Cross-training? at work?

Do you or your employees cross-train at work?

A few months ago, several of my co-workers were training for Marathons. My skill set needs an incredible amount of improvement to reach Marathon level, as I've only ran a few 5ks in my life.

So I ask one of my co-workers about some of her best strategies to train. She said "Cross-training" is huge. I was visibly confused... I want to run faster and longer... and your telling me part of the strategy is to jump on my bike?

Then I learned that cycling uses different sets of muscles to running, such as more use of your quads, glutes and core muscles.?These muscles complement those used for running, making you a stronger runner. Your efficiency should improve too which will help you run faster.

BOOM.

So I built cycling into my routines. And guess what? My running stats are getting better!

Being that this is a newsletter about Professional Growth in the workplace... you may be forshadowing where I'm going to take this. Lets get into today's lesson!

BUILD CROSS-TRAINING INTO YOUR EMPLOYEE GROWTH PROGRAM

First, Lets define cross training.

Cross-Training Defined (in professional context): the practice of providing employees with training and experience in tasks or roles outside of their primary job responsibilities.

Why would we do this though? Here's a few of the top reasons:

1. Increased Flexibility: Cross-training allows employees to be more flexible and adaptable in their roles. They can easily step in to cover for colleagues who may be absent or handle unexpected fluctuations in workload.
2. Improved Efficiency: When employees understand multiple roles within the organization, they gain a broader perspective of the company's operations. This broader view often leads to better decision-making and improved efficiency in their primary roles.
3. Employee Development (and Self Confidence ): Cross-training provides opportunities for employee skill development and personal growth. By learning new tasks and taking on additional responsibilities, employees can enhance their competencies and become more valuable assets to the company. This increases Morale, and will increase retention rates as well.

See, one of the biggest challenges in learning and development is that promotions and "career laddering" may not be immediately available if there are already current employees occupying that role. As we prepare our top employees for promotion down the road, it is certainly a best practice to start cross training them in roles that are similar levels to the one they are in, just different skill sets. Many employees actually don't want to move "up"... and would be very grateful to expand their impact "across" the organization.

I used to work for Bosch, and they had a program that in order for someone to get promoted internally to a "Director" level, they typically required that person do work in three different job functions... aka... sales/marketing/product/etc.

Here's how I would infuse cross-training into a training program:

1. First, make sure that the employee is performing at a high level in all areas at their current job. Here's where to start in order to identify that.
2. Next, identify individuals who have the motivation and potential to learn new skills and take on additional responsibilities by having real one-on-one conversations with them.
3. Finally, arm them with the Time and Resources to develop the new skill sets... as well as the ability for them to put the newly learned skill sets into action.

With today's current state of the market, we as leaders need our workforce to be more flexible and efficient to stay competitive. Cross-Training and skill development is crucial even for your top performers, and can have a major impact on the growth of your organization. -Dan Clapper

ACTION TIME:

1. Think about the top performers in your company. How can you help them gain a broader perspective? How can you help them be more valuable to your company? How can you help them build their self-worth even more?
2. Have a real one-on-one conversation with these top performers and see if there is interest to expand them out of their comfort zone in order to grow and develop their Career and skill sets.

As always, I'm very grateful for your time to read through this newsletter. I promise to continue to provide Fresh, actionable content, week after week without any sales pitch or hidden agenda. We as leaders need to inspire growth and learning in the workplace now more than ever, and I look forward to helping you build a best-in-class training culture.

Your Friend,

Dan