How to be a Good Warehouse Employee

Transcription

1 TOTAL LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS How to be a Good Warehouse Employee Different Types of Employee Behavior The Complainer The Lazy One The Talker The Know-it-All The Worker What You Must Do: Document Your Goals Document Your Strengths and Weaknesses Are You Satisfied With Your Current Position Don t Associate with Negative Individuals Think! Think! Then Think Again LogisticSociety News October 2005 Jobs don t have futures, People do! Earl Nightingale Have you noticed everybody and their mother is talking about how to be a good leader. Books such as: Leadership Styles and Strategies, The 21 Century Supervisor, 9 Natural Laws of Leadership, and those are just the first three of 3,048,203 MSN returned when I searched leadership books. But when I put in how to be a good follower it returned 3,219 of which many were martial arts and religious sites. That s for another article! This article is how to be a good follower in the warehouse or more importantly in business. I know, in the title, the word warehouse is before the word employee but the lessons here can be adapted by all. That is why there is a line through the word Warehouse as well. Now before you classify me as a crackpot and while you are asking yourself who would want to learn how to be a good employee, hear me out. I spent several years in the military and I learned a lot about life in general. But what I learned about business will amaze you. Every branch of our wonderful military teaches you how to be a good leader by first being an excellent follower. You learn how to take orders, ask the correct questions (when you need to), and how to execute. Imagine that, you learn the importance of execution as a follower. What a weird concept. That s the extent of my humor! By now, I know many of you are thinking about all of the books you have read on management and leadership. And you are probably saying to yourself, What good is it to know how to lead people, when the people you are leading do not want to go where you are taking them? I think I said that correctly! I know the books tell us, A good leader is supposed to have the ability to take people where they ought to be instead of where they want to be, but today s followers are different. One Size Does Not Fit All! Today s followers want to know several things before they will follow you. Such as: (1) where you are taking them, (2) why should they be there, (3) what will happen when they get there, and my favorite (4) how long will it take to get there? Today s followers want the problem and not just the solution. Some would say these are generational differences and I agree. But those differences have been around for a long time. I believe it was Gerald Ford who said, Why when I hire a pair of hands, does it have to come with a brain attached! Today s leaders are having problems with the generational differences and don t even realize the key to good leadership is adaptability. In the military we had to adapt to our surroundings immediately. But in business most leaders want the followers to adapt to their leadership style instead of their leadership style adapting to the individuals following them. The psychology of leadership will have you taking notice of the behavior of different individuals, and understand, that there are and will be differences. But I am here to tell you that as an employee those differences in your leaders must be recognized as well. You must recognize as a follower that every leader is not going to be perfect. You must recognize as a follower that every leader is not always going to make a decision that is in your best interest. And you must recognize as a follower that every leader is going to be different. If you do not realize these three fundamental things then you will go from job to job looking for opportunity that may never come. Remember the quotation that started this article, Jobs don t have futures, people do!

2 Page 2 Now because I am sure no one wants to be classified as a, Follower, I will now change that word to, Employee. As an employee of a large multinational corporation or an employee of a, Mom and Pop Shop, it is all the same. From a warehouse standpoint, the orders must be: received, putaway, picked, packed and shipped. Seems simple but less than 30% of all warehouses are efficient. They average somewhere between 45% to 60% annual turnover rates. Again, Jobs don t have futures, people do! While labor accounts for 65% of the costs associated with distribution. What does that mean to you as an employee? It means You are the most important part of the process! THEREFORE YOU NEED TO START ACTING LIKE IT! I have to interject one quick point, if you think this is an article that will bash your employees and tell them all of the things they are doing wrong, you are wrong. It is an article that will identify areas of improvement and provide them with the necessary tools to take action immediately. This article is also good for the leaders of the organization (warehouse) as well to help them quickly identify problem employees and take action. Less than 30% of all warehouses are efficient! Labor accounts for 65% of the costs associated with distribution! 1. The Complainer : Every organization has one or two individuals that complain about everything. They will find a problem to complain about even when a problem does not exist. There is no other way to put it, This person is a Cancer! Their constant complaining wears on the other employees over time and eventually the other employees who have heard how bad things are for so long, begin to believe it. You must get rid of this person immediately. They not only complain to your employees but they also complain to your customers. 2. The Lazy One : I hope you only have one of these individuals but that would not be realistic. The Lazy One provides fuel for the complainer. They are the ones you see sweeping the warehouse when there are orders to be picked and items to be received. They can often be found spending their breaks with the Complainer! They are not all bad; some of them just need motivation. Work faster or you re fired, is not motivation and will not work. If they are truly lazy, being fired is a good thing for them anyway. There are other Lazy Ones that need a regimented schedule. If your supervisor is not capable of providing them with a schedule of tasks to be completed, then either the supervisor or the Lazy One has to go. The Lazy One always outlasts the supervisor. 