Employee productivity is one of the biggest concerns of a warehouse manager. The harder your employees work, the better your warehouse functions and the more profit you’ll see each quarter. Motivating employees to work harder and faster isn’t an easy thing, though, and it requires you to strike the right balance. Push them too hard, and you’ll see a sharp decline in productivity along with turnover issues. Don’t push them hard enough, and you’ll actually see the same issues. If you are looking for ways to increase the productivity of your team, we have some easy ways you can increase their output this week. If you haven’t already implemented these strategies, the time to do them is now!

Use These Tips to Boost Warehouse Productivity

Set goals for each employee.

Goals are useful for a number of reasons. It can help you estimate how much labor you are going to need each week as well as help you plan for budgets. For an employee, a productivity goal can motivate an employee to push themselves a little further to achieve the goal you’ve set for them. The key is to set the goal just far enough to be a challenge but not so far as to be discouraging. Look at what they did that same week the previous year and add a few percentage onto that. That’s a good place to start and will feel within reach to your team.

Set up training sessions.

The better trained the employee, the greater their productivity. If it’s been a while since you’ve held a training meeting, schedule a couple right now. Focus on training that helps employees develop their skills, perform tasks faster, and give you feedback on things you could do to help them eliminate unnecessary or repetitive tasks on the warehouse floor. Training doesn’t have to come just from management, either. If you have an employee that excels in productivity, encourage them to lead a training meeting to share their secrets with others.

Reduce their downtime.

Downtime is the killer of the warehouse. Everyone deserves breaks and lunches, so that’s not what we’re talking about here. It’s the downtime associated with waiting for the next task. That might be time for the computer to load, pick slips to print, tape to be delivered, or their teammate to pick up the next load of boxes. Whatever it is that’s causing idle time, see if you can’t eliminate it. Even shaving a few seconds off of a task can add up to a lot of saved time over the course of a year. Shave off a couple seconds here or there and you’ll see a ton of time savings. Look for tasks that leave employees idle (often through no fault of their own) or ask them what takes the longest to do during the day. See what you can do to increase the productivity involved in those tasks and watch your output go up.

Need More Help with Productivity in Your Warehouse?

Our team is here to help! Our warehouse consultants work with warehouses all over the United States on their productivity issues. If it’s your warehouse layout and design that’s holding you back or your inventory needs to be more efficiently arranges, we can help you uncover the reasons behind low productivity, develop a plan, and implement it. You’ll love what we can do to help kick your warehouse into high gear.

Give us a call or contact us through our website to speak to one of our warehouse consultants. No matter what you are struggling with inside your warehouse, we’ll help you find the solution. Let’s get to work!