Employee Retention

14 drivers of supply chain worker turnover

Mark Bell | October 19, 2021

two workers shaking hands together while standing in a large warehouse

The workplace landscape has drastically changed over the past couple of years. People are leaving jobs at an accelerated rate to seek out better positions.

This trend has especially impacted companies within the supply chain, with employee turnover rates set to exceed 50% in 2021. Without enough frontline workers to support the increasing demand, businesses are forced to reevaluate their approach to hiring and retaining employees.

Looking for a powerful employee retention software to reduce turnover and improve your supply chain workforce? Check out WorkStep’s platform today!

two workers shaking hands together while standing in a large warehouse

Big brands like Walmart and Target are raising wages, adding sign-on bonuses, and promoting other financial incentives to attract workers and boost hiring, while also hoping this will help retain tenured employees.

But WorkStep’s new data shows that pay isn’t the top reason why supply chain workers are leaving their current roles. In fact, pay didn’t even make the top 5 reasons for frontline worker turnover.

Yet Fortune 500 companies continue to invest significant amounts of money without knowing what’s truly driving their workforce turnover. Additionally, the ability to measure the ROI on such investments continues to be a major headache for the C-suite.

Onward and upward

WorkStep conducted a study through our employee engagement solution, examining turnover trends of 164 companies by gathering anonymous feedback from over 16,000 new hires.

What we discovered? Career growth is the top priority for frontline hourly workers. 

top reasons for supply chain workforce turnover

Many companies view these roles as clock in, clock out, cash a paycheck, and go home, vs. a long-term career path. It’s this stereotyping that has given the next generation of applicants a negative perception of jobs within the supply chain, which perpetuates the struggle to hire and retain employees in the industry.

Data shows that supply chain workers are looking for a career, not just a job.

When companies focus on providing opportunities for their employees to excel, such as training, leadership feedback, and a path to promotion, they’ve found there is a much higher level of staff retention.

what's impacting supply chain workforce turnover infographic
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If you listen to employees, they will stay

WorkStep enables companies to facilitate open communication with employees. This helps get ahead of job abandonment by checking in with new employees at key onboarding milestones and throughout their career.

When employees feel their voices are being heard, it sends the message that they are valued and respected. And, with real-time insights on employee satisfaction management is able to recommend improvements.

workforce-turnover-data

Turnover can have a huge impact on your bottom line. WorkStep RETAIN allows companies to gather anonymous feedback from frontline workers, helping avoid unnecessary and costly attempts to incentivize new and existing employees.

To learn what drives your company’s turnover, reach out to us today to schedule your demo and pilot our solution.

Learn why leading supply chain brands are turning to WorkStep to significantly improve frontline workforce retention.


Mark Bell

Mark Bell, VP of Marketing | markbell@workstep.com