3. The Talker : Understand the value the talker provides before you fire them. This is the individual you constantly find, in the customer service office, talking to one of your customer service agents. They are normally decent workers but just talk too damn much. They are the ones who spread all of the gossip, they are the ones very few people like and they are the ones that are extremely valuable when planning new initiatives. I will explain later! 4. The Know-it-all : This is the person that will be fired first when implementing new technology. They will learn it faster than any other individuals so they can prove you wrong in front of everybody. They are also the individual that will teach the existing employees ways around the system and they will refuse to do things the correct way resulting in their termination. 5. The Worker : Believe it or not this is only 20% of your organization. We have known for years about the 80:20 rule. 20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue, 20% of your product is shipped on 80% of your orders and 20% of your employee s process 80% of your work. Losing one of these individuals forces you to hire two more people to replace them. They are the people that will leave quickly if they feel their skills are under utilized or they feel under valued. Now I know every individual that reads this article will automatically classify themselves as the Worker! But if you have 10 people in your warehouse there will only be 2 that are telling the truth. The remaining 8 fall into one of the categories. Which we will now discuss what the remaining 8 can do to become a Worker aka Good Employee! You find what you are looking for! I don t know who said that, but it is the most accurate statement I have ever read or heard. Let me tell you a quick story you can repeat to your employees every time they tell you they are looking for a better job: There once was a farmer who was leaning against his gate viewing his crops and wondering what the price of wheat would be the next day. When all of a sudden a stranger rode up on a wagon and said, Howdy! The stranger then asked, What s it like in this part of the

3 LogisticSociety News Page 3 country? The farmer replied, What was it like where you come from? The stranger proceeded to tell the farmer, It was miserable! The people were bad, the crops wouldn t grow, it was just no place to make a living or raise a family. The farmer replied, Well that is exactly what you will find its like here. The stranger then rode off as the farmer again viewed his crops and tried to contemplate what the price Wheat would be the next day, when all of a sudden a second stranger rode up. The second strange asked the same question, What s it like in this part of the country? The farmer replied again, What was it like where you come from? The stranger proceeded to tell the farmer, It was a good place, the people were nice, the soil was perfect for planting, it was just the perfect place to earn a decent wage and raise a family! The farmer replied, Well that is exactly what you will find its like here. That is the same with any job. You have to understand what you are working for in order to appreciate your ability to work. Most individuals do not know what they want; therefore don t know it when they find it. Your first step to being a good employee is: Write down your goals. You ever wonder why the organization you work for puts the sales goals up ever month. They do it so the entire organization will subconsciously focus on the outcome and not the obstacles. As an individual you are in control of your own organization and you have to post your goals as well. Saying you want a better job is not a goal. Saying you want a lot of money is not a goal. Saying you want to live in a better house is not a goal. A goal is saying what type of job you want and when. A goal is saying how much money you want to earn and by when. A goal is saying how much you want to put down on your next house and when you will purchase it. You need to know where you are going before you begin the trip. Goals allow you to see pass the orders you are picking, the product you are receiving and the packages you are shipping because they are only getting you closer to achieving your goals. Write down your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know what your corporation (YOU), do well and what you don t. This way when a position within the organization becomes available you know whether you are truly qualified. And you know what you need to work on to be considered a possible candidate, and more importantly capable. These are the things that will help you achieve your goals or keep you from them. Ask yourself this question, Can I see myself doing this job in 20 years? I remember watching a news story and the people had been laid off. When the news anchor asked one man what he was going to do he replied, Nothing! I have been working here for 20 years, this is all I know! That was the saddest thing I had ever heard. The fact that the company decided to patronize his organization (as an employee) was amazing. The fact that his organization shut down after a certain time everyday was even more amazing. My mother told me when I was very young, You earn a living from 9-5! But you earn a fortune from 5-9! If you calculate the time off this person had in 20 years, it equates to 55,120 hours. Or 26 years of free time, not including sleep. He could have done and learned whatever he wanted to. If you can t see yourself doing the job you are currently doing 20 years from now that is okay. The job probably won t be around 20 years from now but what will you do with your free time. I know you have kids, I know you have a long drive to and from work everyday and I know you have a significant other, but what is going to get you closer to your goal. Watching the game with your kids and your spouse at nights and on the weekends or acquiring the: knowledge, know-how and resources needed to help you achieve your goals? You earn a living from 9-5! But you earn a fortune from 5-9! Don t associate with negative individuals, At work or at home! This is hard to do because most of us have been conditioned to be negative. Don t work too hard! Take it ease! I am doing okay! Those are all canned responses to basic questions. Why when you ask a person how they are doing, why don t they reply, Fantastic! Because they have been conditioned to think they are just okay. Television, Magazines, the media in general tells us: We need a better job, a better car, we need a better spouse, we need to earn more money, etc., etc., etc. But what we need is to rid ourselves of this nonsense and the people who bring you down. They are pushing you further and further from your goal.

