There are very few businesses in the world where there doesn’t need to be any working condition improvements. However, the perks of having a well-maintained, clean, and well-equipped manufacturing business are so good that you could find your business improves its production rates, quality and profits if the working conditions are improved.
#1 Carry out regular maintenance
Although it is very important to carry out regular maintenance on all of the equipment and machinery on your factory floor that your workers use, it is also important to carry out regular maintenance on items that are easily forgotten, such as your air conditioning units. Air conditioning units can harbor harmful bacteria if not serviced and cleaned regularly. So, in order to keep your workers fit and healthy, it is imperative that these maintenance objectives are carried out.
#2 Provide the right equipment
Expecting your workers to carry out their daily job roles to a satisfactory level without providing them with the correct equipment is putting unnecessary stress on your worker’s behalf. This is also true when not providing enough of equipment so your workers are faced with unnecessary downtime while they are waiting to be able to use tools or equipment that another worker is currently using. This scenario is one that is often found in warehouse environments for equipment such as forklifts. Finding a business that also provides refurbished forklift sales, as well as new ones, could be the option that will suit your pocket best and will keep all of your workers working all of the time.
#3 Keep information free flowing
One of the main issues that face manufacturing workers is that information rarely reaches the factory floor unless it is because of a problem that the customer has had with a product. This is not a good way of keeping your factory workers happy and content in their job roles.
In fact, in most manufacturing businesses those workers that are working on the production lines are seen as being at the bottom of the chain and therefore too low to know what is going on higher up in the chain of command. This is something that should be addressed – every worker should be seen as a valuable asset to the business and therefore should be notified when things are going bad for the business (long before redundancies are talked about) as well as when things are going well.
On this topic, praise should be given to the workers concerned and passed down when it is due and when it has come from customers feedback, it is highly likely that your business will not waste any time at all should the feedback be negative in letting your workers know they are at fault, the reverse should be true too.
Final thoughts
Improved working conditions can involve many different things from the health and safety of your workers to building their morale and keeping them happy.
Although it is well known that businesses lose a lot of revenue to sick workers not attending work, you would be surprised by the amount of revenue your business is missing out on because your workers are unhappy. It is a fact that happy workers have a much higher production rate than those that are unhappy in their workplace, their quality is also higher and their absences are less, so it pays to make your workers happy and healthy.
