Labor Management

The warehouse switched to a new Labor Management (LM) program in February. This week is the first week that I'm holding my contractors accountable based on the warehouse's expectation. It's only fair because the fulltimers are being held accountable, why not the"temps/contractors?" The downside is that the fulltimers are measured in 2 week intervals where my guys are weekly.

The expectation is that they hit 100% for the week in production and 99% for accuracy. There are two different points programs in place, one for each. Essentially, if you don't hit 100% for the week you are issued a verbal warning and 1 point, the second time a written warning and a point, the third time a final warning and a point, the fourth time you are fired (same applies to the accuracy program)...

My role in this is to be proactive and let my people know where they stand as frequently as possible, daily in most cases so that if they had a bad day on Monday, they have time to bring up their numbers so their average for the week is 100%.

I kind of freaked when this accountability program rolled out because I thought that if my contractors werent hitting the numbers and ended up getting fired over it, it would reflect poorly on me like I wasn't doing enough to keep them from losing their jobs.

Recently I was reminded of two facts: 1. It's not my sole responsibility. There is me, plus their floor supervisor who should help them with the tools and training they need, plus themselves--they have to want to succeed in order to be successful. (It's unfortunate, but if what they are doing isn't necessarily "their cup of tea" the program will slowly weed them out so that someone who can hit the expectation can be brought in to do it) and 2. I can only do so much...I can't hold someone's hand and beg them to do it....(you can lead a horse to water but not make it drink)... our current workforce consists of a number of employees who feel as though they are owed something, not that they should earn something by actually working hard...those people are going to be out of here before they realize whats coming. In actuality I only have like maybe ten percent of my staff that isn't hitting at least 100% (many of them are in the 130s so the expectation is acheivable...) It just sucks that so many of my folks feel like everyone is against them and when help is offered they twist into something ridiculous and continue to come up with excuse after excuse.

I dunno. Sometimes I just want to shake people, other times I want to get on a forklift and back over them. Don't tell OSHA.