Are you someone who “shows up?”

I visited with a group of pallet plant owners this week at the NWPCA meeting. One of their largest concerns is getting people to come to work every day.

Each manager talked about the problems of missing people:

1. Missed production
2. Disruption to smooth production processes
3. Breakdown in team cohesion
4. Injuries and quality mistakes due to people trying to substitute in an unfamiliar job

Attendance ends up being one of the largest hindrances to productivity facing our industry.

It’s a shame really but it’s a lesson to all of us:

If you want to be valuable in the workplace, one habit you can adopt is being on time every day.

To develop the habit of showing up on time, you have to be intentional. There needs to be a decision where the employee says, “My goal is showing up.”

To be one who shows up on time, you have to communicate to everyone in your life the goal of punctuality.

You set benchmarks. You say to yourself, “In order to be on time I must:”

• Allow at least this much time to travel to work
• Make sure I get this much rest so that getting up won’t be an issue
• Set an alarm for this time
• Allow for the things that go wrong which sometimes cause delays
• Create a margin by arriving early to work

These are just a few steps. But, here’s the point:

To become a person who shows up on time does not require an education.

To become a person who shows up on time does not require a particular IQ.

To become a person who shows up on time does not take into account anything in your background or history that could otherwise hold you back.

In our industry, showing up on time moves you ahead. It makes you eligible for more responsibility. It provides job security.