Ban Information Hoarding in your Organization

It was not too long ago that the unpleasant experience of going to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to do tasks such as changing title on a car, updating a registration or renewing a driver’s license, would begin with determining what line you had to stand in. You had to make this decision correctly because the DMV took great pride in having one employee handle only one type of transaction. If you had to change the title on a car you just bought and had to get your driver’s license renewed, that meant you were going to have to stand in two different lines, although, this is still the same in some DMV’s.

When the DMV decided to make the customer experience more pleasant, they added one more line: the line you need to stand in to get a number and determine what line you will be assigned to stand in. If you can make an appointment several weeks in advance, you can bypass this first line. However, if you need to accomplish something quickly and show up without an appointment, you now have at least one more line to stand in.

What is amazing is that most DMV employees are seasoned veterans capable of being cross-trained to handle every possible transaction a customer may need to accomplish. Most likely, many DMV employees can either handle all the possible transactions, or, they can turn to the person within three feet of them and find the correct answer. Unfortunately, the DMV is among other organizations that prefer to not equip team members to deliver on a customer’s multiple needs.

On the other hand, Southwest Airlines is a great role model when it comes to team members who can accomplish multiple jobs. After every flight lands, the flight attendants and, many times, a pilot take on the responsibility of cleaning the entire cabin. Recently, I watched a pilot take the lead in pushing a passenger in a wheel chair down the ramp and them help them get into their seat. Although this pilot’s job is to fly the plane, I could actually see joy in his eyes at the opportunity to help not only a passenger but his fellow teammates so the plane could board and depart on time.

We have conducted Employee Engagement Surveys with over 300 organizations and over 100,000 employees. Organizations in Peter Barron Stark Companies’ Best of the Best Benchmark are consistently rated over 13 percentage points higher in the competencies of cross-departmental teamwork. Organizations that are strong in cross-departmental teamwork have employees who have broader knowledge than just their own job and an understanding of how the different departments and jobs all connect to better serve the customer. These organizations reap the benefits of cross-departmental teamwork.

Cross-training provides advantages to organizations as well as their employees.

Organizational advantages include:

• Coverage for an employee when they are sick or out on vacation
• Coverage to provide backfill when a qualified employee cannot be found in the shrinking workforce
• A smaller workforce is needed since employees can cover multiple functions based on the organization’s need
• Employees who are able to provide training on multiple skills
• Increased cross-departmental teamwork
• Development of future leaders

Employee advantages include:

• Increased morale due to a deeper understanding of how the business works and knowing they make a significant difference in the business’ success
• Opportunity to learn new skills
• Greater opportunity for a promotion
• Higher chance they will not be let go in tough economic times
• More skills and experience in your company
• Prevents stagnation
• Great job variety

The following 7 tips will help your team successfully take advantage of these benefits by implementing cross-training:

1. Identify the specific critical tasks for which cross-training is needed. You can look at the need from a few different angles.
   • What needs do our customers have that could be improved if multiple team members knew how to meet the client’s goals?
   • Where are we vulnerable? If this employee was to get hit by a bus today, are people already trained, ready to execute and get the job successfully accomplished? Ensure every job is backed up.
   • As you review your team member’s performance, what are the next logical steps to help them build their skills and increase their organizational value?
2. Conduct a gap analysis. Determine what skills and knowledge are needed to successfully get the job done. Then, identify the employee’s current level of knowledge and skills. Develop a learning plan based on the gap.
3. Identify the right people to cross-train. Some team members love to learn new information and skills, while others are more comfortable completing the same tasks over and over. Here is your challenge as a leader: if you have a person in a critical position who refuses to cross-train others, you are being held hostage and putting the future health of your team or organization in jeopardy. Information hoarding kills cross-departmental teamwork and squashes creativity and innovation. If your competition has strong cross-departmental teamwork and your organization does not, you are going to be both vulnerable and at a significant disadvantage. Information hoarders seem to forget that we are all on the same team.
4. Create the right environment. Information hoarders actually operate from a place of fear. To eliminate this fear, align the vision of cross-training with the goal of improving teamwork and service to the customers. This should help eliminate the feeling that information hoarders have that by sharing their information and teaching others their skills, the program is designed to eliminate them.
5. Adjust workload. Employees learning a new skill will take longer to accomplish the task than a veteran of the position. Adjust their schedule accordingly.
6. Reward team members for learning new skills and practicing collaborative behaviors. People do what they are rewarded and/or recognized for doing.
7. Share information hoarders with your best competitor. If an employee is unwilling to train others, share information and work well cross-departmentally, you may be a lot better off sharing them with your best competitor and screwing up another organization’s strategic plan.

Cross-training is good for the employees, the leaders, and for the organization. Put these seven tips into action and it will help you in building an organization that is rated by your employees as being the Best of the Best.

Image courtesy, John Reed | Flickr