Thursday 22 May 2014

Reduce Fulfilment Costs, Go Green

Image of 3d text saying go green

Save The Earth and Save £££

By using green practices you can save on your fulfilment costs

GREEN Fact: Recycling one ton of paper saves:

  • 20 trees
  • 7,000 gallons of water
  • 3 cubic yards of landfill space
  • 60 pounds of air pollutants
  • Saves enough energy to power the average home for six months

   -10 Green Facts That Will Make Your Head Spin, Marc Swanson

_________________________________________________________________________________
Question...

  1. How do you feel about your impact on the environment? 
  2. Do you feel that using 'Green' practices is expensive and unnecessary?
  3. Or is that your busy, that you don't have time to think about 'Green' practices?


Relax, Your not the Only one with these thoughts
Time is precious. Sometimes, we entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers, students, and professionals are so busy, we do not always have time to think about how are efforts impact our Earth. The need to be 'Green' has never been more important than it is today. Whether it is the rising cost of electricity, oil, or new energy efficient technology, as a society our attitudes and mindsets have adopted how going 'Green' is essential for both businesses and our personal lives.

Now take off your business hat, and get into the mindset as a consumer
- When you buy a product via a Catalogue, Amazon, Ebay or through any other means where it is sent via post, how do you go about opening it?

- Do you get excited, and just automatically look for your new found treasures and toss away any other materials that come with it?

- If your package comes with reading materials, what do you do with them?
 Common Reading Materials Found in Packages:

  •    Notes to remind you to give 5 star feed back to the Amazon or eBay Seller
  •    Coupons
  •    Flyers, on new merchandise
  •    Pre-generated Thank You notes
  •    Mini Catalogues
Now with these questions in mind, in the previous section did you agree with the statement 'Sometimes, we entrepreneurs, mothers, fathers, students, and professionals are so busy, we do not always have time to think about how are efforts impact our Earth..?'

Do you want to be that business that wastes money on printing and using unnecessary material?


Lets Move to the 'Green' Fulfilment Practices
Listed below you will see a list of common fulfilment services that are not entirely 'Green' friendly and that could save your business money and effort.
  • Print & Packing Invoices
  • Print & Packing Notes
  • Print & Packing Non-Essential Leaflets / Inserts
  • Incorrect Sized Packaging
  • Excessive Packing Filler
NOTE: It is advised to include a returns slip and any information leaflet / insert that instructs the consumer on how to properly use your product. 

But...
- What if you made it possible for your consumers to download, save and or print their own invoices
- What if you made it possible for your consumers to obtain any special notes via email, sms or through your website  (example: Thank You Note, Feedback notes, Coupons, etc...) 

Think about waste...
- When products are packaged in incorrectly sized boxes, bags and or envelopes this not only costs you financially but also can tarnish your brands image. Don't be that business that cuts corners.
- If products are packed in properly sized packaging it reduces the need to use packing filler.

The Take Away
If your simply selling products that require no product info, such as mobile phone accessories, board games, car parts, clothing, etc... It would be best to just pack it simply in the correct sized packing and take advantage of technology to engage with your consumers instead of relying on printed material.

By Erik Miller

JEM Marketing & Fulfilment Services Ltd.
The Invisible Link- Between your business and its customers
www.j-e-m.com

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Tips to Improve your Attrition Rate for 2014

What is Attrition?

The Oxford Dictionary defines attrition as the process of reducing something’s strength or effectiveness through sustained attack or pressure. Which can also be defined as the reduction of staff through common means such as retirement and or resignation.

What is the importance of improving my company’s attrition rates?

