IF you were to study recruitment platforms like Jobstreet or LinkedIn, you'd find that many, if not most potential employers, require a variety of skills from their candidates.
In the current set-up, where jobs are lost or scarce due to the pandemic, those possessing multiple skills will land desired positions.
In a time like this, you would have probably heard people saying that they have a skill they could fall back on if they were to lose their job. It could be culinary, music, writing or other soft skills that they rarely use to generate income.
To an extent, they can be categorised as multi-skilled.
In a real job sense, multi-skilling is a talent that can prove to be beneficial in the workplace and valuable for both the employee and employer, especially in fast-paced modern organisations, where the workplace philosophy is no longer about concentrating only on one's own tasks. It is also about adding value to other functions and skills. Therefore, multi-skilled employees have competencies that allow them to work in areas and departments beyond their own.
This flexibility is a key strength for a business as employees learn to become flexible and responsive to business needs.
The Harvard Business Review said in the past two decades, it had been frequently argued that skills requirements are being transformed as a result of fundamental changes in the organisation of production. The key concept in this regard has been that of flexibility.
Flexible labour utilisation is viewed as a crucial element of "high performance" work organisations that supports the production of high value-added goods and services.
It is claimed that production should be organised around workers with broad-based skills engaging in teamwork and taking responsibility for product quality and continuous improvement.
Multi-skilling is beneficial to employees in that it creates greater job opportunities, collaboration and flexibility.
They will be retained by the employers due to their varied skills, in turn, helping them to fulfil personal goals and boosting their job security.
Employees will have a deeper understanding of the business, and this allows better growth prospects and development of their skills.
Multi-skilling is also beneficial to an organisation; it is an optimal utilisation of the workforce as a result of its awareness of organisational needs.
Companies will have a freer hand in developing employees across projects and departments.
The end result is that multi-skilled employees will increase productivity and deliver better- quality output, besides being a flexible and adaptable workforce.
This business strategy requires commitment and patience of managers, supervisors and employees alike, since it takes genuine commitment when it comes to training and personal resilience.
Implementing multi-skilling entails increased supervision until the employees or group of employees are up to speed, possibly resulting in reduced productivity during the training period.
Nevertheless, there are downsides to multi-skilling such as over-burdened and over-whelmed employees, as well as tasks being completed but lacking in standards. However, this can be avoided if the employees are given constant feedback and frequently motivated.
Multi-skilling is ideal for a business to have when unpredictable issues arise, such as an absence due to prolonged illness, as well as staff numbers being reduced due to redundancy, recruitment freeze or periods of growth.
Multi-skilling is beneficial to organisations in fast-paced, reactive environments.
Done effectively, it enhances efficiency, competitiveness, quality, production and competency.
With or without government aid schemes like Penjana HRDF and Penjana Perkeso for small- and medium-sized enterprises, there are many companies out there that are not doing enough to boost their employees' skills.
Many are torn between holding on to their workers and laying them off.
I'd say to these companies: Lead well, Lead right!
The writer, a former NST journalist, is a film scriptwriter whose penchant is finding new food haunts