Cross‐utilization of a two‐skilled workforce

Abstract

Cross‐utilization of the labour force is widely recognized as a method for improving productivity in service organizations. This paper investigates the effect of cross‐utilization on workforce staff size, at the aggregate level, for a two‐skilled labour force. Workers are assumed to have 100 per cent productivity in their primary skill, and cross‐training policies ranging from zero to 100 per cent productivity in the secondary skill were investigated across a variety of labour demand conditions. The results suggest that small degrees of cross‐utilization can provide significant workforce savings and that there tend to be diminishing returns beyond 50 per cent productivity in the secondary skill.

Citation

Brusco, M.J., Johns, T.R. and Reed, J.H. (1998), "Cross‐utilization of a two‐skilled workforce", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 18 No. 6, pp. 555-564. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579810370116