Employees are the backbone of any company. They are the ones that make your business come to life. They generate client leads or drive sales, nurture your clients and provide your services or products at the standards you market. So it is essential to ensure your employees are happy. The consequences of an unhappy employee can be damaging to the company, thanks to the virtual world we all live in. An unhappy employee will cost you in loss of productivity, brand equity, loss of customers and much much more. “A Happy Worker Is a Productive Worker. Marilyn Tam” Common employee issues that result in the decline of your attrition rate. Employee engagement, Rewards/ Incentives and Visibility are the most common issues.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT:

Feeling no emotional connection to your company or their co-worker’s makes for an unhealthy working environment. Our jobs take up a huge portion of our time in life, so it is important to ensure your working environment is healthy. Social interaction as well as a rewarding work environment create a healthy work place. Employees require respect, recognition as well as a challenging position with room to learn and progress further inside your company. Ways to create employee engagement:

-Employee luncheons
-Employee happy hours
-Lunch with Management/ CEO/ President
-Holiday Parties (Christmas Party, Halloween, Guy Fawks, Thanks Giving, etc…)
-Employee Appreciation Outings (Riverboat cruise, Comedy club, Paintball, BBQ, etc…)
-Celebrate bizarre days (Onesie Friday, National Donut Day, Eat What You Want Day, Speak like a Pirate Day, Margarita Day, etc…)

REWARDS/ INCENTIVES:

You hired your employees because you witnessed something inside of them. You gave your employees a chance to help build your business and keep it going. Your employees are an investment to your business. With that said, just because you give them a job, isn’t the most effective way to show your appreciation. It’s highly important to show appreciation to your entire workforce in order to keep moral high. Ways to Reward/ Incentives:

-Employee of the month
-Provide lunch (pizza, sandwiches, etc…)
-Provide morning treats (donuts, pastries, bagels, etc…)
-Create departmental goals with rewards
Goals: most positive reviews, going the extra mile, meeting or exceeding set goals
prizes: movie tickets, restaurant vouchers, grocery vouchers, gift cards
-Create a rotating trophy of greatness: Each month the trophy travels from one great employee to the next. The trophy can come with additional privileges such as, come into work later, leave work early or extra time on lunch.

VISIBILITY:

Share your company’s productivity reports. Your employees were hired to do a job. Let your employees see what their contributions have led to. By allowing your employees to be informed of your company’s real-time stats, this opens up the opportunity for them to feel connected and also gives them the ability to see the current state and direction of the company. Share the monthly sales reports, even if they are bad. This will allow you and your employees to increase accountability, as well as a culture of development, that will ultimately help you reach your objectives. Ways to increase visibility:

-Share monthly sales reports complete for goals and real time stats
-Hold monthly or bi-weekly team meetings and discuss the developments
-Create a dashboard on your company’s intranet that your employees have access to
-Create reports or show reports that reflect directly on the performance of each of your departments
-Create or share a management flow chart. Show the employment flow chart/ staff management structure

MOTIVATION:

Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on. Maslow developed a 5-stage model in the form of a pyramid. Jim Riley (2012) explains that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory consists of two parts, (1) the classification of human needs and (2) consideration of how the classes are related to each other. The stages of needs begin at the bottom and work their way up, starting with physiological followed by safety, love, esteem and ending with self-actualisation. The model illustrates that in order for a person to progress on to meet the higher level needs, they must first satisfy the lower basic needs.
Image of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in a pyramid format.
When you look to the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs each stage relates to business, example:

Stage 1: Physiological needs

These are the simple needs of air, water, food, clothing and shelter. Essentially these are the required needs to survive. Without these needs the body will be unable to function. This is why they are the dominant needs.

Salary, decent working environment

Stage 2: Safety needs

These needs include, physical, emotional, protection and environment safety. Job security, family security, financial security are different forms of safety needs.

Safe working conditions, job security

Stage 3: Social needs

The need to feel belonged, which includes love, affection, friendship and care.

Good team atmosphere, friendly supervision

Stage 4: Esteem needs

Internal esteem and external esteem make up this stage. Achievement, self-respect and confidence are examples of internal esteem needs. Status, attention, appreciation and recognition are examples of external esteem needs.

Fancy job title, recognition of achievements

Stage 5: Self-Actualisation needs

This final stage represents the need to the person’s full potential and the need to realise it. The desire to become everything that one is capable of becoming, is how Maslow describes the final stage of Self-Actualisation needs.

Opportunities for creativity and personal growth, promotion

When managers, identify the need levels of their employees, this will allow them to help them feel fulfilled. This will intern aid in improving your attrition levels.


JEM Marketing & Fulfilment Services Ltd.
The Invisible Link- Between your business and its customers
www.j-e-m.com