6 Steps for Sign Cross-Training Goals

WE SURVIVED A huge ice and snowstorm this winter. Typically, production grinds to a halt when one or two of our key players can’t come in.

But this year, thanks to consistent cross training, we had several absences and still met our production team goals! More than a third of our team couldn’t dig out and show up for a couple days, but our production team quickly shifted roles and positions and covered all the empty bases they could.

We even had a production manager out on paternity leave!

How? How do you motivate your busy, overwhelmed team to find time to train one another?

I’m convinced that cross training employees in the sign industry is one of the hardest things to do. Most shops feel like they are running on fumes just getting through the day with client demands, employee no-shows and the unexpected fixes inevitably needed for projects!

So how do you make time to cross train when most days you feel like you are struggling to keep up? Here is our six-step process that makes cross training work for us:

1. Make It Matter. If cross training matters, you better show up as a leader making it clear that it matters. Create a culture that everyone is a learner. Build your pay plans and advancement on increased skills and abilities in your team members. If it doesn’t matter to you, it won’t matter to them.
2. Make Your Case! Be sure you talk about why cross training matters. Explain the goal and purpose. Understand natural reluctance and counteract it. Some think training others to do their job puts them in jeopardy to be let go. Others love what they do and change is scary and hard. Understand the barriers by talking about them, and then push through them.
3. Plan Ahead. We have a matrix that shows the cross-training plan. We pick certain days for cross training — we call them “War Games” — when two employees switch seats. Laser operator moves to printer, and printer operator moves to laser. Training happens between them. You must plan for production to be slowed a bit in this process, so communicate the temporary restriction to your sales team.
4. Push Through Resistance. This will not be easy. Laser and printer operators will really need to be motivated and nudged along. Don’t expect this to be easy. Tell them not to expect it to be easy!
5. Reward Adopters. Be sure those who lead the way by example are rewarded. Annual increases should reflect their willingness to learn and their increased skills. Highlight their performance in front of the team. Encouragement and praise are free — use liberally.
6. Document! Create a simple spreadsheet that helps track who is trained in what processes. You can even rate their level of expertise. In addition, we document each machine in production and verify that every process has at least TWO operators who are expert level.

During the past year we have continued to develop our spreadsheet (Skills Matrix) by department. We even added “Value” to certain skills so we can help assess who is learning the most challenging tasks. This multi-part sheet tracks processes, who is trained on them and what percentage they’ve completed toward expert-level operations.

Yes, this is a big effort but start small and grow your success.

Yes, this is a big amount of information to track and pay attention to.

But, yes, keeping your team engaged, learning and improving their skills is one of the key ways to retain and develop your best talents!