The pandemic-fueled explosion in e-commerce has coincided with mounting stress among the warehouse workers who absorb the barrage of online orders, a new national survey has found.
Three in four fulfillment center employees report they would consider taking a pay cut to work at another company that uses technology to make their job easier, according to the research. Roughly half said they are extremely or very likely to make that trade.
Lucas Systems, a Wexford-based warehouse software provider that serves 400 facilities across the globe, commissioned the study.
Lucas’ chief marketing officer, Ken Ramoutar, said the findings offer a clue to distribution centers that are scrambling to hire while workers remain scarce.
“Almost every one of our customers tells us that finding labor and keeping labor is their number one challenge,” he said. “The typical answer is, ‘Well, pay them more,’ right?
“That's not the answer in many cases, and that's what the study is saying: There are bigger factors like the working environment. How much tech do I get to use? How hard will my job be? How modernized is this facility? And so when you're willing to trade money for it, it really puts [those issues] on the table.”
Virginia-based consulting firm Wakefield Research conducted the study with 500 warehouse floor workers across the country.
Three-quarters of survey respondents said the physical demands of their work take a greater toll than the mental strain. The average worker reported spending more than one-third of a shift walking. More than two-thirds of respondents said they use paper and pen to track picking, packing and other warehouse processes.
At major distribution centers, online purchases flow in by the minute, bearing varied delivery dates and containing different items, Ramoutar noted.
“Warehouses are busy places, and they're getting busier,” he said. “So it can be difficult work. … And it can often be stressful. It has to be done at speed. It has to be done accurately.”
The results of Lucas Systems' survey favor tools such as the one the company has developed: It sells a voice-directed virtual assistant that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to advise employees on how to perform their jobs more efficiently and correct mistakes.
But retired Penn State University education professor David Passmore said the bigger-picture results make sense, at a time when workers have grown more willing than ever to search for more satisfying opportunities.
While it might seem “anomalous” for workers to say they’d accept a pay cut, a job, Passmore said, represents more than what it pays.
“When a person's thinking about going to work, they're obviously thinking about pay, but they're also thinking about other things, [such as whether it] allows them to express their talent, allows them to develop their talent … allows them to work on things that are collectively useful for other people, allows them to be good citizens, develop friendships. There are all kinds of things that you get from work," Passmore said. "So it's not just a paycheck.”
And in warehousing, where the rate of workplace injuries exceeds the national average for all industries, he said, “I think the statement that ‘I'm willing to quit the job for lower pay, for a saner life and a less hazardous life,’ makes a lot of sense.”
But Passmore warned that such statements shouldn’t be taken literally. Reduced pay has been shown to increase employee theft and hurt morale.
And while workers in Lucas' survey expressed a desire for more tech on the job, one in five worried that such investments would raise productivity expectations. They also shared concerns about increased oversight and inadequate training.
Despite its staffing challenges today, the transportation and warehousing sector has added jobs more quickly than any other segment of the economy over the course of the pandemic. Its labor force grew to 6.5 million workers this May, up 12% since February 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Within the sector, warehousing and storage jobs rose by 37% during the same period to 1.8 million, bureau data shows.
Nationally, average wages for warehouse and storage employees have climbed by 15% since the onset of the pandemic, reaching $21.50 an hour in April. Fulfillment center workers generally are not required to have a college degree, and such facilities are sometimes the sole major employer in more rural parts of the country.
But while three-quarters of participants in Lucas Systems' survey said they want to stay with their current employer for at least three years, turnover in their industry is notably high.
