Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:14 — 9.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Everyone having a productive and prosperous week? I know I’ve been busy & I feel like I’ve been being productive. I’ve been working with a new safety manager this week, getting him all settled in and showing him what all we have going on, getting him introduced to all the leads and supervisors spread out across the nation. We’ve been talking about the trainer’s job lately, I guess you could say I’ve stepped into that role now for a couple of weeks! You’ll probably find that once were skilled at a task we’ll always be called upon to help out in a training capacity. And that’s a great thing, if we’re training them we know they’re going to be taught the right way! And as we’ve learned here at WAOC we need to always be training someone to take our place. We can’t move up and move on until we have someone ready to take our place or handle our present position for us. I took a hard veer there so let me get back to my bullet points here. So, last week we talked about the lead position. I know how 2 weeks ago I said I loved my time as a trainer and last week I shared how I’ve always enjoyed working as a lead and today I’ll probably tell you that the supervisor and supervision jobs have always been my favorite. Truth is, I have never had a job I didn’t like. As we talk about all the time, I’ve always researched and targeted my employers, I made sure they had as much to offer me as I had to offer them. I’ve stayed in operations for over 40 years because I’m passionate about the process and all the task it takes to get the job done! And one of the most important jobs in operations, maybe the most important job in our industry is that of the front line supervisor so let’s talk about that for a few minutes! See how I got back on track there!
So the front line supervisor. Oh my gosh, where do I begin. As a front line supervisor it is our responsibility to oversee and manage the overall functioning of our warehouse and teams. First and foremost it’s our job to supervise our employees and to motivate them to produce and achieve the productivity needed to reach our departments and companies goals. I’ve seen this position grown over the years and today, not only is it such an important position, but it can provide us with so much growth and opportunities. This is my favorite position! And if your goal is to advance within your career and you love a challenge, I’m certain it’ll be one of your favorites too!
Lets start off with a few responsibilities I feel are important in doing our jobs well.
- We’ll need to communicate effectively with our staff. I’ve always found my teams are all in if they understand the why & what the objective is. We may not always be able to share everything we know about a project or task but I feel we need to be honest in communicating the individuals and teams part in the plan.
- We need to encourage them to be the best they can be too. In my experience setting expectations and then measuring our progress can help motivate team members. I believe everyone wants to do a good job and when they feel their being treated fairly, being listened to and are a part of the organization they will be the best of the best!
- And here’s one that is hard. I think every employee has to fight our old human nature influences from time to time. But as Supervisors we’ll need to always use good judgement and do what is going to be right for our company and for our team. Last month I heard about a supervisor that probably could have made a better judgement call had human nature not kicked in with him. One of his employees had a small accident with a piece of equipment, nothing serious, no one hurt, just really bent it up a little. His company’s procedure was that everything gets reported and investigated. He’d recently been corrected a couple of times and was feeling like he didn’t need another lecture from his manager, and he was leaving for vacation the next day. I think he did counsel the employee, at least he did get that part right. He decided to run the equipment back to the maintenance department, have the mechanic straighten it out and put it back in use. He left for vacation the next week, by all accounts he had a great time, came back and it was business as normal. Well, after 5 months, everything came back to haunt those decisions. An invoice surfaced for a large amount of money to fix the equipment. It had crossed someone’s desk that questioned it and went looking for the accident report and the incident investigation. As a supervisor we’ll need to not only follow and instill the rules and procedures within our teams but to always put the job first. Last Friday I got a call from a friend, it was almost 9 p.m. and he was just leaving his facility. I asked him why he had to stay so long? He said his team was going to start using a new WMS system Monday and he wanted to verify all the new slot labels had the proper barcodes on them. Again, it’s our job to be thinking of the company and our team at all times! Where was I, oh, yeah
- You’ll become a pro at delegating and assigning work to individuals and teams. It’ll be our job to make sure we get the productivity needed to get the doors closed.
- It’ll be our job to make sure everyone is following the company’s rules and policies, and are working safely and as they should be. Following any corrective action or documenting issues will usually rest solely on us.
- We’ll need to teach our employees and make sure there aware of our expectations regarding their work ethics, productivity and job duties. Their motivation and enthusiasm as it relates to their job performance is determined by how we manage them. Some associates will need our mentoring them; others will require a more direct approach and some, well some, we’ll need to be patience with and spend more time with than we’d like but hey, that is our job!
- Our teams are going to look to us as the shift progresses. There counting on us to adjust our plan and give them the help and support as things comes up, and things will come up and change every shift. We are that person, in most cases we won’t have anyone to call and check with. You’ll get really good at pulling from your experiences and being comfortable with making those decisions and pulling the trigger as you need too. You’ll make the right call, and if not, you’ll make the right call next time. It’s all about learning from our mistakes. Our honest mistakes. We can’t let human nature come into plan when we’re making decisions.
I could probably go on and on with things I feel are important to us being a Supervisor, but I think you’re getting the just of our new responsibilities.
The front-line supervisor is key to our operations performance. It’s so important that we’re in tune with and understand our employees. I try and say something to every associate at the beginning of my shift. Whither it’s a quick good morning, happy birthday, or asking how is that sick kid doing or good evening on my way out. We’ll have to know our employees and know how to motivate them. I think respect and honesty with our workforce is key. We want people to treat us fairly and we should not expect our employees to expect anything but from us.
Oh, and reporting. It’ll be our job to track all available KPI’s or key performance indicators, any metrics we can come up with or create and understand how to not only achieve the productivity needed to reach the companies goals but to create efficiencies to make it easier for our men and women to do their jobs!
At this level we’ll be asked for input regarding staffing needs and equipment expenditures and we’ll be exposed to the budget process. Remember, we’ll want to take advantage of every opportunity to sit with management and absorb all the knowledge we can from them. They’ve been doing this a lot longer than we have, listen to them and learn from their experiences. It’s so easy with us being in the trenches every day and on the floor with the workload to think we know more about a situation than our management. I assure you that you don’t. Now we may have a thought, and we should certainly share it, but I assure you we’re not ready to outguess an experienced manager yet. Stay humble for as long as you can. Learn what we can, because we’re on a path, and before long we’re going to have their jobs and then we’ll have our own team of supervisors trying to outguess us!
Well, I hope I gave you some of the highlights of the position today. I love supervising my people. We’re a team and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. You’ll love it too, stay on your path and keep building your own experiences and learning from them.
If I can answer any questions about supervision, please send an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com and I’ll get us an answer!
Until next week, keep working you plan and lets all share a safety thought with an associate, remind them that safety is our first priority!