As logistics providers continue to struggle filling warehouse and trucking jobs in 2024, a report from the workforce analytics firm WorkHound says that traditional business metrics like location performance, revenue, efficiency, and employee turnover may not effectively capture the nuances of evolving labor relations.
While those measures are essential for evaluating the overall health of a business and showing positive progress, they may not be able to detect trouble brewing behind the scenes. In turn, that blind spot may leave leaders unaware of underlying employee discontent, WorkHound says.
In fact, the firm says that several frontline businesses reported in 2023 that their strongest-performing locations were the very ones that petitioned for union elections — seeking the support and representation that they were not getting from their company leaders.
The challenge gets even worse in businesses with several layers of hierarchy. In larger companies especially, middle management can unintentionally act as a bottleneck, filtering crucial information and preventing it from reaching the top, WorkHound said. Leaders also have limited interactions with customers, a job that’s frequently left up to logistics teams and truck drivers, forcing them to fend for themselves when problems arise in the field. And, with workforces dispersed across multiple locations, it’s particularly challenging for top leaders to keep tabs on everything.
According to Chattanooga, Tennessee-based WorkHound, pending changes in the labor sector could soon shine an ever brighter light on the issue. Key labor trends heading into 2024 include:
- Increased and Accelerated Union Elections: Changes by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will reportedly lead to quicker union elections, presenting a new terrain for both businesses and employees.
- Corporate Consolidation: The trend towards increased corporate consolidation could significantly impact labor relations, since managing workforce culture dynamics becomes even more critical in bigger operations.
- Frontline Recruiting and Retention Challenges: Frontline industries face unique dynamics that continually drive hiring and retention challenges.
- Driving Efficiency Amid Rising Costs: Many companies are seeing prices normalize to pre-pandemic levels, but costs have already continued to rise due to inflation, forcing companies to be pragmatic in what initiatives to focus on.
In response, WorkHound says its platform for continuous feedback uses digital communication tools to bridge gaps between management and employees by making communication a two-way street and creating a workplace culture that is employee-centric and respectful of worker rights — with or without a union.
