The holiday season may be a few months away, but the prep work for it starts right now. Warehouses, third party logistics providers, ecommerce merchants and retail stores alike must use the next few months to make sure they’re ready for the holiday rush. Here is a look at some of the ways we prepare for the holidays here at Overflo.
Correct All Errors Now
At our warehouse, we try to correct issues as soon as they come up. However, every business has a tendency to push certain problems to the back-burner. This could be an error in warehouse organization, inventory management, or anything else along those lines. Now is the time to correct those problems because they will get exponentially worse during the holidays. Whatever has been left the bottom of the to-do list has to be finished before November.
Hire and Train Seasonal Workers
Some warehouses wait until the last minute to hire seasonal workers, and then they do not have enough time to train them properly. We start to hire our seasonal workers in August and September so we have plenty of time to get them up-to-date order picking, packing, and more. This is also a good time to re-train existing workers to help them boost their productivity levels.
Ask Clients about Sales Expectations
Retailers know their products, their’ clients, and their’ markets. They have a better insight what the holiday rush may look like. We talk to our retail partners in advance to see what they anticipate selling the most of. This gives us the opportunity to reorganize the warehouse and adjust our picking strategies so we can get orders out quickly during the holidays. It also allows us to inform retailers about areas of their inventory that they may want to clear out soon. If they can make more way for holiday sales items, everyone wins.
Keep Morale High
The warehouse is about to be an extremely stressful place. We do our best to keep morale levels high as we enter the holiday season. This includes rewarding long-term employees for their loyalty and high-performing employees for their productivity. Something as simple as a “thank you” from a supervisor makes all the difference. We value our workers, and we want them to feel as valued as they are.
Test Safety Systems
In the madness of the holiday retail rush, safety comes first. All safety systems must be tested to see if they will work in fast-paced, high-volume sales times. We check everything from the lights our forklifts to the way our supervisors monitor the floor to make sure all of our employees are safe at work.
Follow the suggestions above and you will see a major improvement in warehouse operations.
For more information about warehousing, Contact Overflo at 1-800-626-0616