[FR] QWL Week: 5 areas of improvement for your warehouse to consider

From 19 to 23 June, it’s QWL week in French companies. It’s the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at the way your warehouse is organised and managed, and to work on improving the working conditions of your employees!

But when it comes to Quality of Life at Work, there still seems to be a lot of work to be done. So where should you start?

To guide you through this crucial work, here are 5 ways of improving QWL that you can investigate.

QWL week: why take an interest in it in your warehouse?

Quality of Life at Work Week concerns all companies – especially those with a logistics division!

The issues of health in the workplace and the prevention of occupational and psychosocial risks are absolutely crucial in the logistics sector, where there is an increased risk of occupational illness.

Thanks to a genuine focus on improving the quality of life and working conditions of your operators, you benefit from :

• Greater productivity and efficiency from your teams, which also reduces absenteeism (due to accidents at work, sick leave or emotional exhaustion).
• Less turnover in the warehouse, because by making your employees happy at work, you’re working to build loyalty.
• A strong employer brand and a more attractive company, with an image of a structure that offers optimal work organisation.
• A global influence on your brand. Your customers want to buy from companies that are committed to their employees’ well-being at work. Working on QWL means improving their overall customer experience of your company.

In short, during this QWL week, it’s crucial that you think about symmetry of attention. This concept means that if you take care of your operators, they’ll take care of your customers, making your business all the more productive.

Would you like to start improving the working conditions in your warehouse and the working lives of your operators? Here are five areas where you can start right now.

Focus #1: Redesigning the warehouse to focus on QWL

Improving the working conditions of your operators means first and foremost ensuring that the space that is the warehouse is designed to reconcile safety at work and competitiveness. But there are many ways of ensuring that you are offering your employees the best possible working environment!

Just think about :

• Check that all safety-related elements are managed, particularly in high-risk areas such as the pallet rack and the forklift truck. To find out more, read our article “How to ensure the safety of your logistics (employees and goods)”.
• Make surethe aisles are wide enough to move around easily. This applies in particular to the lane dedicated to handling equipment, but also to those used by operators on foot to pick up products.
• Observe whether your storage method is optimal, to make picking fluid and therefore facilitate the work of your operators.
• Makethe right handling equipment available in the warehouse. Forklift trucks, picking trolleys and trolleys are just some of the equipment that will reduce your operators’ workload and make their daily lives easier.

In addition to these few elements, don’t forget toinstall a dedicated break area. Quiet, with pleasant furniture designed for relaxation, and a water fountain to keep you well hydrated, it should allow your employees to enjoy the “off” part of their working day.

Area #2: Automate or mechanise the warehouse to make work less arduous

With this second line of thinking, you can reduce the drudgery in the warehouse while increasing the productivity of your operators – and therefore the company’s performance. That’s the dual benefit of robotisation or automation!

The idea, of course, is not to replace the human being, but to help him at his workstation, by equipping him with technological levers that limit his workload.

To do this, you can equip yourself with :

• Paper or air cushioning machines, which prepare the cushioning methods to be slid into the packs automatically. This saves time and improves quality of life in the warehouse!
• Wrapping robots or wrapping machines, which fully or partially automate pallet wrapping – one of the most physical jobs in the warehouse, and one where MSDs are most at risk!

Find out here about all the machines and packaging systems that can help you.

3: Make packing stations even more ergonomic

Another interesting way of limiting unhappiness in the warehouse and improving your employees’ quality of life is to work on improving your packing stations. These are crucial areas of the operators’ workplace, where they spend a significant amount of time.

Remember these few rules for organising a packing station:

• At the top of the workstation, there should be items that operators don’t use very often, and that they don’t have to hold at arm’s length all the time, such as flat packs or small pieces of packaging.
• At operator height, position everything they need on a regular basis: computer screens and keyboard, label and barcode printer, wrapping paper dispenser, as well as all the tools they need for order picking.
• In the lower part of the workstation, add a second unwinding spindle if necessary (but less frequently used) and a wedging machine if you have one.

This structure will already provide better working conditions for your operators. But don’t hesitate to add an anti-fatigue mat to rest operators’ legs, as well asa sit-stand stool or a workshop chair, so that they can sit down from time to time.

Area #4: Taking an interest in employees’ careers

As you know, the logistics industry is made up of some of the most arduous professions, where it can be difficult to retain operators. What if, during this QWL week, you made the good resolution to take an interest in your employees’ career plans? By doing so, you’ll be putting all the chances on your side to keep them loyal to your company!

To do this, you can :

• Implementa caring management style, with managers who listen to their expectations
• Offer training tailored to their needs, as part of a genuine skills development action plan
• Provide skills assessments for employees who want to move to different positions
• Provide coaching for those who need it

More generally, remember that management has a fundamental role to play in QWL. Opening up social dialogue around psychosocial risks, suffering at work, or respect for work/life balance, is a non-negligible element. So make sure you modernise your management practices, by ensuring that your warehouse managers are aware of all these issues.

Focus #5: Train your staff in well-being practices

The last area you need to focus on to improve health and safety at work in the warehouse is training your staff in well-being techniques.

The idea is to provide them with the best practices for protecting their bodies, by tailoring this training to the different workstations they occupy.

In particular, think about offering them :

• Muscle wake-up trainingThis enables them to wake up their bodies for the work they will have to do afterwards.
• Training in gestures and postures in the warehouseto improve the ergonomics of their bodies at workstations

Thanks to these five ideas, you can improve the lives of workers and the way they feel in your warehouse.