Research suggests that there are significant benefits that may out weigh the costs involved with training employees for diversified positions.

There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees.

He said Centex spends $2 million a year training employees in everything from land acquisition to holding the hands of anxious buyers.

Again, the large cable operators have tried to lead by example, spending more money on training employees and emphasizing courtesy to consumers.

Although video conferencing may be the most common tool, virtual worlds have been adopted by the business environment for training employees.

"Companies that make a big investment in training employees want to retain them," she said.

Government assistance, for example, is available to help shoulder the costs of training employees for new tasks.

Accenture Consulting did an exhaustive study to find out the return it got for training employees.

The high cost of training employees without basic skills has thrust many companies into the forefront of educational revisions.

In industry, companies have an incentive to reduce the time and cost of training employees, and computerized instruction is now widely used.