Today, businesses are facing more challenges than ever to attract and retain top talent. The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has left a heavy imprint on both the workplace and our personal lives, but it has not changed the fact that top candidates will continue to seek out employers that demonstrate flexibility — particularly in response to the current challenges we’re all facing — and invest in unique ways to empower their people to thrive.
The logistics market has seen an influx of technologies targeted at workforce innovation, but it can be difficult to know when and how to adopt these modern approaches — all while rapidly responding to red-hot demand for goods in the COVID-19 era. However, creating a supportive at-work environment that promotes employee well-being and offers flexibility for frontline workers means more today than ever, as workforce engagement and retention is essential to driving customer satisfaction and keeping the economy functioning.
As a starting point, focus on these three critical technologies that will not only benefit today’s fragile labor market, but also create a dynamic impact on logistics operations long term.
1. Self-service tools. Empower employees with flexible work-life balance
Employees expect modern workplace technology to mirror the consumer-grade devices they use outside of work. They want self-service tools that will enable them to quickly and easily check their schedule, digitally request time off, and pick up or swap a shift at the touch of a button – all preferably from their mobile device. By removing antiquated workplace hurdles and giving employees the ability to manage their own time using familiar technology, employers can take an important step toward enabling greater work-life balance for frontline employees and differentiating their business among competitors vying for the same high-performing workers.
2. Intelligent scheduling. Optimize day-to-day workforce operations
Individual scheduling preferences are important to acknowledge. Today’s multi-generational blend of employees have varying desires when it comes to schedules and the number of hours they wish to work. Intelligent scheduling technology empowers management to create a blend of variable schedules, static schedules, and overtime schedules to both satisfy employee preferences as well as highly variable volume demands. Modern scheduling tools provide not only real-time labor visibility but can create employee schedules based on historical and forecasted data to more effectively establish routines for employees, maximize the use of variable schedules, and minimize inefficient use of overtime pay.
3. Real-time workforce visibility. Surface valuable insights from integrated data sources
Break down data silos in order to create a real-time, holistic view of organizational labor data, including employee schedules, skills and certifications, as well as labor law requirements, union rules, pay rules and other relevant warehouse management data. Using a virtual dashboard that visualizes real-time analytics — such as attendance and performance metrics — management is given a quick and easy way to drive employee engagement and improve operational efficiency. By ensuring data is accessible and actionable, frontline management can understand critical workforce metrics at a glance, freeing them up to spend more time on the operations floor engaging with their teams.
There’s no telling how or when the job market will fully recover. But, as businesses across all sectors brace for an incredibly challenging year ahead, those that prioritize and embrace modern workforce technologies to empower their employees will benefit from creating a differentiated work culture and find greater success in their retention and recruitment efforts. In a challenging economy, organizations that are viewed as an ‘employer of choice’ stand to develop a high-performing frontline workforce primed for success in the decades to come.
