Ensuring that the safety of your warehouse operatives is prioritised alongside overall efficiency is vital to the success of your business or warehouse. Investing in the latest pallet trucks and cutting-edge technology is sure to improve standards and help your business thrive in the long run but it’s equally as important to invest in the staff operating those pallet trucks. The risk of injury, potential loss of stock and lack of productivity are all increased if you scrimp on sufficient training. Here’s a look at the benefits of proper training and tips on how to instigate it.
Skilled workers
Warehouses are active places with people moving stock around on a regular basis, this means that it’s easy for accidents to happen. By ensuring that your pallet trucks are in the hands of skilled and experienced operatives, you will reduce the risk of accidents and ensure that your team is kept safe and free from harm.
A good way to ensure that you have skilled workers on the floor is by hiring operatives that already have experience with pallet trucks. However, training is still necessary to ensure they are familiar with the layout of your warehouse and its particular safety procedures.
Maximum efficiency
If your pallet truck users haven’t received the proper training and aren’t skilled enough to carry out their work quickly while still being safe, you will find that overall productivity will slump. Providing sufficient training means that your materials handling operatives will have the confidence to operate quickly.
This means that more stock will be moved over a shorter period of time, thereby improving productivity and reducing overheads. The quicker you can move stock throughout the warehouse, the shorter the turnaround time will be. Proper training will ensure they can maintain this high level of productivity in a safe way.
Regular training
While it’s important to ensure that you set a good foundation and provide your pallet truck users with appropriate training when they start, you must also make sure that their training is updated to match any changes in policy. If your company implements new safety policies, changes the layout of the warehouse or purchases new pallet trucks, you’ll need a structure in place to convey these new developments to your team.