The number one reason laborers leave a company is mainly because of company culture, not money, said Andy Paulson, director of customer success from labor management system company TZA. At ProMat/Automate on April 11, he and TZA President Andrew Recard presented familiar data about how to attract today’s workers. They pointed out several of the gaps between what warehousing and logistics companies are offering and what workers want, and also giving an illustration of how one company reduced turnover.
 
Today’s individuals want to be well-compensated, and they’re also determined to make a point their company culture lines up with their ethics. Amazon raised its wages to at the very minimum $15 per hour for all staff members, and large-scale operations like Amazon and Tesla are making themselves competitive with their pay. Quite often smaller companies need to pay higher so that they can compete, even as the idea jeopardise their bottom line.
 
Recard noted that this conversation isn’t new, but is more at the forefront than before. Millennial workers want to be treated, he said, but those rewards are not solely tangible — often times, they have been common sense management.
 
“Treat them well, take care of them, engage them, make sure they’re happy, make sure they’re productive,” Recard said. Workers want mentoring, feedback, and acknowledgment. “This is not an option anymore,” he said. “This is something people are demanding.”
 
Where labor management in manufacturing and warehousing might once have been about finding the people who will not be productive and bringing them up to speed, more companies are finding now that they get better results by encouraging their best people. One company TZA quoted set up conversations between employees and their manager once a month, with the hope of ensuring that that each employee was in the role which most suitable them. Managers were urged to ask whether employees like what they're doing, have any interest in cross-training, or would like to a leadership position.
 
Other companies have shifted to more creative physical rewards — Recard highlighted an important manufacturing company which puts workers who have perfect attendance between Thanksgiving and Christmas into the running for a $10,000 lottery. But is that well worth the cost of working over the holidays? Employees with children or close families might not think so.
 
Drawing in millennial workers may be hard due to the perception of manufacturing and warehousing work as boring, unskilled, or difficult. Common causes of high turnover in industry are ineffective management, little to no recognition or reward for valued employees, undesirable work environments (dirty, hot/cold), and weekend and holiday work. Finding ways in order to avoid these things not forgetting keeping up with an increasingly high-speed, high-demand environment may be a challenge for companies.
 
Generation Z employees can be even more determined to avoid these things than Millennials. According to TZA, Generation Z employees are very familiar with changing jobs at intervals and highly value meaningful interpersonal interactions.
 
“We have to take care of the people we do have, because there are not ten people in line who are going to show up,” Paulson said.
 
With a low population growth rate and more jobs than workers, companies will need to treat their people well in order to make sure loyal employees.
 
This article is originally posted on tronserve.com