With the coming holiday, stores across the nation are ramping up ordering. It happens every year and with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday around the corner millions of companies are simply filling their stock and shelves with products to sell. Even in a pandemic and an uncertain presidential election, these companies know that people are going to want to purchase more items and go on a shopping spree for Christmas which is just around the corner. This means that their employees will be working long hours and will be opening and shelving millions of dollars of products constantly. This is actually where many work accidents happen and my goal is to cut back on those because even just one can destroy a day or more of productivity and harm the entire mood of your store. It doesn't matter rather you have a sales floor or are entirely online it will take time and money, and simply life from your company.
So I want to first say that people are indeed human. There are many companies that work with people like robots and use people until there is nothing left. They put them on long hour shifts and don't realize that sometimes there are not even 5 hours between them. People are not getting enough sleep and are working literally on empty. This means that they are probably not very happy and also are sleep deprived and dangerous. You need to schedule people wisely and not burn them out. A happy work crew will be much more efficient and all the hours in a day won't make someone work faster if they can bearly walk and think. So be careful with your scheduling and be kind to those around you.
Another thing to think about is making sure they have all the tools they need. Not only do they need the right tools but also the tools need to be up to date and in tip-top shape. Take for instance a store that receives 5 to 10 cardboard boxes a week normally of shipments. Those cardboard boxes are usually cut open with a utility knife. But if you now have 60 to 100 a day coming in for a few weeks people will be cutting tons of packages open and if the utility knives are dull then they may end up hurting themselves. A dull knife means they will use more pressure to cut with and if they do there is a much greater chance for injury. Especially if they are cutting towards themselves. Now I am not saying take away all knives, Not at all. They are useful and needed, but give good instructions each morning on safety and be funny about it. THen make sure they all have replacement blades to go with their utility knives and encourage them to change them. In fact, show them how to do it. Most people actually don't know. So have a morning meeting and take 4 minutes to show them. Heck, text them all a youtube link on it as well.
But just know that will all the extra work to be done people get stressed and make mistakes. So encourage them to slow down and think about the tasks they are doing. Also, be kind and don't overwork them. Let them work at a nice fast efficient pace, but not too much.
