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<\/a><\/p>\nUsually, the employment conversation about the decline of bricks-and-mortar retail is centered around job losses. \u201cThe department store platform seems to be falling apart,\u201d said Mark Muro at the Brookings Institution. The reason, most observers agree, is that consumers are increasingly likely to make their purchases electronically. As the number of orders processed online and delivered by companies like Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Staples rises, so does their need for workers in their distribution warehouses. In June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that the number of warehouse and storage-sector jobs had risen roughly 3.9% year-over-year, to a preliminary count of 948,500.<\/p>\n
As a result, HR managers at distribution warehouses across the country are under pressure to hire and retain workers. They face a classic supply-and-demand problem that\u2019s complicated by some unique challenges. To start, since their facilities all have similar transportation requirements, they tend to cluster near highways in the same areas. That means they\u2019re competing for labor within the same talent pool.<\/p>\n
To make matters more complicated, the warehouses\u2019 geographic requirements don\u2019t always line up with the population. Many facilities are built on the fringes of major metro areas, or else in rural or semi-rural small towns. Top distribution locations include Riverside, California; Toledo, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; and Cranbury, New Jersey. And the people who take warehouse jobs are often low-skilled, speak little or no English, come from a wide range of cultures, and often have difficulty managing multiple jobs, family responsibilities, and expectations like being able to get to work on time.<\/p>\n
For many retailers, distribution is a strategic issue that is so sensitive, they won\u2019t even talk about it. A number of warehouse HR professionals\u00a0SHRM Online\u00a0spoke to asked not to be identified, and other companies declined to make their HR staff available for fear of \u201crevealing best practices and insights\u201d to their competitors.<\/p>\n
Understanding What\u2019s Important<\/h2>\n
Many HR practitioners describe their warehouse employees as low-skilled and living from paycheck to paycheck. Often, they can\u2019t keep up with rent and bills. \u201cIt\u2019s genuinely hard for them,\u201d one warehouse HR manager said. (According to PayScale, the average U.S. warehouse worker earns $12.46 per hour, or about $28,000 annually.)<\/p>\n
Nearly all of the warehouse HR practitioners we spoke with pursue similar strategies with the goal of becoming a favored employer. Warehouse work is physically demanding and often entails long hours, but employers try to create the best working environments they can by, for example, keeping facilities spotlessly clean, understanding that warehouse workers often regard things like culture and benefits in ways that are markedly different from their white-collar colleagues, and, most commonly, being present on the warehouse floor and looking for opportunities to have personal interactions with workers.<\/p>\n
For many warehouse workers, \u201cit starts out as just another job,\u201d said Holly Courter, SHRM-SCP, Senior HR manager for the Hazle Township, Pennsylvania, facility of Westfield, New Jersey\u2013based Romark Logistics. \u201cBut we are committed to knowing the associates\u2019 individual needs. It\u2019s part of our retention strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing employees involves more than just knowing the name of each person on every shift. It\u2019s understanding their daily concerns and their challenges. As several HR managers noted, \u201ca gas card has more value than a 401(k).\u201d<\/p>\n
Recruiting and retaining workers is \u201call about brand and culture,\u201d Courter said. While she said Romark offers competitive pay and benefits, the fact that its warehouses are air-conditioned (many of its customers require it) and that employees remain on the clock during lunch breaks has a big impact on retention. In addition, Romark allows workers to choose shifts of 8, 10, or 12 hours, with the option of working weekends if they prefer. It\u2019s an unusual approach to scheduling, Courter said, but the flexibility helps build the company\u2019s reputation as an attractive place to work.<\/p>\n
Most warehouse HR professionals say a significant number of their workers come to the company through referrals or general word of mouth. One person brings in an application from a cousin, for example, or members of a community talk up their company because they feel they\u2019re being listened to and treated respectfully. To encourage such outreach, many warehouses offer referral bonuses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe identify the best candidates through referrals,\u201d said one manager. \u201cAnd the advantage of referrals is that we get information from a known source. Most of these folks don\u2019t have resumes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tactic is to actively seek ambassadors among longer-term employees and ask them to spread the word in their neighborhoods about available job opportunities. One Scranton-area distribution center targets community and religious gatherings at local Hindu temples and encourages its employees to tell others that the employer offers free English as a second language classes to the primarily Hindi-speaking population.<\/p>\n
Why Visibility Is Important<\/h2>\n
Once people are hired, spending time on the warehouse floor is a key to HR\u2019s success, several practitioners agreed. Romark, for example, has HR staffers at every 1 of its 6 facilities, said Courter. \u201cPersonal connections are very important. People want to see you on the floor, see that you understand their needs,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Nearly all the HR practitioners we spoke with stressed the importance of treating warehouse workers as professionals. But they also emphasized that it\u2019s important to use a different approach from the one they take with white-collar workers or skilled tradespeople.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t send an e-mail to white-collar workers and then only put up posters for blue-collar employees,\u201d said Adam Calli, SHRM-SCP, principal consultant of Arc Human Capital in Woodbridge, Virginia. \u201cYou need to show up at each preshift meeting to deliver your message.\u201d<\/p>\n
