Better inventory management is good for your company — and your bottom line. But did you know it can also greatly impact employee experience?

It makes sense, right? When operations run more smoothly and people have the information they need at their fingertips, work feels much easier and more enjoyable.

Here we take a closer look at how inventory management helps employees and what you can do to hone your processes while improving the employee experience.

Why is employee experience so important?

Employee experience is how your team members feel about working for your company. It’s how they feel about their role, the tasks that they complete, and your organisational culture.

Finding ways to improve the employee experience is essential for SMBs. That’s because when employees feel positive about their work and their workplace, the business as a whole benefits.

Here’s what you can expect when you focus on improving employee experience:

• You build a positive company culture
• You find it easier to attract and retain staff
• You reduce absenteeism
• Your employees are more engaged and productive
• You foster collaboration and better team-working
• You improve customer satisfaction

Research shows these benefits amount to savings of up to 12.6% of your revenue. So when you improve the employee experience, you boost your bottom line too.

How inventory management helps employees

Want to improve the employee experience within your organisation? Then check out all the ways that better inventory management can help.

Employees spend less time on repetitive tasks

Nobody enjoys doing the same monotonous, manual tasks over and over again. Jobs like order picking, stock taking, and record keeping take up a lot of time.

An automated inventory management system alleviates some of your team’s workload. They no longer have to spend all their time on repetitive tasks because the system does it for them.

The time your employees save can be used to deal with more engaging and challenging workplace activities. They can come up with creative ideas and dedicate time to solving problems.

This adds greater value for your business, and it’s much more satisfying for employees too.  

Less burnout

Automation takes some of the pressure off your team. They aren’t trying to fit too many tasks into their day, and their workload becomes much more manageable.

This means your team will be less stressed and less likely to take time off work due to burnout. But the benefits of boosted employee wellbeing don’t end there.

When your team is less stressed out, they’re more productive. They also work better as a team and are more likely to stay with your company.

Better employee investment

Good inventory management makes your business more efficient. You waste less stock. You always have the right products on shelves. And you can fulfil orders in record time.

All of this helps to save your business money — money that you can invest in your employees.

Think of what stands to improve the employee experience the most. That might be:

• Better training opportunities
• Improved perks and benefits
• Upgraded resources and equipment

Then invest in your employees to make them happier and more engaged with their work.

Employees enjoy standardised training and onboarding

Learning the ropes at a new job is never easy. But a poor onboarding process is often part of the problem. And this negatively impacts employee experience.

Whether employees are new to a role or doing some on-the-job training, disorganised and poorly structured inventory training programs make life harder than it needs to be.

But you don’t have to teach employees a bunch of complicated manual processes. Training becomes much more streamlined and intuitive when you have an optimised inventory management system.

That means your employees learn more quickly and feel like confident, productive team members sooner rather than later.

Employees deal with happier customers

When everything works well in your warehouse, customers receive items quickly. They’re less likely to be affected by out-of-stocks and there are fewer reasons for them to call up your customer service helpline.

That means happier customers and a less stressed customer service team. When your agents aren’t swamped with complaints, they don’t have to spend their days fighting fires.

Instead, they spend more time with each customer, helping them resolve their issues and getting much greater satisfaction from their role.  

Employees learn new technologies and techniques

When you incorporate an inventory management system into your operations, you have to train your employees to use it.

This means you’re upskilling your team, giving them the knowledge they need to thrive in the tech-based workplaces of the future — yours included.   

With training and development such an integral part of the employee experience, ticking this box is another way to make your employees feel more content and loyal to your company.

Build a better inventory and order management system for your team

Now we know how inventory management helps employees, but how do you put better inventory and order processes in place?

It all starts with the right system. As a small to medium-sized business, you should be looking for order and inventory software that:

• Simplifies your inventory and order management process
• Automates repetitive manual process
• Provides real-time updates
• Gives you access to inventory and order information via a central dashboard
• Supports your existing workflow
• Protects your data
• Adapt to your needs

With a system perfectly tailored to your company, you ensure that any inventory and order management changes actually benefit your employees and improve their work lives.

Workhorse does all this and more.

Our cloud-based inventory software is built with SMBs in mind. By choosing only the modules you need and leaving the rest, you can transform your inventory management and improve the employee experience.

Want to get Workhorse on your team? Sign up for a free software demo today!