Best practices for warehousing companies to improve gender equity

Warehousing companies can implement 18 interventions in a phased manner to improve gender diversity

Context

Despite being paid the same, women’s superior performance in retention, order quality, and ageing can result in a 3.59% reduction in per-worker cost in warehouses
Despite being paid the same, women’s higher productivity, attendance, and order quality can result in a 11.83% reduction in per-worker cost, in dark stores
Can address workforce shortages by helping companies access a candidate pool of 33 million women across urban India

Warehousing companies are unable to increase women workers because of company and ecosystem-level challenges:

Team leads/ managers do not prioritize hiring women due to unconscious biases
Recruiters find it more expensive to effectively target and convince women
Team leads/ managers are unaware of how to support women
Certain shifts (e.g., ending post 7 PM, 12-hour shifts) are unsuitable for some women
Some companies have low capacity to invest in additional infrastructure (e.g., washrooms, transportation) for women

Warehousing companies can follow a 3-phased approach to make their operations more gender equitable:

Build the organization’s capability: Lay the foundation by setting up essential infrastructure, prioritizing roles for women, building inclusive hiring practices and training managers to tackle gender biases
Prioritize and implement: Ensure sustained focus by strengthening infrastructure, setting up metrics and tracking mechanisms, and highlighting business benefits
Embed and scale: Institutionalize gender diversity by providing accommodation and transport services, incentivizing staffing companies, and embedding clear accountability via diversity KPIs and anti bias training

Key takeaways

Hiring women has following benefits for warehousing companies:
Warehousing companies are unable to increase women workers because of company and ecosystem-level challenges:
Warehousing companies can follow a 3-phased approach to make their operations more gender equitable: