The wows and woes of cross-training

by: Debbie Varney

Businesses use the athletic term “cross-training” as it relates to training employees to do more than one specialized job within the company. Many financial institutions incorporate cross-training into their risk management programs. According to the article “What Banks Learned about Risk Management in 2013” by Frank Santora and Susan Palm in American Banker, “banks need better talent management.”

The article goes on to say that, “amidst increasing risks and compliance complexity, it became clear in 2013 that there just aren’t enough people with the right skills to do what needs to be done. The work of the human resources department is more critical than ever, and banks need to get smart about their talent management programs. Rather than hire and train new staff, the focus should be on employee retention, training and professional development opportunities.” This makes great sense if the employee is worth keeping! That is why it is important to choose employees wisely in the beginning.

Santora and Palm also indicate that “creating centralized knowledge repositories that contain the collective wisdoms from the crowd will help ensure that critical knowledge doesn’t ever just rest with a handful of people. Organizations should depend on systems to retain and retrieve critical information in real-time, not on individuals.”

Branch Specialists

As financial institutions and their branches continue to change and evolve, cross-training will be essential in other ways. Some institutions already incorporate rotations and call their branch positions more generic terms such as team member, personal banker, or branch specialist.

continue reading »