Investing in talent and keeping them working at your warehouse facility is probably the toughest job you have as a manager. According to Instawork, it takes a talent investment team an average of 10 hours to hire an individual for a single position. On top of the time, turnover costs teams $670 per worker. Multiply that out by the high level of turnover you experience and you are spending $7,000 or more on employment costs.
According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average time to fill is 30 days. That’s 30 days from the time the job requisition was opened until the time the offer was accepted by the candidate.
You spend hours working with internal and external teams to bring talent to your facility. Once you finally get talent to your facility you are still going to experience a minimum 4% turnover according to the BLS) and in times like COVID, you’re battling the incentives from the government. You’ve already raised your pay rates, the average national pay is $12.62 according to Wonolo, to try and meet the current government incentives. As pay has risen your employee turnover has continued to be at an all-time high and you can’t get people to even show up. So where do you turn?
Implement a widespread training program for all employees. Including hourly.
Implementing a widespread training program that brings about real change is a challenge for most leaders and businesses. As stated in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), most training programs struggle to bring about real institutional change as managers struggle to change behaviors and allow employee feedback to guide change in behavior. HBR lays out six steps to push a change in behavior.
- BUY IN FROM LEADERSHIP.
The senior team clearly defines values and an inspiring strategic direction. - REDESIGN WITH FEEDBACK.
After gathering candid, anonymous observations and insights from managers and employees, the team diagnoses barriers to strategy execution and learning. It then redesigns the organization’s roles, responsibilities, and relationships to overcome those barriers and motivate change. - EFFECTIVE COACHING.
Day-to-day coaching and process consultation help people become more effective in that new design, along with the addition of training where needed. - LET DATA LEAD.
Success in changing behavior is gauged using new metrics for individual and organizational performance. - PROCESS FLOW YOUR SYSTEMS.
Systems for selecting, evaluating, developing, and promoting talent are adjusted to reflect and sustain the changes in organizational behavior.
With manager behavior being a catalyst for change, it is essential that training programs are taken by both hourly employees and leadership, which allows for open channels of communication that lead to lasting change and a build in trust.
The trust that is built between both managers and hourly employees is essential to seeing a reduction in turnover and improvement in overall employee happiness. As trust is built, employees feel empowered to speak up and see things change in ways that improve the culture of the work environment while making them feel tied to direction of the organization as a whole. Not only does education build a high level of trust, but it allows for hourly employees to experience how they can move from their current job to higher levels of management. As hourly employees experience the ‘realness’ of how they can move up the ladder, they are at a much higher probability to stay and aim for what feels like attainable levels of success.
The state of Indiana offers training programs for anyone with at least a high school diploma. These trainings through the Workforce ready grant provide employees the ability to earn skills that will help them level up to a better job. On top of the workforce ready grant program, Project Azul, offers employers the opportunity to enroll students in skill training programs to help them skill up in their career journey.
With countless opportunities to skill up your workforce and offer them training that will keep them invested in your organization and keep them working when government incentives are enticing them to stay at home.