A new survey of warehouse workers in the UK has found that the mental health picture is improving, with various measures and technological integrations now easing workers' health.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day on October 10, the study found that while 42% of warehouse workers have seen their mental health suffer because of their job.
That figure rising among younger workers, under the age of 35, to 60%, according to the study, by warehouse management software company, StoreFeeder.
That follows the narrative in the media and other surveys, which have suggested half of Amazon workers suffer burnout.
This report, which surveyed workers at warehouses of varying size and industry, follows a similar pattern with almost 70% of people working in warehouses of over 500 employees seeing their mental health suffer, while it’s entry level staff that struggle the most.
However, things are beginning to change according to the results, with 43% of workers stating they care about the company they work for and around 80% not expecting to change industries as a result of their mental health.
Among the core reasons for this is the measures being put in place by warehouses to try and better manage staff members’ mental health, with communication, or lack of, being key.
Restricting out-of-hours communication is having a positive impact on over 20% of those struggling with their mental health, something which has been pushed by the new Labour government of late.
Additionally, better communication internally is also improving the mental health of a similar percentage of people.
Flexible working hours has also improved the mental health of one in five workers, as well as access to wellbeing services. However, it’s technology that is having the biggest impact.
Going paperless, using PDAs to know where stock is located and the simplification of stock transfers individually has improved the mental health of over 40% of warehouse workers, while barcode scan despatch processes has improved the mental health of almost 50% of workers.
Ian Dade, Operations Manager at StoreFeeder said, “The mental health of warehouse workers has been a prominent focus for many business owners in recent years.
"Many have come to us to make the process more efficient in order to ease time pressures on staff, one of the key issues driving mental health problems.
“Our WMS system simplifies the orders and picking process, as well as enabling warehouses to become quicker and more efficient at managing orders, as well as improving the organisation of a warehouse as a whole.
"It’s pleasing to see this is having a knock on effect to those working on the ground.”
As a result, almost 40% of workers now believe their industry does well in managing mental health in the workplace, but naturally there’s a long way to go over the coming years to make it the consensus.