra time, if needed, to catch up with others and perform to the best.

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com