AKT BPO USER CONFERENCE 2009

CROSS TRAINING FOR LOAD BALANCING AND FOR BETTER UTLIZATION OF STAFF

Topics to be covered:

• Meaning of Cross Training

• Case study of a team during busy and lean season

• Implications of not enough work during lean season andbetter utilization of staff during this period

• Cross training and Staff sharing in Navi Mumbai office

• Advantages of Cross training

• Reasons why one would be hesitant to cross train

• Factors to the success of cross training

CROSS TRAINING

•To provide training in different tasks or skills.

•An effective training technique which leads to motivation is cross training.

•With respect to employee-employer relationship, cross training produces more productive workers for the company and benefits the employee by enhancing his or her skill set.

QUOTES :-

Senior VP of HCL Technologies – Mr Anand Pillai

“Cross-training is gaining even more relevance in the current context as it allows companies to enhance the ‘deployability’ of the bench”.

CEO of Infosys Technologies – Mr S. Gopalakrishnan

“Our Company is looking to cross train employees – while they are on the bench. This will ensure that their time is utilized better, and will enable them to work on multiple technologies and multiple projects”.

STAFF UTILIZATION DURING BUSY AND LEAN SEASON

Case Study:

Team A :- Busy Season : January to April ; Lean Season : May To December

Analysis for nine months – January to September.

Total available hours each month:15 staff * 7 hrs (1hr Misc)*21 days.

Months Billable Non Billable Total Hours

January 1000 1205 2205

February 1600 605 2205

March 1800 405 2205

April 1700 505 2205

May 800 1405 2205

June 500 1705 2205

July 600 1605 2205

August 500 1705 2205

September 600 1605 2205

Total 9100 10745 19845

Billable VS Non Billable

No work leads to:

1)Boredom2)Frustration3)Low Job satisfaction etc

And will lead to one of our concerns ‘Attrition’ of experienced staff.

Lean Season can be used for:

1)Development of staff through Training/Cross Training within the teams2)Process development3)Staff sharing

Team B:

Had an additional requirement of staff.

The management of the company decided to utilize this situation and brought both the teams together.

Now, team A decided to Share it’s staff with team B which had enough work during the lean season of team A.

The staff are cross trained and shared with Team B:

From May to September: 10 staff * 7hrs*21 days

Months Billable Non Billable Total Hours

January 1000 1205 2205

February 1600 605 2205

March 1800 405 2205

April 1700 505 2205

May 800 1405 1470

June 500 1705 1470

July 600 1605 1470

August 500 1705 1470

September 600 1605 1470

Total 9100 10745 19845

Billable Vs Non Billable

AKT RPS & KRAVITZ

STAFF SHARING

COST ADJUSTMENT BETWEEN THE USER FIRMS

WIN WIN SITUATION

STAFF SHARING THEIR EXPERIENCE

1.Preethi

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2. Tara

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Advantages of Cross Training

To the Employee:

Offers a learning and professional development opportunity

Improves employee morale

Greater job satisfaction among employees.

Erases differences, enmity and unhealthy competition.

Increases knowledge, know-how, skills and work performance.

Leads to better coordination and team work within an organization.

Builds social connectedness and harmony among employees.

To the Employer:

Helps reduce cost

Prevents stagnation

Reduces turnover

Increases productivity

May even lead to operational improvements

Reasons why one would be hesitant to cross-train:

One of the main deterrents to cross-training is how employees feel about retaining knowledge. An employee may feel their job is threatened if someone else is being trained in their function. Fear of losing identity and thereby insecure.

Time consuming

Fear of more work and being tossed back and forth

Most Important Factors in the success of any cross-training is:

Initiative should be flowing from the top management

Supervisors/Team leaders should be assigned with authority and be made responsible to cross train.

Involving the experienced/on the job staff to cross train.

Effective continual communication at all levels.

Recognize and reward the staff involved in cross training.

***Cross Training is Hybrid state of ‘ART of Resource Utilization’***

Thank you !