Training New Employees

Has it really been a month since I last posted? I apologize. We decided to adopt Tucker; he’s a cross between a Dachshund and a Miniature Pincher. His previous human, an elderly woman who had him for five years since he was a pup, had to go into assisted living and could not take him with her. So, it has been up to me to not only help Tucker adjust to our family (showing him how to let someone know that he needs to go outside, proper eating etiquette, his sleeping arrangements, etc. – not to mention providing emotional support), but also indoctrinate him into the family business.

I’ll tell you, it has been very tiring and initially took me away from my efforts in customer service. And while Tucker has a lot of playful energy and is a pretty good listener, how many hours a day can one play fetch?



Anyway, I started to think about what happens when a company grows and needs to train new employees. This is an area that is often underestimated and, consequently, can become very stressful. With growth comes the need for evaluating current processes and identifying how to improve on the way one does business. One of these areas that companies should focus on is how to more efficiently fulfill orders. We thought that this was the perfect area for Tucker to head up – since he does like to fetch. So Tucker and I held a Kaizen event to help identify areas of waste and to develop solutions to streamline our procedures.

As Tucker and I documented our current process, we noticed that we were keeping our entire inventory in one place which, while at the same physical address, was 112 feet away from where we packaged the product for shipment. Therefore, if someone ordered one CoolZips® zipper pull from our web site, we would have to walk 224 feet roundtrip. Fulfilling 25 orders a day would be the equivalent of walking over a mile. And while this may be good exercise, this is not an efficient use of one’s workday or a company’s valuable resources.

The solution that we came up with was to keep a smaller amount of each style of zipper pull in the same immediate area where we package the product for shipment. By keeping only 50 of each of the 10 styles in arms reach, we can more quickly fulfill the order. Then, once a day, we replenish this stock back to the original quantities of 50 of each style. This is a true cost saving which allows us to spend more time in areas such as marketing, customer service, and new product development.

In the short span of four weeks, I can honestly say that Tucker has been a great addition to our family. I could also say that it wasn’t so hard to teach an old dog a new trick, but that’s cliché. Let’s just say that identifying and leveraging one’s skills is the first step in helping a new employee adjust – both personally and professionally.