Every Monday on LogistiekProfs we let a logistics professional have his say. This week, Frits de Wind discusses the holiday period at companies and the deployment of holiday workers. These temporary workers are sometimes seen as 'troublesome', but they can also open your eyes.
When you hear the phrase "holidays coming soon", all sorts of thoughts may pop into your head. Some will immediately think of culture, or nature, rest, or tourist crowds, others will rather think of the company holiday and how the company has to get through it.
Many companies have to keep up with current times and cannot afford a real business closure of several weeks. Customers are becoming increasingly demanding and want 'everything' and 'right away'. Yet, in my view, some companies would still be better off with 3 weeks of business closure and then going back to full force, instead of running at half strength for 6 to 8 weeks.
Bottlenecks
During the holiday period, bottlenecks tend to surface as a result of specific knowledge and skills being absent. Sometimes this is almost inevitable, but often these are potential areas for improvement. Are procedures and working methods well established? Is it always clear what needs to be done, how it needs to be done and why? Deploying temporary workers can make this clear in a simple way.
Holiday workers
During the holiday period, temporary workers often come to help our company. These may be more or less experienced workers, sometimes family members of employees who are given the opportunity to earn some extra income.
As with so many things, holiday workers have advantages and disadvantages. They are often less experienced workers. who work less on a routine basis. That can be a disadvantage, but we can also see the advantage of it: they can be a great help to us in getting clear descriptions of working methods. I have also had the experience of a holiday worker objectively asking why something is done according to a certain method: food for thought! Perhaps there are better methods.
Control
Deployment of temporary workers often requires more explanation, but also more control on progress and quality, and if you do control, keep more supervision on safety. Less experienced workers often do not see so well where danger lurks. Here, too, we can learn where improvements in ergonomics and safety can be made. Perhaps the use of temporary workers is a good opportunity to draw group attention to safety, an exercise that can do no harm to 'own personnel' either. After all, improving working methods and increasing safety require constant attention from management and employees. Committed employees are often better motivated and work more efficiently and safely!
Hopefully, we ourselves will go on extra nice holidays if the above issues are well taken care of. We can then 'leave the business alone' with peace of mind and who knows what great insights the holiday period will bring!
Wishing you and your employees a happy holiday.
Frits de Wind - Logistics consultant
