Warehouses need talented employees and a strong team culture to keep up with the fast-paced demands of the industry. Luckily, you can achieve both with proper onboarding processes. Effective onboarding in a warehouse helps improve productivity, emphasize safety procedures, lower turnover rates, and so much more.
Comprehensive training and a thorough introduction to the culture, values, and goals of the company help new employees feel right at home and put their best foot forward from day one. Strengthen your teams and raise your retention rate with these ways to improve your warehouse employee onboarding process.
Create Standardized, Long-Term Onboarding Procedures
Now is the time to make one if you don’t already have a standardized onboarding procedure. Instead of throwing new employees straight into shadowing or hosting training meetings with whoever is available, make a clear and consistent training schedule that you can use for all new workers.
Remember not to rush through training. Standardized onboarding should cover a steady, multi-day introduction to all aspects of your operations. Give your employees thorough job training in addition to opportunities to learn their way around the facility and meet other team members before they start working independently. Perhaps most importantly, standardized onboarding ensures every employee gets the same foundation of knowledge and training when they start their job.
Instill Company Values
Onboarding is about more than just learning how to do a job. It should also teach new employees about your company, including what your company history is, what your current goals are, and what sets you apart from your competition.
Onboarding is a great time to convey company values to new workers. You create a team that represents the best of your company in everything you do by teaching them what each value means and how it applies to the everyday work each employee will handle.
For example, onboarding should cover all the ways you reduce waste and promote environmentally friendly practices if sustainability is a company value. Workers can learn the importance of recycling stretch film and applicable recycling procedures on the warehouse floor. Including this information in your onboarding process helps your workers promote sustainability from day one.
Emphasize Safety
You must emphasize safety training in your employee onboarding process if you want to create a culture of safety in your warehouse. You can’t just run through checklists or quick demonstrations and hope the knowledge sticks with your new employees. Setting aside ample time for dedicated safety training is one of the best ways to improve your warehouse employee onboarding process. Make sure every new worker receives a physical copy of the employee handbook and any relevant safety documents. Incorporate demonstrations and hands-on equipment training into your safety training.
Emphasizing safety training gives your employees the knowledge they need to stay safe on the job while also instilling a personal sense of responsibility. Instilling this trait encourages them to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable, creating a culture of health, safety, and responsibility across the workforce.
Want More?
We hope you’re enjoying our content. For a deep dive into all things related to Habit, click here! For more helpful advice on a range of topics, explore our Success Blog now!