With terms such as “the Great Resignation” being used to describe the current job economy, it is no surprise that many businesses struggle to retain their employees. In fact, according to Gartner, Inc., annual employee voluntary turnover in the US is projected to rise nearly 20% this year alone.

This struggle is felt acutely by recruiters and HR representatives working in the warehouse industry. Not only is it increasingly difficult to retain workers, but the cost in the warehouse industry to replace a worker who leaves is exceptionally high. The estimated cost to replace one warehouse worker can be 25% of that worker’s salary.

For this reason, companies must learn how to improve warehouse employee retention, which will lower overall costs and boost warehouse productivity. In this guide, we’ll take a look at strategic steps that you can take to ensure the highest retention of employees possible, and it all begins with how you hire.

Step 1: Target the Right Employees From the Start

There are numerous reasons for high turnover rates within an organization. Still, one factor often overlooked is how an employee was hired in the first place. Too often, businesses that need to employ large numbers of employees at one time must implement better strategies for reaching new leads.

Instead, organizations can use programmatic job advertising to improve how they target quality warehouse candidates. The goal is not to just share your role but to ensure that your advertisement reaches your target audience: employees looking for a long-term career.

Targeting the right employees should also involve the creation of a detailed and accurate job description. This helps cut down miscommunication during the hiring process, which can help reduce the number of employees unhappy with the offer they receive and end up leaving your company early on for a better offer.

If you haven’t already, consider investing in a tool that allows you to create, launch, and optimize highly targeted ad campaigns using data and audience segmentation. This can help ensure that the candidates you interview and hire are a good long-term fit for your organization.

Step 2: Be Fully Transparent with New Hires

Once you reach the right potential employees and begin the screening process, be sure you are transparent with new hires. Through honesty about the work required, the business’s scheduling needs, and the company’s values, you can reduce turnover due to hiring candidates with misaligned expectations.

For example, if you require warehouse employees to work weekends but need to inform a new hire about this policy before they show up to work, you could wind up with an unhappy employee who quits within a month of being hired.

However, if you are honest about what an employee should expect, you can weed out those who will not be a good fit long before you invest in onboarding. The pool of candidates left will be more likely to remain with your organization for an extended period.

Step 3: Provide Competitive Pay, Benefits, and Ongoing Training

Naturally, pay is a massive motivator in retaining quality employees. Understandably, talented warehouse workers want to be paid a competitive wage. It could leave your company for a more lucrative offer.

However, pay is one of many ways to keep good employees around. Improving your benefits package and investing in ongoing training can help warehouse employee retention.

The key is to ensure that your employees feel valued and will continue to have opportunities for growth if they stay with your business. Putting together learning tracks that allow employees to advance into management or experience other roles is a beautiful way to help motivate quality employees to stick around. As an added benefit, you will quickly create your own internal pool of qualified candidates when the time comes to hire additional management.

Step 4: Gather Feedback

You can’t fix what you don’t know is broken. If you notice an unusually high turnover rate, take the time to understand what motivates your employees to leave the organization. In some cases, you might be surprised to discover what is actually the root cause of the issue.

One of the easiest ways to understand why an employee is leaving your company is to ask during an exit interview. Exit interviews can help you uncover important information about how your warehouse management is performing and what day-to-day life is like for your employees.

You can also gather feedback from current employees through anonymous surveys sent out by your HR team or hire a third-party agency to conduct an employee satisfaction review. This can help you discover what your employees love and what you might need to change to prevent your organization from losing critical talent.

Bonus Step: Put Talroo to Work

Hiring quality warehouse employees is an easy task with Talroo. Using data-driven tools, you can target the ideal employees for your organization. This will allow you to hire from the right pool of candidates, leading to long-term employee retention. Request a free demo today to see how Talroo can make a difference in your hiring process.