Are You Positioning Your Workforce for Success?

While not everyone will reskill or even have the desire or ability to upskill within their current positions, commitment to employee development shows your workforce you are invested not only in the organizational success, but also in theirs.

Monkey Business Adobe Stock 494483310
Monkey Business AdobeStock_494483310

Is your business feeling the stress of high turnover rates and increasing business demands? Are your employees leaving for higher paying jobs outside the food distribution industry while you struggle to manage increasing operating costs? Do you wonder if you are getting the most from your employees? More importantly, do you wonder if your employees are getting the most from you?

If these questions have come to mind over the last few years, chances are you could benefit from a fresh look at how to increase labor performance, while decreasing employee turnover and dissatisfaction. Automation and technology can provide part of the solution, but one of the best ways to maximize the potential of your workforce is to invest in your employee’s future. 

By challenging employees to think about where they are and where they want to be the organization can create opportunities, training, and resources to assist workers with taking their skills to the next level, while staying relevant in the marketplace. Whether this means helping workers grow in a job they already perform or teaching new skills for a new job, creating a culture of growth and employee development can help retain a tenured workforce in an ever-changing landscape.

With the ongoing challenge to attract and retain workers coupled with the continual industry effort to make the workplace safer, more efficient, and more appealing to the labor market, organizations are feeling the strain of maintaining balance between controlling costs and increasing business demands. Specialty industries, such as food/cold storage facilities, are struggling more than ambient due to challenges that come with staffing and retaining employees in an atypical and often less desirable environment.

To stay relevant in the ongoing battle of providing competitive pay, robust incentive programs, and bonus/recognition programs, organizations need to explore different strategies to attract talent and build relationships.

One such strategy is the concept of upskilling and/or reskilling. Not only can this approach make the organization more attractive to new employees, but it can also assist with retention rates in the existing labor force.

Upskilling involves building on existing skills to improve performance in a current role. Upskilling can help employees stay relevant and advance in their careers. 

For example, an employee trained to pick with a single pallet rider might learn to operate a double pallet rider or cherry picker. This training advances their skill set and makes them even more valuable as they are available to perform different jobs at higher productivity rates.

Reskilling involves learning new skills to transition into different roles within the organization. Reskilling helps employees prepare for career changes and can address skill gaps.

For example, a warehouse material handler might learn how to operate an automated storage retrieval system (AS/RS). In this case, they are learning how an automated system works, as well as, how to control the system to manage inventory.

A typical warehouse has a wide range of jobs from manual unloading/loading of trailers, stocking/picking with powered industrial trucks, to problem solving customer orders and inventory discrepancies. Many of these activities are determined by operational volume and customer order patterns. This type of variability provides a great opportunity to reskill employees across multiple functional areas.  This type of “investment” can increase employee satisfaction as it provides additional opportunities and flexibility to work different shifts, engage in overtime opportunities in other areas, as well as stay working when seasonality decreases order volumes. Reskilling also benefits the organization by providing a more flexible work force, which in turn reduces the reliance on temporary workers and the frequency of onboarding.

Another common application of reskilling occurs with the addition of automation to an operation. Once assumed to replace warehouse workers, automated systems have shown instead to provide new highly skilled jobs. These jobs can be fulfilled by current employees interested in furthering their skill level around technology, instead of onboarding new inexperienced workers. As more technologies join AS/RS in cold storage/freezer facilities, the ability to provide your employees opportunities to learn the skills required to interact with these systems, while improving their career options can improve retention in an already challenging work environment.

Employees are not the only ones to benefit from this approach. Employers benefit by avoiding recruiting and onboarding costs, while increasing knowledge depth, productivity, and consistency in the operation through a tenured workforce. Additionally, employers strengthen organizational morale through the employee career investment process.

While providing cross training isn’t a new concept for employers, the potential increase in frequency and volume due to upskilling and reskilling may create stress on the existing training model. Organization may need to consider more efficient and less labor-intensive methods. These methods may include utilizing /curating an open list of free resources for employees, developing relationships with related training partners, turning experienced managers into coaches, creating internal working/study groups, and bringing in outside trainers for the related system(s).

While a difficult labor market and an increasing need to do more with less, especially in the food distribution industry may not stop, the ability to maintain organizational effectiveness can be found within your “four walls.” Upskilling or reskilling allows you to leverage your current talent pool and knowledge base, while improving employee satisfaction in the workplace.

Your workforce is the lifeblood of the company, and the backbone of future success. As automation and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to advance in the food warehouse/distribution space, provide your employees an opportunity to lean into new skills and career growth. This win-win situation shows your workforce you believe they have the potential to increase their value in the organization, that they are not being left behind as automation plans are considered and implemented, and that they are part of the future of your organization.  

While not everyone will reskill or even have the desire or ability to upskill within their current positions, commitment to employee development shows your workforce you are invested not only in the organizational success, but also in theirs.

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