Posts Tagged ‘morale’

Today I am launching my new web site under the new company name of Greve Consulting, formerly known as Metreks.  The focus of my practice is to help companies develop their returns management, aka reverse logistics capabilities.  Viewers will find a lot of useful information on returns including the Reverse Logistics Podcast, which will feature industry leaders from the world of reverse logistics, and my blog which is packed with articles and information to help service providers, manufacturers, retailers, and liquidators make more money.

Register to get the blogs sent to your desktop automatically or save www.GreveConsulting.com as a favorite on your browser.  Your comments, questions, suggestions and feedback are encouraged.  I will use your feedback to improve the value delivered from the site.

Check in from time to time to see what is new.  For example, you might want to check out The Cost of Doing Nothing.  This is a form you can fill out to find out how much opportunity you and your company have in developing your reverse logistics capabilities.

Whether you call it returns management or reverse logistics, it’s all about improving returns and maximizing profits.  I hope you enjoy the new site and get a lot of value out of GreveConsulting.com.

If you had to choose one quote that is the foundation of managing any part of a supply chain, it would be “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Every operational area that involves people or product movement must be measured in digestible time increments.

Whether you are managing a transportation fleet, a million square foot distribution facility, a computer return center, or a liquidation facility, developing a way to measure productivity and inventory is THE critical step to driving bottom line performance.

Once you figure out how to measure an activity, you can set goals and drive for improvements.

The first facility I ran had no productivity measuring system and the workforce had no goals other than not to get hurt. For six months, the leadership team gathered information and experimented with how to capture data. Back then, we had no systems so everything was manual.

Once we figured out how to capture the data, we started telling the employees how they were doing, posting their individual results in the break room, and counseling people who were lagging behind the pack. After six month of communicating and tweaking the measuring process, we develop productivity goals for each area based on their previous productivity we tracked plus 15%. Along with this, we put in an incentive program to pay employees when they achieved the goal.

Within three years we had doubled productivity and improved quality to a 99.5% accuracy level. We also set a Walmart DC record for the most days without a lost time accident. That team was focused, motivated and we all shared in the rewards.

The bottom line was that everyone from the newest guy on the dock, to the department managers, ops managers, lift drivers and every other member new their numbers, every day. Everybody knew their productivity for the month, what the goal was, and what they had to do to get there.

If you develop a way to measure productivity for each job function and set up an incentive program where everyone wins, you’ll see process improvement in every area and you’ll reach productivity levels you could never imagine.

During the spring and summer, there are a lot of activities and there are new challenges in many operations. Some operations don’t have air conditioning, many employees have significantly more activities at home that they would really like to attend. You might even consider having a summer picnic for your crew. The opportunities are numerous and if not handled correctly, could cause significant damage to your relationship with your employees.

So, how do you keep it all straight? What would your team really like to do? What are those free or cheap things you can do to pump up morale? Ask your team. Get them involved. Form an employee activity team (EAT). You can ask for volunteers, have them elected by the workforce, or draft them.

Once you have your committee selected, put the question to them. “What can we do to add a little fun?” Maybe you could suggest starting an annual event of some kind. Whether you ask or suggest, let them think about it, debate, and once they’ve decided, they bring you in for review and approval. Part of the approval is to set a budget amount and help out with general direction. Once you have the plan, let the team have the time to organize the event.

Don’t just stop at events. Ask them to consider what can be done that would be a benefit based on the season. You may find out that everyone would like to start an hour earlier to give people extra time at home during the summer. You might hear that people need more ice, they’d like fans in their work area, would like to adjust work times so they can take an extra 30 minutes for lunch. All of these could be doable and they would cost nothing. The ROI in terms of good will and morale is huge.

One of the best tools for improving labor relations within your organization is to conduct regular sensing sessions. Sensing sessions can be a great way to improve morale, for virtually no cost. But as with all things, if not conducted properly sensing sessions will do more harm than good.

What is a sensing session? It is a meeting with a cross section of employees, to get their suggestions, opinions, and concerns about the company.  You can discuss specifics or keep the discussion at a high level. The primary goal is to give your employees a safe platform to communicate to upper management.

Providing a means for your employees to communicate to upper management can help or hurt morale, depending on the reaction from upper management to what comes out of the meeting.  If employee feedback is ignored or dismissed, you are better off not having the meetings in the first place.  If upper management engages with the employees around their feedback, you will see morale improve, great ideas start to flow in, and your metreks will improve.

How do you conduct an effective sensing session? First, ensure the moderator of the meeting is non-threatening. It is best to use somebody from outside the organization that is trained in conducting these types of meetings. Second, explain to the group that no personal issues or attacks will be discussed and that all comments will be kept anonymous. Third, ask simple, open ended questions in a quiet setting where people can think and organize their thoughts.  I recommend asking some variation of the following three simple questions:

1. What do you like about the company and why?
2. What don’t you like about the company and what should be done about it?
3. If you could change anything in the company, what would that be?

These questions keeps the people focused on important topics and get the discussions going.  The moderator should listen, take notes, let the people talk, and ask clarifying questions.  Once the meeting is concluded, minutes should be typed up and posted along with a written response from management.

The response is the most important part.  If your people know you will listen to them and actually do something to address their concerns, morale increases, accident rates decline, and your risks of being organized by a union is greatly reduced. Sensing sessions are an important practice every company should adopt.  The cost of regularly conducting sensing session is minimal but the rewards can be great.