Traditionally, it’s been tough to gather detailed, timely feedback on employees’ experiences, mood, suggestions and likelihood of quitting. Until now.

Hiring workers for warehouse operations is one thing; retaining them an almost equally daunting challenge. Estimates vary, but the warehousing industry consistently scores among the highest for annual employee turnover in the U.S., typically more than 40%.

The reasons why, exactly, are being probed like never before. It’s not enough to guess that it’s simply hard work for not much pay — there are plenty of jobs like that on offer. “People don’t leave companies, they leave a manager,” says Simon Rakosi, co-founder and chief operating officer of Butterfly.ai, which offers an employee feedback platform aimed at helping frontline managers improve the level of engagement of their teams. Rakosi says the particular characteristics of working in a warehouse or distribution center mean that pretty much the entirety of workers’ experience is with an immediate manager. “In logistics and distribution, the leadership of a company, to the eyes of an employee, is the manager. They don’t even know who the CEO is.”

Traditionally, it’s been tough to gather detailed, timely feedback on employees’ experiences, mood, suggestions and likelihood of quitting. Deskbound employees are easier to get to — they work at computers all day, so it’s not such a stretch to present them with a quick survey or questionnaire. But workers in warehouses and distribution centers are often harder to communicate with. Many don’t have email. 

But increasingly, warehouse workers are plugging into information systems all day long at work, and they also have smartphones. The trick is to use those channels to get valuable check-ins and feedback. “A lot of people call these employees disconnected. But they are connected!” says Rakosi.

Read More: Manufacturers Need to Improve the Lot of Restive Frontline Workers

Andy Gold, chief human resources officer at international shipping and mailing company Pitney Bowes, says it's clear the company would benefit from learning more, and sooner, about what's going on with its distribution center workers. “We really believe that, in order for us to attract and retain and engage high-quality employees, we need to have an open conversation with them," he says. "We need to understand their concerns. And not only understand them, but respond.” Gold says.

Workers often have valuable suggestions about improving operations, and it's important to capture those, too, Gold adds. It’s all part of establishing a two-way relationship. “Employees rightfully expect that, if they give you feedback, you’ll act on it. And, if you don’t, it’s worse than not asking in the first place.”

Pitney Bowes has two types of DC facilities — one pre-sorts mail, to the tune of 17 billion pieces per year; the other sorts 200 million parcels for e-commerce retailers per year. Previously, they invited employees to submit answers to a survey annually, via kiosks set up on the warehouse floor. “That doesn’t work with 55% attrition,” observes Rakosi. “By the time you see the impact, half the people are gone.” Another issue was that the results were directed to the human resources department for analysis and onward action. “It should not be something held by HR,” says Rakosi. “They can be involved, of course, but the front-end managers are the ones that represent the leadership for these employees.”

Pitney Bowes ran pilots of the Butterfly system at four sites in 2022, and quickly decided to expand implementation to its remaining 35 facilities, as the company experienced almost immediate productivity gains in the 20% range.  “It’s pretty simple to do,” says Gold. “The biggest challenge is getting the employees to make sure we have their mobile phone numbers so they can receive the surveys themselves. That was a learning.” Pitney Bowes found its DC worker population typically changes mobile phone numbers frequently, and trained managers in making sure they navigated security protocols such as two-factor authentication, so they could stay connected to the Butterfly platform (dashboard example pictured below).  

Image courtesy of Pitney Bowes

The system is also designed around many other typical characteristics of warehouse workers  — for example, that English is not a first language. “The beauty of the tool is, when they first use it, they select their own language,” Gold says. Comments and suggestions directed at specific managers, which can be proffered anonymously, are automatically translated into that manager’s native tongue, and vice versa. “That ability ensures good communication in near real time,” he says.

Rakosi says there’s a huge opportunity to improve operational efficiency, as well as employee retention, when there’s a lively, ongoing feedback loop between workers and management. He cites an example of another client with a giant warehouse where there was only one set of bathrooms. Workers spent 15 minutes walking all the way over to the other side of the facility for a bathroom break, and another 15 walking back. Identifying this as a problem led to the company building another set of bathrooms. The expense was easily absorbed by the savings in worker downtime, and the benefits of showing employees that their experience mattered may be hard to measure in hard figures, but is clearly desirable. 

Another aspect that can be explored in order to make adjustments is the distribution of workloads to suit workers’ needs. In one case, a company added two hours to the end of the morning shift to cope with peak season, but then discovered, via feedback, that this made it harder for parents to pick up their children from school. Adding the two hours to the beginning of the shift instead made a huge difference. Yet another aspect is capturing and incorporating information about which members of staff are in the same family. Sometimes, family members enjoy working together, and can carpool. On the other hand, two family members might want to dovetail their shifts so they can split childcare duties between them.  

Read More: The Future of Supply Chain Work Is Now

“They say ‘deskless’ and ‘frontline’ workers quit because of pay,” says Rakosi. “But it’s actually more about emotional needs, being respected, being acknowledged, feeling valued, and having a good relationship with a manager.” Warehouse managers can no longer afford to ignore these requirements. On top of everything else, under-appreciated workers aren't just likely to quit; they’re also less likely to recommend the employer to friends and family members — a rich source of reliable new hires.

“One of the things that differentiates Pitney Bowes is how we treat our people,” says Gold. “These surveys allow us to identify managers who are not as empathetic as we would wish them to be.”

“These are physical jobs,” says Gold. “They are not easy to manage. This allows us to keep a competitive advantage over other places, where people might be able to earn a little bit more, but don’t get the respect or the flexibility. We’ve heard that from people who’ve left for a bit more money, and have come back. They see that our values match their values.”