Adequate staffing is imperative to keep the morale of all employees high. Keeping employees happy will reduce employee turnover costs, allow employees to keep up with industry trends and new products or services, increase development opportunities, and increase overall productivity.
Industry trends and new products
Employees who are interested in or have a great deal of knowledge of the industry, products, and services you sell will be more enthusiastic overall. Someone who is more excited about a product or service is more likely to use it and therefore actually learn it. Knowing more about the industry, including competitors, gives that employee an edge as they can share this knowledge with customers, increasing sales (usually drastically). They will know who the competitors are, how to sell against them, how to handle customer objections, and how to provide the best customer service.
Creating schedules that allow employees time to research the industry by attending seminars, completing classes, or participating in conference calls on industry topics will go a long way toward motivating employees. Even assigning employees the task of bringing a new topic or news article to a team meeting to share with everyone is helpful for sharing knowledge.
Development
Any employee who is really interested in business, industry and progress in life (most people), needs and wants to develop their skills and abilities. Giving employees the opportunity to increase their knowledge base, skills and the ability to move up within the company will increase employee morale tenfold. This gives them something to look forward to and builds their confidence by increasing their knowledge base.
Scheduling employees to work with a mentor or manager can increase development opportunities quickly, especially with employees who really want to gain knowledge and move up. Scheduling an employee to work in different departments or areas of the company can increase their knowledge base, allow them to cross-train, increase their overall value to the organization, and increase their trust in the company and with customers.
Increase productivity
Who doesn’t want higher productivity in their business? This means higher income! To schedule the best possible productivity, schedule employees to:
- You have enough employees on the floor to help customers, but not too many who are standing still.
- Schedule specific tasks for specific employees (i.e. training, warehousing, etc.). This will allow additional employees to be available should more customers come in, but it will also allow them to focus on other tasks until they are needed.
Also have clearly established downtime activities for employees during slow work times to get more work done (i.e. cleaning, training, warehousing, customer call back, etc.). Always follow up with responsibility. If an employee chooses not to perform the tasks that are requested, make sure you have the processes in place to alert or sign that employee. You don’t want to pay an employee to sit still, as this lowers the morale of other employees and lowers the company’s revenue.