When New Hires Quit Before Their First Day – And How To Keep Them

We hear it all the time from managers and HR teams at distribution centers, 3PLs, and more warehouses across the country. They’ve struggled to attract and hire quality workers for years, but now the labor market seems to be up against them even more. If they do hire someone, it’s rare the new hire even shows up on their first day of work.

Nearly 3% of the U.S. workforce are quitting their jobs — an all-time high — which is hurting the many hiring companies who have been posting similarly record high job openings, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

If employee attrition is high, maybe the question to ask isn’t, “Why does no one want to work here?” A better question to ask in today’s challenged labor market is, “What can I do differently to attract and retain new workers?”

People looking for jobs want good benefits and compensation, but if they get hired to do manual labor for long hours in a warehouse, they need more than nice paychecks and insurance to keep them there. New employees, particularly on the younger side of the workforce, crave clarity, simplicity, and being given the right tools to succeed at their job.

Voice picking is the most streamlined process to learn in a warehouse, whether it’s someone’s first time working as a picker or if they’ve worked in warehouses for their whole career. There are no complicated combinations of buttons to click, encoded data to type into a small computer, or cumbersome paperwork to carry around while trying to pick. 

In fact, the training period for voice picking is drastically shorter and simpler than any other picking technology. Most picking warehouses using voice report a 30% reduction in training time, and some even watch new hires learn the technology and pick their first orders within an hour.

“Training with voice takes 1/10th of the time it took with RF systems,” said a Director of Fulfillment and Logistics for an East Coast distributor using Mountain Leverage’s voice solutions. “We can get someone fully trained in three days. The old RF system took 2 weeks. You can bring in new hires and turn them over pretty quickly.”

Voice picking means the system literally talks the picker through assignments, and the picker responds verbally to confirm their work. In today’s world where Alexa, Siri, and more automated voice systems are at our fingertips, voice picking comes naturally to the emerging workforce who wants fast, clear, and effective instructions and communication.

Voice is not only the most intuitive, but it’s also the safest and most productive picking technology since it allows workers to be Hands-Free, Eyes-Free™ and focus on the job at hand. Productivity levels typically jump by 30% when switching from RF scanning or paper-based picking.

Mountain Leverage provides completely customer-centered voice implementation. We take the time to learn about your operational needs, and we can integrate voice into your existing systems without requiring a heavy lift from your IT department. We’ve been providing voice for warehouses of all sizes for decades, so you know you’ll be in good hands with the most experienced voice consultants in our industry. Contact us to learn more >