Abstract
How should firms allocate workers to jobs? A standard approach is for firms to assign workers to jobs and to train workers for one job. An alternative approach, called cross-training or cross-skilling, is for firms to rotate workers to different jobs while providing training for multiple jobs. Job rotation and cross-skilling may have several benefits. First, it may allow workers to better take advantage of comparative advantage, thus increasing productivity. Second, it may make workers happier, both because they get to choose a job which they enjoy more and because they appreciate the firm developing multiple capabilities. Third, cross-skilling may increase organizational agility and flexibility, as well as broad knowledge, allowing employees to better understand the needs of the full organization, and being able to step into different roles. Cross-skilling seems to be successfully used in several leading firms, such as the Spanish grocery chain Mercadona, but we have little rigorous evidence on the impact of cross-skilling.
We collaborate with a leading garment manufacturer in Southeast Asia to examine the impacts of job rotation. The experiment will involve all new workers and recently hired existing workers. In the control group, workers receive the standard approach of assignment and training for one job. In the treatment group, workers receive training for multiple jobs at the firm. After training, workers and managers state preferences regarding the assignment of workers to jobs, and workers are assigned to jobs using a version of the deferred acceptance algorithm. We examine how the treatment affects performance, employee turnover, work satisfaction, and employee skill.