Warehouse Manager onboarding plan
In a warehouse, safety and site rules come before anything else. A warehouse manager's onboarding must cover them on day one, then the flow of goods, shifts and the people who run each area.
What good onboarding achieves
Run warehouse operations safely and to KPI, with reliable shift coverage and clear escalation routes.
Week one example
- Day 1: Site safety induction, emergency procedures and PPE; meet site leadership.
- Day 2: Walk the flow: inbound, storage, picking, packing, outbound.
- Day 3: Warehouse management system and KPI dashboards.
- Day 4: Shift patterns, rosters and team leads on each shift.
- Day 5: Carrier and supplier contacts; incident reporting process.
30/60/90 progression
- Day 30: Runs daily operations with support and knows every area's lead.
- Day 60: Owns rosters, KPI reporting and incident handling.
- Day 90: Has improved one KPI such as pick accuracy or dock time.
People to meet (examples)
- Site or operations manager
- Shift team leads
- Health and safety lead
- Transport or carrier contacts
Systems to learn (examples)
- Warehouse management system
- Rostering tool
- Incident reporting system
- KPI dashboards
Manager checkpoints
- Day 1: safety induction signed off
- Week 2: shift coverage review
- Day 30: KPI baseline
- Day 90: improvement results
Common mistakes
- Treating safety induction as paperwork
- Only meeting the day shift
- Not explaining incident escalation
- Introducing changes during peak periods
Checklist
- Safety induction completed
- Emergency procedures known
- Full site walk done
- WMS access
- KPI dashboards reviewed
- All shift leads met
- Incident process explained
- Carrier contacts shared