Either scenario—lottery or accident—however unlikely, is only one reason that cross-training in your district’s business office should be an ongoing process. Other reasons include emergencies, reliable assistance, employee engagement, and internal controls, along with opportunities for your employees to prepare for advancement opportunities.
Cross-training and some business office procedure manuals allow someone to step in and complete office requirements without major interruptions to the daily workflow.
Where to Start?
Documenting daily tasks is a great way to start creating a procedures manual. If, however, you seemingly out of the blue ask your staff members to write down exactly what they do each day, you may be met with resistance unless you explain why you are asking them to undertake the task.
Be thoughtful with your approach. Anticipate concerns and worries (“Am I on the chopping block?”) and consider starting with an honest conversation with all staff members about your intentions. Be transparent about the positives and challenges of the project. Let the staff know that you realize that the documentation process will demand extra time. Assure them that you will remove something else on their to-do list, stagger assignments, or delay another project to accommodate their doing a thorough job of documenting.
Organization and Presentation
Staff members should save their work to a central location like Google Docs as they document their tasks. You or other staff members will have access to review the documents for accuracy and completeness.
Consider how you would like to organize the information in your manual. By department? By process?
You could sort by task deadline: daily, monthly, quarterly, and annually. If you create an actual book, start your table of contents and begin arranging documented tasks accordingly. If you use a folder system on a shared drive, create the folder structure and move each completed document to the appropriate folder.
Another option is a working task list, like Microsoft Tasks, which is accessible in Teams. As each task is created, information specic to each is added and then updated as needed. As each task is completed, its time line is reset to the next date that the task is required.
When you believe the documentation process has been completed, test it.
Cross-Training for Tasks
When you believe the documentation process has been completed, test it. To be valuable, the information must be dependable, and the employee stepping in to complete the task needs to feel comfortable with the instructions.
Some staff members may have access to systems and data that should be considered when deciding who to cross-train for their tasks, for example, access to online banks accounts.
Set up a schedule for an accounts payable clerk to help a payroll employee run payroll. Then have them swap roles, so the payroll employee runs accounts payable checks for a cycle. Ensure that the employee who is stepping in leads the process so he or she can identify any steps or details that might have been unintentionally overlooked. This process should be done for all tasks and throughout all departments.
If you are in a small one- or two-person office, consider training someone outside your office to pick up tasks.
If you are in a small one- or two-person office, consider training someone outside your office to pick up tasks. Or as some districts did during the pandemic, make arrangements with a school business official (SBO) from a neighboring district to review the information and be your “backup” in case of emergency.
After you have completed testing and are confident with the data, make sure that everyone has a copy of the documentation or has access to electronic versions. Periodically test the processes to ensure that they have not changed. If they have, update the documentation to reflect any change. This testing process could also help identify duplicate efforts and determine where efficiencies might be implemented.
Implementing a cross-training program in your district takes time, regardless of the method or the final product. It is easy to consider the project a low priority and delay it, but it is important to the continuing success of your district. Walking an inexperienced employee through a payroll cycle from a hospital bed is not ideal.
Preparing for a Change
When you retire or leave your district for a new job, you want your department’s hard work and success to continue long after your responsibility ends. You can start the succession or transition process at any time.
As a new SBO or as a veteran SBO in a new district, what do you wish you had known or had access to before your predecessor left? What information did you have that you appreciated?
Cross-training documentation is a great starting point. But consider adding additional details, such as the following:
- General tasks and deadlines
- Important websites and applicable passwords
- Monthly journal entries and payments
- Access to shared documents, drives, and email
- Details about construction projects, including schedule, contacts and providers, and debt schedule
- Long-term plans and upcoming needs for your facilities
- District information, such as federal ID number, state ID number, school district number, DUNS information, and state pension number
Ensure that your successor has access to your email and add an “out of office” response to your email that introduces your successor and shares his or her contact information. If possible, set up introductory meetings for your successor with key vendors or contacts from your banking institutions and insurance agencies.
Ideally, you and your successor should have a few days to work together before you leave.
Ideally, you and your successor should have a few days to work together before you leave. Encourage him or her to contact you with questions after you have left. Your successor’s immediate success, in many ways, is a reflection of you and your district. Depending on the timing, your successor may be closing out a year that was your responsibility; you worked hard to get things to a good place, and you want it to continue.
Transitioning into a District
What if you are the new SBO in a district? What can you do to hit the ground running in your new position?
First, try to ensure that all the processes outlined earlier can be arranged on your behalf before you begin. Once you are in the position, take some time to observe and collaborate with the staff; understand why things are done the way they are done before rushing into change. One advantage of working in several districts is exposure to new perspectives, ideas, and processes.
If you identify systems, processes, or procedures that you want to change or implement, rst ensure that you have all the information you need and build your staff’s trust. When you have gathered the data, prioritize what you would like to accomplish and take one step at a time.
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Change is often hard, and staff members are likely comfortable with the current processes. Don’t criticize their methods; instead, show them the potential advantages of implementing your proposed changes. Those changes may not always represent the easiest route and may require more time to implement, but they are typically worth it.
To make changes easier on the staff:
- Don’t ask them to do it alone. We learned new systems and procedures alongside our staff and took one step at a time, so staff members were comfortable as they learned.
- As the leader, stay involved from start to finish.
- Consider giving the staff the option of going back to the “old way” if they can provide valid reasons as to why it was the better option.
- As you make changes, ask staff members their perspective on how things are going and what they would like to see as they move forward. Change can spark more thought and change, and the more vested the staff is in the process, the more successful the changes are likely to be.
We hope this information starts your thinking process. Tailor the cross-training and transition policies and procedures to your district with an eye toward being prepared for whatever the future holds. Good luck with your planning.