Sick Days

No employer likes to hear that one of their employees is sick and can't make it to work. You really hope they feel better and can return to work soon, but you've got another problem on your hands too... Who is going to fill in to tackle their duties until they are will enough to return to work?

If you've prepared for this day, suddenly becoming short-handed doesn't have to be so bad. A few extra cross-training sessions with your other employees during down-time, and a lot of thorough communication between all departments, could be the answer you're seeking for those days when someone calls in unexpectedly. For example, here at Lonestar, we only have one employee in our shipping department. If he isn't in the office for one day, our packages won't get shipped on time. With time sensitive material needing to be send out everyday, we just can't get behind on our shipping schedule. As a preventative measure to avoid this type of mishap, we figured out that by training a few other employees in our sales and production departments to be the "back-up" shippers, we are able to ship everything on time even when our shipper is out sick. With the sales and production departments both taking turns doing the shipping (one ships in the morning and the other ships after lunch), the work in both departments can still be done in a timely manner, without anybody falling behind on their own daily responsibilities.

This theory can carry throughout all departments of the workplace. Try to pinpoint employee likes and talents, and see if there may be another job they would be interested in preforming, in conjunction with their daily assignments. In case of those last minute situations, have a few employees from each department trained in another department's tasks. You will always be prepared no matter who isn't able to make it to work.