Recently completed fieldwork studies have led to the development of a toolkit designed to assist managers in creating improved workplaces characterised by good work standards and sound management practices. The authors of the study explain:
With support from the Economic and Social Research Council, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Manchester recently completed a series of fieldwork studies examining the evolution of work in the UK warehouse sector.
A key outcome is a toolkit designed to assist managers in creating improved workplaces characterised by good work standards and sound management practices. The toolkit integrates sector specific insights, informed by interviews with managers, supervisors and workers, behavioural observations, and benchmarking against established best practices in employment relations, employee involvement, participation and people management.
One study within the project focused primarily on managers’ experiences in small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which operated under a pronounced owner-manager structure. Notably, in the absence of dedicated human resources departments, responsibilities for recruitment, training, performance management, rewards and employee relations were typically assigned to warehouse or operational managers who had received little formal training in HR or employment relations. While management roles such as line managers, supervisors and team leaders inherently involve people management, in these businesses, such responsibilities were closely intertwined with immediate operational pressures. Decision-making was influenced by fluctuating demand, customer requirements, delivery schedules, courier performance and the daily pressures to get orders out. Consequently, people management tended to be reactive and informal rather than planned or formalised.
That should not be taken to mean managers were indifferent to effective people management. Managers recognised the importance of recruiting, retaining and motivating reliable employees for business performance. Although warehouses may implement software systems, robotics, and scanners to standardise tasks and limit employee discretion, warehouses still depend on workers’ judgement, effort and commitment.
A key challenge is that managers frequently develop their people management approach based on personal experience, intuition, trial and error and observation of comparable businesses. While this practical knowledge is certainly useful, reliance on informality and intuition can result in significant gaps, omissions and preventable problems in people management.
A second study within the project involved interviews with workers and supervisors in UK warehouses of different sizes, some of which had formal human resources departments while others did not. Participants worked under permanent, temporary and agency arrangements in both unionised and non-union workplaces. Across these settings, they emphasised the important role played by line managers and supervisors in shaping day-to-day employment practices. Their accounts also showed how contractual arrangements, employee voice and relationships with trade union representatives influenced working life.
The objective of the toolkit was to avoid promoting an elaborate, high-cost human resources model in contexts where such an approach would be impractical. Instead, the toolkit synthesises insights from fieldwork, research and academic experience in employment relations and human resource management to provide managers with clear and accessible guidance tailored to their operational realities.
The toolkit focuses on seven areas of people management discussed by the managers, supervisors and workers interviewed:
- Work Design and Job Quality: designing roles that people can both enjoy and sustain
- Employee Voice and Consultation: creating simple ways for people to speak up so problems get solved earlier
- Skills, Learning and Development: building capability through practical and accessible development
- Fair Performance Management: using performance information fairly and constructively
- Health, Safety and Wellbeing: protecting people’s physical and psychological health
- Employee Relations and Handling Conflict: handling workplace conflict fairly and consistently
- Maintaining Fairness Under Pressure: managing busy periods without allowing temporary pressures to become normal practice
For each of the seven areas, we briefly discuss key insights from our project and the broader research evidence, including research from the Involvement and Participation Association and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. We then outline practical options that general managers, line-managers and HR practitioners can implement to improve workplace practices.
The toolkit can be used selectively according to current priorities, as the seven areas do not need to be addressed in a particular order. We have included an action plan template to help general managers and HR professionals work with line-managers, employees and their representatives to identify priority issues and agree on practical, day-to-day changes that could help address them.
Although our research project focused on the warehouse sector, the seven areas of people management included in the toolkit are relevant across sectors, and the practical options suggested could be applied more broadly. A recent webinar at which we presented sections of the toolkit to HR professionals suggested that similar challenges and issues arise across different workplaces and sectors.
The toolkit concludes with two short case studies showing how smaller warehouses have put some of these practices into effect. We hope it will help managers improve working life without requiring a large HR function, expensive systems or wholesale organisational change.
Toolkit Authors
Niall Cullinane is a Professor of Employment Relations and Human Resource Management at Queen’s University Belfast
Emma Hughes is a Senior Lecturer in Employment Studies at the University of Manchester and a member of the Work and Equalities Institute
Tony Dundon is a Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations at the University of Manchester and a member of the Work and Equalities Institute
Debra Howcroft is a Professor of Technology and Organisation at the University of Manchester and a member of the Work and Equalities Institute
This project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/W009684/1).