Employee stress causes more than dissatisfaction on the job — it is the leading cause of conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease. No one should feel so stressed out by their job that it is causing them physical harm, yet thousands of Americans do. As a manager or business owner, you can do something about that. Cross-training programs can help alleviate employee stress and help your business thrive at the same time. Here’s how to get started:
- Determine job compatibility.
A good first step is to determine which of your departments are most compatible with one another are when it comes to skills and abilities. Asking your accounting department to train with IT may not be effective, but sales and marketing could get some relief from customer service. - Assign mentors and shadows.
Select employees who have plenty of experience with in your business and pair them with others who could learn more. Allow the junior employees to shadow the senior employees on their day-to-day job. Mix things up and ask the senior employees to work with the junior employees for a couple of days as well. - See what people want to learn.
One of the best ways to find out what your employees want is to simply ask them. Maybe someone from your accounting department does want to learn a little about information security. They may not do it full time but it can help your company in the long term when more people know how to do each other’s jobs. - Allow for job sharing.
When you have more than one person excel at a job, offer an opportunity to swap once in a while. This will keep the knowledge fresh for when you do need someone to step in during an emergency or if someone is unexpectedly out of the office.
Do you want to help reduce your employees’ stress levels? Harvard Resource Solutions Agencies in Detroit MI can help!