An HR business partner at a national retailer\u2019s distribution center agreed. She attends meetings with each department every week. Since most of her workforce speaks Spanish, she asks the strongest English speaker in the group to translate for her. Calli thinks that\u2019s a smart approach. \u201cYou should always make use of information leaders, the workers who speak better English, to help you communicate new policies and other information,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Building Common Ground for Multiple Cultures<\/h2>\n
But even if you have a good translator, this doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019ve overcome the issues presented by a multicultural workforce. Warehouse jobs are typically filled by employees who come from a range of cultures, for example, native-born Americans, Hispanics, Indians, and people from the Middle East.<\/p>\n
By thinking proactively, employers can minimize any historical tensions between different groups, practitioners say. Yet while most in HR are keenly aware of the number of cultures represented on the warehouse floor, few talk about that diversity as a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne would think diversity causes drama, but that\u2019s not true,\u201d Courter said. \u201cWe have a very diverse workforce, with different religions, backgrounds, and cultures, but we use the corporate culture as the common denominator. It\u2019s not always easy, but it\u2019s working.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a fast-paced and demanding work environment, tensions and disagreements can arise, she added. \u201cYou have to be proactive, hear both sides and bring people to a common understanding.\u201d Such dynamics, she said, are another reason to have an HR presence in every facility.<\/p>\n
Open Doors Make the Difference<\/h2>\n
Managing a distribution warehouse\u2019s employees is about as close to \u201cin the trenches\u201d as HR can get. Resolving most challenges\u2014from recruiting difficulties to absenteeism to personal politics on the warehouse floor\u2014in some way depends on HR professionals being visible and known individually by the workforce.<\/p>\n
Indeed, the idea of getting to know each worker and his or her job is a key to success, according to many of these HR professionals. \u201cWe take the initiative to spend time with employees and listen to them,\u201d said one. \u201cWe bring people off the floor in groups based on their language so we can hear what they think we could do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The owners of privately held Romark, for example, call their employees \u201cthe foundation of our business success\u201d and back up those words with simple actions that go a long way with their warehouse associates: They send birthday and anniversary cards to each worker and hold events that focus on and involve workers\u2019 family members. They endeavor to make sure each worker understands what\u2019s expected of him or her and pay close attention to the condition of their facilities, as well as to safety precautions.<\/p>\n
More important, this familiarity with individual workers can make it easier to tackle issues such as absenteeism. Some warehouse employees struggle to stay in one job for an extended time, one HR manager said, because their daily challenges can cause them to miss too many days of work. While he is sympathetic, he also said \u201cyou have to enforce your guidelines around attendance, even with good workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Courter, \u201cit comes down to knowing the person and letting them know someone\u2019s paying attention.\u201d If an employee unexpectedly misses several days of work, she\u2019ll talk to the person to \u201cfind out what\u2019s going on and look for a way to deal with it.\u201d In addition, her company actively encourages employees to approach HR in advance if they anticipate a string of absences. When associates know the people who work in HR, they\u2019re more likely to do that, and to appreciate the process. It\u2019s an example of how \u201cknowing the associates is a part of retention,\u201d Courter said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Reprinted from Society for Human Resource Management, August 2, 2017, with permission of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). \u00a9SHRM 2017. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Copyright Statement<\/strong><\/p>\nThis article was published in the November 2017 issue of Insulation Outlook magazine. Copyright\u00a0\u00a9 2017 National Insulation Association. All rights reserved. The contents of this website and Insulation Outlook magazine may not be reproduced in any means, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of the publisher and NIA. Any unauthorized\u00a0duplication is strictly prohibited and would violate NIA\u2019s copyright and may violate other copyright agreements that NIA has with authors and partners. Contact publisher@insulation.org<\/a> to reprint or reproduce this content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A casual drive around Scranton, Pennsylvania, reveals one of the most significant challenges that local distribution centers face in trying to attract employees: an extremely competitive market. One billboard announces lofty starting salaries at Amazon.com\u2019s newest local warehouse. Less than a mile down the road, another billboard touts jobs at the new Chewy.com distribution center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":[409],"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[329,21,410],"class_list":["post-11161","articles","type-articles","status-publish","hentry","category-personnel-global","category-business-managment","category-november-2017","author-mark-feffer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n