With warmer weather and longer days comes more distractions. Many of your employees will have other things besides work on their minds. They may be planning their summer vacation or just the neighborhood barbecue but if their focus is not entirely on what is going on in the office, that could be a problem for you. This time of year it's important to be mindful and recognize any employees who may be harming your business by not devoting enough attention to work. Keep reading for some tips to prevent this and to learn how you can use Stockpile simple free inventory solution to improve your inventory focus.
Listen
Many employees chit chat in the office. They may mention their upcoming plans to their coworkers and others. While just having plans outside of work isn't an issue someone who goes on and on about them may be distracted, and distracting others. If someone brings up their other activities repeatedly you may want to check in and see how they are progressing on their work projects. Talking about their plans too frequently may also be a sign that they are researching and making those plans on your time.
Look
If an employee brings in a stack of travel guides, it's a sure bet they are planning a big trip and they are reading up on excursions when they should be working. One or two books might be light lunchtime reading but a whole stack is a more time consuming endeavor so they must be planning to dive in at some point during the day. If leisure pursuits are covering their work space that doesn't leave much room for actual work and that could result in critical projects falling through the cracks.
Ask Questions
Of course, you don't want to feel like you're spying on your employees but being too hands off may give your staff the impression that you are unaware or unconcerned about what they do. Checking in and asking questions regarding current work assignments is a very reasonable thing to do. Just getting an update will give you a good idea of whether they are on target with their work or falling behind. You certainly wouldn't want to accuse an employee of slacking off only to discover that they had worked ahead specifically so they could take some time to plan a special activity.
Set Expectations
It's important for employees to understand what your expectations are. If you expect them to focus 100 percent on work while they're in the office you need to make that clear. Most workers feel like they are justified in taking some time for themselves throughout the day as long as they are getting their work done in a timely manner. If that is not what you expect you need to plainly state that.
Inventory Focused All the Time
If you'd like to have an employee who will focus on your inventory all the time, you need Stockpile. Stockpile is the simple free inventory solution for small business inventory management you've been looking for. Creating item records is quick and easy and the benefits are endless. Easily track location, price, barcode info, and more. You can even include a photo in your item records. Stockpile is fully customizable so the fields you include are entirely up to you. This makes it easy to track all the info that is important to your small business.
Running reports is a simple process as well. Just a few clicks and you can access all the tax time and end of year data that you need. Plus, Stockpile simple free inventory solution is mobile compatible so you can even access this info on the go. Put the power of enterprise level inventory management to work in your small business today. Try Stockpile now!
