How Barcodes & Software Help You Succeed with Your Multigenerational Workforce

September 5th 2018 15:00:00 PM

According to a report from Randstad US, there are now more generations than ever in the workplace. The blend of Baby Boomers, GenX-ers, and Millennials creates unprecedented opportunity for well-rounded productivity, but it can also create unexpected challenges … unless you use the right barcodes & software.

One of the largest and most unexpected challenges that business leaders face is in the area of communication. As it turns out, each of these generations has a different communication style, which impacts information sharing and workplace productivity. In essence, companies that want to succeed with a multigenerational workforce in today’s business landscape must focus on easing communication barriers, so they can maintain high levels of productivity.

Learn how targeted technology can help your manufacturing or distribution company overcome communication challenges in the workplace. Contact the tech experts at Scanco to find out more.

Communication Is the Key to Success … and That’s a Problem

With the rise of eCommerce and its related consumer shopping behaviors, today’s warehouses and manufacturing plants must run at high speed, on short timelines. While high stress / high speed / rush orders would result in increased costs in other industries, these working conditions are par for the course in modern manufacturing and distribution operations.

The fact is: If companies in distribution and manufacturing wish to grow their businesses and stay ahead of their competition, they must offer a reasonably-priced product delivered in record time, yet with 100% accuracy and quality. That’s a tall order—and achieving this goal becomes even harder when you deal with workplace communication obstacles.

Where Workplace Communication Falls Flat

According to the Randstad US study, 81% of workers agree that the primary difference between generations in the workplace lies in their communication styles. A full 38% of workers find it difficult to communicate with coworkers who aren’t their age, and, of those, men are nearly twice as likely to have communication difficulties than women.

These findings are fascinating because they show that there’s a high likelihood that almost every multigenerational company is currently suffering from communications issues, and that could be negatively impacting the industry as a whole. If you’re experiencing issues or you’re handling an inexplicable productivity decline even after a recent hiring surge, you too may be having communication issues in your workplace.

Are You Experiencing Communication Problems?

Curious if this trend is impacting you and your business? Here are a few trouble spots you may be facing because of poor intergenerational communication:

• Your order accuracy has recently decreased, resulting in higher-than-average return rates
• Recently, your company has had a few near-misses with deadlines, but you can’t seem to pin down a reason why
• Your employees seem to be finding it harder to work in fluid teams, or they request to work on the same teams repeatedly
• Training is slower than it used to be and workplace mentors are privately expressing frustration with mentees
• Your turnover rate is trending upward or has suddenly spiked

Bypass Multigenerational Communication Problems Using Barcodes & Software

Happily, the Randstad US report makes a few suggestions companies can use to improve multigenerational communication across the enterprise. These include tailoring feedback to match the communication style of each generation and choosing inspirational individuals with great communication abilities for management positions.

However, these suggestions can only fix some communication issues—and all those fixes take place after the fact. In today’s highly varied workplaces, training your employees to clearly communicate with each other is worth it, but it takes time and a culture shift for you to accomplish this goal.

In the real world, the one in which shop floor and warehouse managers face relentless deadlines and unfailing order accuracy, you need a solution now.

Your Solution: Barcodes & Software That Integrates with Them

With barcodes & software working together to support clear communication on your shop floor and in your warehouse, you can overcome communication difficulties and identify emerging productivity issues quickly.

Why is the combination of barcodes and software so crucial to this equation? Because the best way to get barcoding tools to properly assist with your workplace communication is to integrate tools with your ERP solution. That way, you and your staff will have a clear method for collecting accurate data (barcode tools), as well as a great way to analyze the data you’ve collected and share it company-wide (your ERP).

And if you’re running Sage 100 barcode integration is easy with Scanco.

For nearly 30 years, Scanco has been helping manufacturers and distributors succeed by providing easy-to-use barcode software and hardware. Scanco solutions seamlessly integrate affordable and flexible smartphone-based barcode scanners with a wide range of today’s leading SMB ERP options, helping companies like yours collect, share, analyze, and act on information—lightning fast—no matter how well your employees are communicating with each other on a given day.

It’s easy to learn more about how you can integrate barcodes & software together to increase communication and collaboration at your company—all you have to do is start communicating.

Begin the process when you contact Scanco online or at (330) 645-9959 to get all your questions answered.