4 TOTAL LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS P.O. Box Burbank, Ca Phone: Fax: Visit us on the web Turn Your Warehouse Problems Into, Think! Think! Then, Think again. We let everything but our brains do the thinking for us. When we have a problem to solve: we ask friends, relatives and co-workers what they would do. Instead of thinking about the problem and coming up with a solution. You need to think though your decisions and not be solely dependent on knee-jerk reactions. Those are five things you should have been doing whether you had a job or not. Those things only lay the foundation for being a good employee. But once that the foundation is laid, now what? What does it take for you to be a stellar worker at your organization? I mentioned earlier that there are several different types of employees: 1. The Complainer 2. The Talker 3. The Lazy One 4. The Know-it-All 5. The Worker Ask your supervisor if he or she had to place you in one of those categories which one would it be. Ask them why they classified you the way they did and to give you examples. Ask your supervisor where they see you in five years. I know that is a question normally asked to prospective job candidates, and you already have the job. But, this will tell you what they think of you and your abilities. If they do not see you moving up and see you where you currently are doing the same job what does that mean to you? Is that position going to get you closer to achieving your goals or is it time to move on. Understand, you cannot ask poignant questions then be upset with the answers. You are merely on a fact finding mission and now that you have the facts you have to, Think them through and make some decisions. You are doing the company and the yourself a disservice if you are unhappy but you stay because of the paycheck. If your decision is to remain with the organization you are with or move on you must do the following things to be a good employee. Work while you are at work! I know that is a strange concept for most people, but remember you are at a job and not a social club. There is nothing wrong with idle chit-chat unless it interferes with the job you are being paid to do. It puts more pressure on the 20% of the individuals that are processing 80% of the work. CNN Money did a survey and found most workers waste and average of 2.9 hours per day. That means if you are average, including lunch and breaks, you only work for 4.5 hours a day. Remember that when your company has its next layoff. Because that means half of you are not needed anyway. Determine what average is and beat it by 10%! If you are a Picker and the average picker picks 100 orders a day then why can t you pick 110. This gets you away from the pack and shows that you can do more. Remember, if you want to get paid more you must first prove that you are worth more. If every two weeks your productivity improves 10% imagine what will happen at raise time. If you are a Complainer shut up! No one wants to be miserable at work. If you feel you have been slighted by the organization, That is your problem! Either do something about it, talk to your supervisor, or leave. No one wants to know about what happened or did not happen to you, they have their own problems to deal with. Stop complaining and do your job! If you must complain to someone, again, make it your supervisor. Clean your work area! Nothing irritates me more than to see a dirty warehouse. You have to constantly clean your work area. If you are a picker or a putaway person, the aisles should be spotless. There should not be shrink wrap in the aisles, there should not be empty boxes on the floor and there should not be trash (coke cans) on the shelves. If you are a packer, it is difficult to be spotless but at least be clean. A disorganized packing area tells me, Shipping Errors occur here! Last but not least if you are a supervisor, clean your desk. There is no excuse for unread magazines, freight bills, paperwork, pick tickets, etc., to be all over your desk. Every time there is a shipping error and your boss comes to talk to you about it, is that what you want them to see. Is that the image you want them to take back to their office (confusion) about you and the warehouse? Of course not! Your environment is a reflection of you.

