Is your warehouse experiencing high levels of turnover? You’re not alone! Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take to build employee loyalty. When your team members feel like they matter, they’ll be less likely to start looking elsewhere for a new job. Here’s some great info on how to build and maintain a strong team in a high-turnover warehouse environment.
Recognize Work Anniversaries
This is a simple way to start building a stronger culture of employee appreciation and reducing turnover. Keep track of everyone’s work anniversary on your calendar, and offer some sort of recognition. A small gift card and some doughnuts in the break room can be enough to show your appreciation for a one-year anniversary. When someone hits a milestone, though, such as ten years, consider throwing a party or something equally meaningful.
Get to Know Your Employees
How well do you know your workers as individuals? Do you know who’s married and who’s single? How about their children’s names? What they did before they came to work for you? Maybe their hobbies and interests? If you don’t know these basic details about their lives, you can’t expect to build meaningful bonds. Make sure you’re new hire process is positive. Have “one on one” meetings with your team members a priority. Take some time to get to know your employees as people, and you’ll go a long way toward creating loyalty and thereby reducing turnover.
Give Thanks
Everyone likes to be recognized for their hard work. Start an employee of the month club. Publicly call out workers who go above and beyond. Offer small rewards and appreciation for accomplishing goals. Even a simple “thank you” means more than you might think.
Implement a Mentoring Program
Some people learn best from a more experienced employee who is at their same career level or just one or two steps ahead. Pair up new team members with those who have been around for a while – create a formal or informal mentorship program. Provide job shadowing for those hoping to climb the ladder. Giving workers the opportunity to learn on the job shows that you’re interested in investing in them long-term, which can minimize turnover.
A mentoring program will also help you weed out bad hires. Bad hires can negatively impact your company’s morale and turnover.
Offer a Referral Program
People like to work with their friends. A referral program can be a win-win for both your team and the company. Your workers get to bring in people that they like spending time with, and you get an ongoing source of new talent. Provide incentives both at the time of the referral and after someone is successfully hired and completes 90 days on the job.
Develop a Formal Cross-Training Program
Cross-training serves several valuable purposes. One, it allows you to have a back-up of mission-critical skills and it promotes additional training and education for your employees. Identify job functions of each position and provide formal or informal training for back-ups. This will provide operational safety for your company and support diversity and motivation for your staff.
It’s important you take extra steps to attract and retain manufacturing and warehouse talent. A strong team in a high-turnover environment can be accomplished it most often requires showing appreciation and gratitude, training and recognition, striving for a positive work culture.
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