• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Blogs » Think Tank » Who Wants to Work in a Warehouse?

Think Tank
Think Tank RSS FeedRSS

Logistics / Quality & Metrics / HR & Labor Management / All Warehouse Services / Order Fulfillment / Warehouse Management Systems

Who Wants to Work in a Warehouse?

November 2, 2015
Robert J. Bowman, SupplyChainBrain

Start with the fact that the national warehouse workforce is growing older. Many of its members are approaching retirement, and there aren't enough younger workers lining up to take their places, says Peter Schnorbach, senior director of product management with Manhattan Associates.

By its nature, warehouse work involves tasks that are numbingly repetitive. The productivity of employees is measured down to the minute. Working conditions can be brutal. So it’s not surprising that many young people “are frankly not interested in those jobs,” Schnorbach says. The high-school graduate who might previously have sought work in a distribution center today has a number of options, such as home healthcare and customer-service positions.

Those who do choose work within the walls of the warehouse aren’t especially happy about it. The latest Gallup survey of U.S. employment engagement revealed that transportation, distribution and production personnel ranked well below the national average in that sentiment, with only 23 to 25 percent of employees declaring themselves “engaged” in their jobs. What’s more, millennials were the least-engaged generation in the survey, at 28.9 percent. Together those numbers paint a portrait of aging, alienated workers and younger individuals who aren’t especially interested in performing one of the most vital tasks in the supply chain.

Clearly, warehouse employers need to find better ways of attracting and engaging workers. The most obvious step would be to pay them more, but most distribution operations are low-margin in nature, with wages reflecting the lack of higher education credentials among job candidates.

Some operations are launching incentive programs that reward the highest performers. But others continue to keep overall wages low, or depend heavily on temporary workers that are even less productive than their full-time counterparts. “Industry still seems to be throwing labor at the problem, as opposed to figuring out how to optimize that labor,” says Schnorbach.

One step that employers can take is to make sure that the full-time labor force is operating at peak efficiency. Workers need to understand the goals of management, which should provide both training opportunities and clear performance metrics. Only then should the employer be thinking about bringing in temps or pushing permanent staff for overtime.

Relentless measuring, of course, can be a big factor in employee disengagement, especially if workers feel they’re being treated like programmed robots. According to Schnorbach, though, they needn’t know they’re being measured. Or if they do, the information should be used to incentivize behavior, not browbeat workers for missing arbitrary performance targets.

“The most successful programs are the ones that are engaging the employees,” says Schnorbach. “Make them an important part of the overall mission of the operation.”

Then there’s the concept of gamification – applying the elements of gaming to the workplace in order to drive desired behavior. Examples include competitions based on posted results, with the awarding of prizes or other kinds of recognition as incentives.

Schnorbach cites the example of workers at the end of a shift writing down the number of units picked, as a challenge to the next shift. The ongoing competition could serve as a means of ramping up productivity.

At the same time, management gets valuable data on the efficiency of the operation. “I don’t think you can ever collect too much information,” says Schnorbach. “It’s what you do with the information that counts.”

The right kind of program will be driven by the workers, not management. Beyond any incentives that might be offered, workers get the benefit of knowing how they’re doing. “People are starved for feedback,” says Schnorbach. But the information in question shouldn’t be limited to the strict number of units picked, without taking into account individual workers’ abilities and the difficulty of various tasks.

The concept of gamification is still young. Schnorbach says Manhattan considered building a module into its warehouse-management application, but ultimately decided that “it was a little too early to do that.” Most of the company’s warehouse customers “are still at the point where they’re trying to figure out how to expose information to employees in the most meaningful manner.” Options include bulletin boards and flatscreen TVs, but most current tools don’t go beyond merely displaying the statistics.

The future might look something like the social performance platform originally known as Rypple, acquired by Salesforce.com, Inc. at the end of 2011. It morphed into a tool that provides real-time feedback on job performance, recognizes high achievers and aids in the recruitment of talent. “That’s a great concept,” says Schnorbach, “but I think it’s a little early for warehouses.”

In the end, the key to attracting and motivating warehouse workers will likely center on more traditional techniques: offering fair pay, varying work assignments, providing adequate training and getting buy-in from labor unions. Schnorbach says unions are open to performance measurements if they’re applied objectively and can serve as the arbiter in disputes.

The problem of attracting young people to an aging industry might be tougher to solve. The Gallup results suggest that employers need to focus on the issue of engagement. “Companies that want to hire these workers need to promote the cultural aspects of the job,” says Schnorbach. “They need to show how they’re going to provide value in these peoples’ lives.”

Comment on This Article

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: J&J Pause Could Last Several Weeks; Global Vaccine Production Nears 2 Billion

    Coronavirus
  • Shipping Costs

    Higher Shipping Costs Are Here to Stay, Sparking Price Increases

    Coronavirus
  • Ocado

    Kroger Is Amassing a Robot Army to Battle Amazon, Walmart

    Logistics
  • Indoor Farm

    Vertical Farming: A Solution to Waste and Inefficiency in the Food Supply Chain?

    Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Why Is There a Global Semiconductor Shortage?

    Watch: Why Is There a Global Semiconductor Shortage?

    Coronavirus

Digital Edition

Scb feb 2021 lg

2021 Supply Chain Management Resource Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • Remote Implementation: A Dose of the Right Medicine for B2B Pharmacy

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

Visit Our Sponsors

Yang Ming 6 River Systems ArcBest
Armada aThingz BluJay
Burris Logistics DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association)
DHL Resilience360 Flash Global Genpact
Geodis GEP GreyOrange
Honeywell Corporate Honeywell Intelligrated Infor
Inmar Kibo Commerce Kinaxis
Logility Magnitude Software MPO
Old Dominion Oliver Wight OpenSky
Paccurate Ports America Purolator
QAD Precision Red Classic Riskmethods
S&H Systems Snapfulfil TGW Systems
Tradepoint Atlantic Transportation Insights Watson Land Company
Westfalia Technologies Workjam
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2021 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing