Top Supply Chain Tips To Reduce Attrition In Organizations by Bill Stankiewicz, Savannah Supply Chain Guy, Info@savannahsupplychain.com

Great organizations to help in training & sharing information include: Georgia Manufacturing Alliance,  APICS.org,  IWLA.com, CSCMP,  WERC, and InboundLogistics.com .

We’ve been hearing about it for a while now, can't find any good employees. The labor pool in the warehouse and logistics community is shrinking. The number one reason is a lack of emerging talent able to keep up with the growing industry. You hear about the skills gap. Right now about 90% of supervisors in all industries are in their late fifties. That means people are retiring very soon in large numbers over the next 5-10 years. OUCH!  You need to help & plan to be part of the solution to help your organizations.

But warehouses also have to be mindful of less experienced workers who are often responsible for higher turnover rates and increased on boarding costs for new employees. This means taking good care of your experienced staff members is even more important.

The most successful 3PL warehouses learned the value of their employees long ago. This is likely one of the reasons why they have remained so prosperous – despite the talent deficiencies we all face today.

Take a look at your attrition costs.  Looking to keep people from leaving?  

Follow some of these tips from Bill Stankiewicz:

* Work hard to keep your team positive, coach, train, teach, don't yell. Creating a positive working environment

*Review & get advice to better operate your warehouses, look at APICS certification for your employees.

*Be sure you keep the Highest Ethical Standards in your operations.

* Don't neglect to hire people with the innate talent, ability, and smarts to work in almost any position even if you don't currently have the best match available. Hire the smartest people you can find to reduce employee turnover.

* Allow flexible starting times, core business hours and flexible ending times.

*Keep in mind:  Your key employees are motivated when their above-average efforts are recognized and rewarded.

*Be sure to recognize and celebrate success in your company.

*Be sure to compensate wages fairly.  One reason here in Savannah that companies see high turnover with fork lift drivers is that the pay is only $1.00 above minimum wage, so of course people will not stay long. The company owners are very stubborn & the companies will not scale or grow. These same companies do not offer benefits & just continue to use temps.

* Communicate goals, roles, use charts & graphs posted that are updated, many companies installed monitors in warehouses & offices with stats, be sure that responsibilities are explained so that people know what is expected and they feel like they are part of the team. Don't treat your people like mushrooms where you keep them in the dark & only feed them SHI_, or crap.

*Be sure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he or she can succeed.

* More manufacturers are turning toward vocational training and apprenticeship programs to help close the skills gap. According to the Huffington Post, a wide variety of apprenticeship programs focus on construction and manufacturing, creating a largely untapped resource of new skilled labor that manufacturers could easily access. However, some manufacturers will continue to avoid vocational programs in the interim.  A solution? APICS Certification.

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