E pluribus unum
Not too long ago, Sureddin says, the company had a decentralized recruiting process — all 493 operating sites had their own hiring practices. It didn’t work very well.
“You weren’t using the same tools and processes and you didn’t get speed to market,” he explains. “When you’ve got everybody doing their own thing, it just doesn’t standardize a process and it is not the best practice.”
DHL found that decentralized recruiting was part of what was causing higher turnover. So the company adopted best practices implemented by another division of DHL.
That unit worked with an outside company to establish a certified program for onboarding and training. It also determined the best technology and brought the process in house, complete with dedicated departments responsible for the activity, and created company-wide practices that spun out of a centralized hub.
Since adopting this approach, turnover at DHL Supply Chain has been reduced because the company is getting a better candidate up front, Sureddin says.
“When you’re a large organization like us, if you’re going to get the same results at every location, then you need to have standardized tools and processes,” he says. “Our customer needs might be different, but our customers want the same thing from us: a cost-effective supply chain solution. And how you’re going to get that is by taking the best practices we have worldwide and standardizing those and using technology to make it even better.”
Another way of lowering turnover is to address what younger people in the workforce want from employers today.
“For my company, workforce management is one of the biggest issues you have to be able to address,” Sureddin says. “And there is not one lever. It’s several levers. It’s about training programs, but it’s also about engagement programs — how you’re engaging your associates at these operations.”
Part of that engagement is through companywide certified training, programs that offer basic and advanced learning across different functions, offering associates chances to expand their skills and position themselves for other opportunities.
“That’s a big part of our business and a lot of that is around leadership,” Sureddin says.
As he sees it, there are plenty of talented people in DHL’s workforce. Over the past seven or eight years, the company has learned that it needs to invest more in leadership attributes: teaching people how to be good leaders and how to engage teams to ensure they’re part of the process and can drive more value.
Engagement also happens through community involvement, something he says more employees want the freedom to do. To facilitate that means the company needs to be involved in what employees want to be involved in. At DHL, these activities are determined by committees of people who are passionate about community involvement, which has led to participation with several organizations through a mix of volunteering and donations.
And it’s not enough for companies today to focus just on salary and benefits. While pay and health care hold a place at the top of the compensation list, Sureddin says it’s really about creating a comprehensive package. So the company is addressing, for example, the desire, especially in its hourly workforce, for greater flexibility, creating apps that allow hourly employees to pick and choose their shifts.
