Quite recently I attended a Networking event sponsored by Women in Logistics (WIL) and Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK (CILT). It was hosted by John Lewis at their Distribution Centre, Milton Keynes. The networking event was jam-packed with social media tips and strategies, made new contacts and rekindled old ones. I have already used some of the pointers on my social media.

At the end of the event, we had a tour of the Distribution Centre, what a warehouse! The size alone was intimidating, highly automated with state-of- the-art equipment, very clean and the Warehouse Management System (WMS) was to be envied. The most intriguing thing for me as a Workplace Health Consultant was the employees’ engagement.

Employee engagement over the years has grown across industries and its importance cannot be over-emphasized. For the organizations that have bought into it, the benefits are significant.

However, others are yet to catch the bug.

Sometime ago, I was speaking to the HR Manager of another distribution centre that had a high rate of work-related shoulder injuries. She was agreeing with my approach to tackle the issue until I mentioned ‘employee engagement’. Quite vividly, I remember her words, ‘Oh no, we don’t involve employees, it is like opening the Pandora’s Box’. Probably out of ignorance, she downplayed the very thing that determined the success of the programme.

Well, back to the tour. John Lewis had mastered the art of engaging employees and I would like to share 5 lessons I picked up.

1.     Respect: First and foremost, the employees were called ‘Partners’. It was a beautiful thing to hear as it elevated their status from frontline staff to one of importance. The rapport between the team leader and the ‘partners’ was of mutual respect. When we got to station manned by ‘partners’, our tour guide allowed them explain their role and how they managed the work process. The ‘partners’ were not afraid to speak up even when questions were asked by us, they proudly showcased their skills. Most importantly, our guide, their supervisor allowed then do that.

 2.   Communication: At the beginning of the tour, we passed the first portakabin that was the human resource support centre and communication hub. Our tour guide meticulously described its importance. Newsletters, bulletins, in-house news, competitions and events littered the board on its wall. On the ‘Best Employee of the month’ section, pictures and names of partners were posted but I also noted other awards like, ‘Best Approachable’, ‘Easy to Work With’ …you get the drift. At the beginning and end of every shift or even during the shift, out tour guide explained, a team meeting was held. Best practice, targets for the shift, improvements to work processes and general information were discussed. At every point, management and ‘partners’ were in sync.

3.   Involvement: During the tour, our guide talked about the sheer volume capacity of the warehouse and how the peak period targets, like Christmas, were achieved. He also talked about the hurdles they had to overcome. During this talks, he kept mentioning that the ideas were put up by the ‘partners’ to improve, quicken or simplify the work processes. For example, we got to the Receiving Station where jobs were left in a cabinet to be picked up by partners. He described, in the past, the partners would pick the jobs that were easy or that they preferred which could slow down productivity.

So they decided to change the job system and everyone in the team got involved. Ideas and suggestion form the ‘partners’ not from management (the meetings were facilitated by their managers) were trialled and the best system was picked which is still used today. As the new system came from the workers, it was easily accepted.

4.   Empowerment: Our guide further mentioned other projects they had undertaken since the inception of the centre. ‘Partners’ took the front row in suggesting, trialling and running with the ideas. Ownership, collaboration and a sense of belonging was the undercurrent waves to the success of all the projects. I earlier mentioned how very clean the site was, there were no papers, cardboards, bubble wraps and waste lying around. Once again, the ‘partners’ asides from the cleaners picked up after themselves. This was a measure of ownership, empowerment and engagement in action.

5.    Health and Safety: One last thing I had to mention was the workforce size. Automation and manual handling materials bore the bulk of the work processes. To a huge extent, the ‘partners’ and temporary (agency) staff did fewer strenuous manual handling. We were not shown the Health and Safety site report, but it would be fair to say, accidents and injury incidents from what I observed were low and well monitored.

One of the reasons of changing a work process, our guide explained, was the elements of health or manual handling risks. When ‘partners’ complained of health issues or exertion during the process, a meeting was facilitated to address and improve the process. For the feat of supplying all the John Lewis branches across the UK and handling all internal mails, it is impressive to see workers working safely with managed health risks.

We all walked away from the tour mesmerised with the workings of the warehouse. I walked away with the 5 lessons of employee engagement in practise and an urge to further impress our industry to employ these methods.