Take advantage of quieter summer days by cross-training - Jun. 9, 2000

Small Business

Cross-train in summer

June 9, 2000: 2:26 p.m. ET

Prepare for absences, allow employees to see their role in the bigger picture
By Jane Applegate

NEW YORK (CNNfn) - If summer means quieter days around your company, use the down time to cross-train your employees.

Cross-training serves many purposes: It not only prepares people to cover for each other during vacations or illness, but it also helps employees understand how their particular job affects the big picture.

Create teams of two. Begin by asking employees to explain to each other what they do most days; then have them write down a simple schedule or list of responsibilities. Be sure to include important contact phone numbers for clients, vendors or suppliers.

This is also a great time to ask everyone on your staff to write down a simple description of their job. You may be surprised at the contrast between what you think you asked someone to do and what they actually do every day.

(Jane Applegate, a syndicated columnist and author of 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business, covers small business for CNNfn.)

RELATED STORIES
Give a company picnic, get a tax break - May 31, 2000 Create a vacation schedule - May 18, 2000

RELATED SITES
SBTV.com
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney

© 2008 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Policy

Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer

Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. All Times are ET.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Hemscott.
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.