Warehouse pickers play a critical role in the supply chain, serving as the human link between products and customers. Their ability to quickly, accurately, and efficiently locate, identify, select, and prepare customer orders for shipment is absolutely vital to customer satisfaction.
But there’s more to the story. Efficient, effective warehouse and distribution center operations depend on pickers for much more than picking items off shelves.
Picker performance has a direct impact on your warehouse KPIs. They’re often the first to notice inventory discrepancies, roadblocks to efficiency on the warehouse floor, or process bottlenecks that slow productivity.
They also play an important role in ensuring that products are handled properly and safely, helping to protect product quality and condition between the shelf and the customer.
The picker often faces multiple pressures: accuracy, speed, and care in handling products. At the same time, they may struggle with tedium and physical strain as they complete repetitive tasks—at a fast pace—over a whole shift. Left unaddressed, these conditions can lead to picker burnout, affecting both their own well-being and warehouse efficiency and productivity.
So it’s important for warehouse and DC operators to do all they can to alleviate pickers’ burdens, both physical and mental. Thankfully, technological advancements and innovative thinking offer many burnout-busting opportunities.
Big 3: Efficiency, Enjoyment, and Incentive
Introducing these three elements in the right balance is key to optimizing your environment so your warehouse pickers can thrive.
Incentivizing performance can be challenging, but thoughtfully implemented gamification strategies can make a significant difference in the pace and tone of a picker’s shift. Combined with optimized mobile user interfaces or specialized end-user enablement technologies, gamification can truly level up the day-to-day employee experience. Optimized UI doesn’t just facilitate game elements; it can reduce barriers to productivity, too.
And sometimes, lightening the load for warehouse workers can mean letting them hand off the task entirely—by leaving the heavy, awkward loads and long carrying distance to robots, cobots, and automation.
Mobile UX Improvements & End User Enablement Tech
Upgrading your mobile user experience doesn’t always mean investing in all-new solutions. A modernized UI can streamline workflows and enhance productivity just by reducing the number of screens and clicks, right-sizing and relocating buttons, and improving readability.
User experience improvements can do more than add speed to tasks; they can improve accessibility and help open more warehouse jobs to a wider range of abilities, promoting a more inclusive workplace. Technologies like voice-assisted navigation, comfortable glove and ring scanners, and even fixed overhead scanning all enable workers to use both hands for picking items—no need to keep a scanner in one hand.
And optimized mobility can do more than streamline picking. It can deliver onboarding and training modules, so new hires and trainees can take self-guided tours and get up to speed quickly. Communications and alerts can apprise pickers of changes on the floor or the latest reward challenge in your gamification program. Enabling workers to meet and exceed productivity expectations also supports employee retention.
Gamification Strategies Boost Engagement & Efficiency
Warehouse workers will tell you, one of the toughest challenges they face is monotony. Tasks can be repetitive, and it can be tempting to disengage. Introducing game elements like point systems, leaderboards, rewards, and even team challenges, warehouse operators can incorporate a little extra fun and incentive.
Challenges don’t all have to focus on speed; game aspects can promote accuracy, quality, navigational efficiency, and more. For the right combination of people and environment, a little friendly competition can be a great motivator. And there are lots of ways to get creative and keep your game strategy positive and inclusive.
Automation Technologies Support Picker Safety
Pickers appreciate help avoiding physical strain, too. Reducing exertion and repetitive stress supports their health and well-being. Integrating automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) can reduce the need for pickers to carry heavy objects and/or walk long distances, helping to reduce fatigue and mitigate the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injuries and disorders. And because AGVs navigate controlled, predictable paths, they help promote a safe production floor—and even entirely forklift-free zones.
This helps reduce the physical impacts of manual labor while freeing up pickers to add value by focusing on more nuanced jobs that require human judgment and critical thinking.
Pickers Want to be Efficient, Accurate, and Connected
Giving pickers an excellent mobile UX, comfortable and hands-free scanning tools, motivating incentives, and friendly robotic collaborators makes for a major leap forward in supporting their productivity and well-being. By reimagining what warehouse work can be, it’s possible to improve performance while preventing picker burnout.
It’s all about future-proofing your operations and caring about your most valuable asset: your people. If you’re ready to transform your warehouse ops and support optimal picker performance, you’ll want to explore our free warehouse gamification guide. It’s packed with information, ideas, and best practices to get you started!