5 Do something that is not your responsibility everyday! Most people are quick to tell you that is not my responsibility. And if they don t vocalize it, they still think it. Most warehouse employees will walk by a piece of trash on the floor, several times a day, without picking it up. Mainly because it is not their job. And, because they think no one cares whether they pick it up anyway. Your job as a warehouse employee is just that. Your responsibility begins when you walk through the warehouse doors and punch in. That is the same with any employee in any position! The more you do the more you will get paid. By the current company or a different one. Stop being concerned with your pay! You negotiated your salary so now you are stuck with it. And if you did not negotiate it, you agreed to it! If you want more, you simply must contribute more. Think of an Apothecary scale (the scale with the two plates on each side, where you put something in one side and the other side rises.) It is no different then your salary, the more you put on the contributions side the more the compensation side will rise. Again, if not from your current customer (employer) then from another. But you have to stop being concerned with what others are making in order for this to take affect. If you are concerned with the person who makes more than you, then you will do less and always make less. Always take the job (promotion) that pays more money! The more money you make the more visual you become. And your next raise will be based on your current salary. If the company gives you a 4% increase and you make $12.00 per hour that is much better than a 4% increase if you were making $8.00 per hour. A Picker making $15.00 dollars an hour is much harder to swallow than an Inventory Control person making $15.00 an hour. Go to lunch with your boss at least once a month! This is not, Apple Polishing, it is to find out how you are doing. Most mid level managers do not make time to adequately evaluate their employees. Therefore when Review and Raise time comes around, employees are often surprised that their increase was so low. You need to know on a monthly basis how well you are doing. You need to know what areas need improvement. So when raise time comes around there should be no surprises one way or another. Ask your supervisor every quarter for a list of their initiatives! You need to know what is important to your supervisor. Those are the things you need to work on to help your supervisor out. Your boss has too many things to handle and would appreciate all of the help they can get. If you know what is on their plate then you know what areas you need to volunteer in. Think about it this way, if the company plans to implement a new WMS system at the end of the year, would it be best to volunteer to stay after and clean or to recommend to the supervisor that you stay after and measure locations? The only way to distinguish between the two is to know their current and upcoming initiatives. Read, Read some more, then read some more! Brian Tracey said, If you want to double your income, read for 1 hour a day! Not just anything but information related to your field. I tried it and it works. Would you go to a doctor who has not read a medical book since they graduated from medical school? Think of the value you provide by being educated about: your industry, you job and the position you aspire to have. Many warehouse personnel and supervisors are left out of meetings because management feels they cannot add any value to the meeting. Imagine, It took 800 years from the birth of Christ for man to double our knowledge. Now that happens in less than 18 months. That means what you knew 18 months ago is obsolete. The information you knew last year is no longer relevant. Just remember In order to earn more you must learn more! I know many of you are thinking some of these suggestions are basic, but I ask, How many are you doing? I learned a long time ago, We don t need to be taught as much as we need to be reminded! You surroundings are a direct result of you. In a perfect world you would not have to work. Some believe that, but the rest of us know a perfect world allows us to work. There was a poem that went: I slept and dreamt that life was joy, I woke and saw that life was duty, I acted and behold, duty was joy! Unknown Rene Jones is widely known in the industry as the founder of Total Logistics Solutions, Inc. ( a warehouse efficiency company. He is now the President and CEO of AHN Corporation ( a Warehouse Management Solutions provider to small and medium sized businesses. Rene was recently recognized for his achievements in the industry by Supply and Demand Chain Executive and was named one of the to 25 Pros to Know in the industry for Rene has been published and quoted in industry magazines throughout the United States, Central America, Canada and Australia. He is the author of the acclaimed boo, This Place Sucks (What your warehouse employees think about your company and how to change their perceptions! ) and the book WMS 101 A Complete Guide to: Selecting, Implementing and Maintaining a Warehouse Management System). Rene has been called one of the most dynamic speakers and presenters in the industry. Rene s humor and real world knowledge should be heard by everyone in the organization, Especially the Warehouse! His 18+ years of experience in consulting, training, warehousing, logistics, and as an executive has allowed him to use that knowledge to assist and turnaround small and large multinational organizations alike, making them more efficient and profitable. Rene can be reached at (818) or by at rene.jones@ahninc.com..