Employee retention is the key to keeping a staff of talented, collaborative, hard-working workers. Unfortunately, retention is famously difficult in warehouses. Whether it’s due to the hard physical labor or low wages across the industry, many warehouses face high turnover rates. A high turnover rate, in turn, leads to excess spending on hiring, less cohesive teams, and an overall less experienced workforce.
Warehouses don’t just have to deal with poor employee retention, though. Check out these tips for improving turnover rate in your warehouse and cultivating a more secure and satisfied workforce.
Prioritize Safety
Warehouse jobs are tough. A lot of warehouse employee turnover comes down to the strain of physical labor or the higher risk of accidents. Even if an employee never gets into an accident at work, they might still have to leave due to a repetitive motion injury or other result of continuous physical labor.
Creating a safe, healthy workplace helps you protect your workers so that they can stay with your warehouse. Inspect your warehouse and find ways to avoid the most common injuries. Make safety an integral part of your onboarding and ongoing training processes. Guidelines such as proper lifting techniques or forklift safety serve as excellent reminders of employee safety.
Make Room for Employee Growth
If you want your employees to stay on your staff, you need to give them worthwhile places to go within your company. Emphasizing growth opportunities is one of the biggest tips for improving turnover rate in your warehouse. Make sure there are plenty of opportunities for your staff to learn and improve within your business. Provide training opportunities at every level so that employees can continue to improve and learn more about the business. Hire management positions internally to create growth opportunities for your staff. Employees who know they can grow within your company are more likely to keep working for you.
Use Employee Feedback
No one knows the ins and outs of your workflow like your employees. When it’s time to change a practice, upgrade machinery, or implement new procedures, make sure you consult with your employees first. Employee feedback is an invaluable source of information that you can use to make the most effective and beneficial decisions possible. Moreover, consistently asking for employee feedback helps your workers feel that their voices are important. Employees who feel valued in this way are more likely to be loyal to their company and want to stay.
