Developing employees\\\' multiple skills for sustainable business

Multiple skills are defined as having expertise in more than one skill or task. Multi-skilled employees have different skills, enabling them to do more than one kind of work. Human resource alone can add value more than that of a machine. A machine can produce goods only within its capacity.
Enhancing human capital can lead a company to a higher level of achievement in the long run. Thus it is an important task for a growing company to train the potential human resources. In order to achieve sustainable business goals, the management has to pay attention to  the process of human resource development.
Creating multi-skill employees can be another area in human resource development. Such development can be useful to both front-office and back-office works. Like other manufacturing and trading companies, banking industry needs an employee who can fit in many tasks.
It is difficult to fit a senior employee in other departments if he does not know the work of other desks.
 Advantages of multi-skilled employees are huge both for the company as well as for the incumbent himself. The multiple skills can eliminate waiting time for specialists and avoid redundancy of headcount. There are some other advantages for a company having multiple- skilled employees.      
A company with multi-skilled employees has a flexible workforce, which provides the employer with the ability to position personnel to best suit the needs of the business. Employees are able to fill in for absent employees and work in any area of the business that requires additional manpower at any time, and for any duration. It allows the institution to maintain the same level of output at any point of time.
Multi-skilled employees are not threatened by obsolescence when new technology or business dimension changes, as employees used to learn new skills consistently can adapt to changes quickly. Thus employee satisfaction improves morale in a business, which leads to an increase in productivity and employee retention rates.
A multi-skilled employee can easily adapt to workforce changes, such as turnover, sick leave, vacations, or fill in during times of high demand. The flexibility and diversity of work will allow employees to take over other jobs as necessary. Thus employee productivity is not hampered; rather this increases their productivity.
Multi-skills enable a company to develop high performance leaders just because of leadership qualities. When an employee is given a choice to work in another task and if he or she wants to work there by heart, then the success for this job is inevitable. It is a chance for the employee to prepare him/herself as a future leader.   
By knowing more than a specific function, an employee can get an opportunity to grow into other areas of the work. This is necessary when the company is looking for someone who can be relocated to other new ventures where the business has been expanded. After gaining management skill from experience, the employee is prepared to take even more important assignment in the future.
A business with multi-skilled employees can operate with a reduced number of human resources necessary to conduct regular work. Employees who are skilled in only one dimension of the occupation may sit idle while waiting for work to become available. A multi-skilled workforce moves with the workload instead of waiting for the work to come to them.
If a skilled employee is available in other departments, then the company can easily replace the resigned personnel. But if it wants to replace them from outside, then it may result in high cost or low productivity.  
Planning and scheduling employee/ workers can make changes in the production schedule to meet customer demand without a loss of productivity. For example, when a customer requests a faster delivery, planners can adjust the production/services schedule to meet a new date without disruption to production/ services because all employees/ workers can focus on the new customer demand.
In a business with flexible employees, planning and scheduling activities can always focus on the customers' demand.
A multi-skilled employee can easily sell products and services of other departments without bothering others. And eventually the cross-selling increases the productivity of a business institution like banks or other institutions.
An employee receiving an opportunity to develop himself is considered as an important asset of the company. He/she can be considered as the talent or high potential type of employee who deserves special treatment and job opportunity, which may include both financial and non-financial incentives. It increases the morality of employees.
It is usually costly for a company to start a new concern for a new business with full team of people since its commencement. It may be a better alternative to send a team of multi-skilled people for operation set-up, especially for an overseas investment. This could help make the project study more feasible from the financial point of view.
For developing successful people with multi-skills, the company needs to have a good plan and support from the management. The process can start from screening the qualified employees for such development process. This can be followed by providing appropriate training and coaching from internal and external sources.
To prove that the employee is capable of handling multi-tasks, the management may need to give an opportunity with special assignment or job rotation for these people. In today's competitive marketplace, in order to become high-performing players, employees need to possess a full range of skills. On the other side, employers should also create scope for employees to learn multiple-skills.
The writer is Senior Vice President &
Head of Business, Eastern Bank Ltd.
 [email protected]