The key to a successful warehouse is the employees that work within it. The common goal for all warehouse managers is to increase productivity, cut costs, and improve efficiency. This all begins at the employee level. So how can you improve your employees to benefit the overall goal of the business? In a world of increasing competition, how can you make sure your employees are keeping up, and are setup for success? Below are six ways you can empower your employees in order to create successful warehouse workers.
Train and Retrain
Training employees is not only important at the beginning of a new job, but also throughout their time with the company. Processes, products, and safety measures are constantly being changed or altered and all employees should be aware of these changes. Additionally, it may be beneficial to cross-train your employees in order to give your training a broader reach. This way, employees are trained in many warehouse functions and can offer support in them if needed.
Employee Development Plan
People respond better when they know that others believe in them. Have employee development plans for each employee so that they can begin to develop their own skills and careers. By doing this, you are showing faith in employees and allowing them to want to improve their skills. Empowering employees doesn’t just come from words, it takes action.
Let Natural Leaders Thrive
In every team, there will be people that are more productive and love to take the lead on tasks. These are natural leaders, and are very beneficial to getting work done. Instead of inhibiting these employees, learn from them and help spread these processes to other part of the business. These employees have a better understanding of what is happening on the warehouse floor and have more credibility from other fellow warehouse employees. This helps you create better training materials based on their findings and it also motivates people to get involved.
Create Incentives
If you need to change major processes in your warehouse fast, create incentives for employees in order to align employee goals with overall company goals. For example, if reducing waste is an issue, create incentives for that to motivate employees to watch their waste. However, it is important to note that incentive programs must be carefully planned to ensure that incentives in one aspect of the business does not harm another aspect.
Ergonomics
The use of ergonomics in warehouses has been shown to increase employee satisfaction as it reduces the amount of repetitive strain injuries, making work more comfortable for these employees. This will also reduce the amount of injury leaves a company faces, and will reduce the amount of time and money a company has to pay to find replacement workers.
Always Be Improving
By consistently improving processes and innovating your warehouse, you are motivating employees to do the same. Efficient processes and employee development go hand in hand, so by improving warehouse processes, employees will begin to see their potential by finding newer ways to do things.
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REFERENCES
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10 Ways To Set Up Warehouse Workers For Success.” Warehousing Insights | Material Handling Systems. N. p., 2016. Web. 24 Aug. 2017.
