I'm starting to work on getting that type of support. My current STL came to my store last December and wanted to start cross training people back in January. But there wasn't really a single person in the store who 1) had good availability, 2) was good but not so good that they couldn't be spared from their workcenter, 3) wanted to do it, and 4) had decent attendance. But even if there were 10 people who fit those criteria, we didn't have the payroll for it. And I wasn't sold on the idea because I had thrived for almost 3 years without doing that. I wasn't going to waste my payroll on someone who was just going to cover a break or two per week and forget everything in between shifts.
But now I have permission from the ETL-GE/SF to basically poach whoever the hell I want from anyone in the front end or the sales floor and cross train them, with the plan of having them work 1-2 shifts per week so they don't forget too much. All because she had to cover Food Ave for AN HOUR and she freaked the hell out. But if I can pick and choose whoever I want, I'm willing to dedicate like 8 hours of payroll per week to cross train a quarter of the damn store, starting with the exceptional sales floor TMs and GSAs/GSTLs. My team is solid enough that we can spare the payroll. And then I wouldn't have to come in for a 15 minute shift like I did one time. Or maybe twice, I can't remember.