Ten minutes that set the shift
It is ten past four on an evening shift at the Northstar distribution centre. A new starter stands by the dock doors holding a lanyard and a folded welcome pack. Around them, pallets are moving and colleagues are swapping handover notes. Nobody has said anything unkind, and nobody has said where to stand. This is the moment our Learning Coordinator wants to change. (A fictional feature from Northstar Services.)
In conversation with the Learning Coordinator, Evening Operations
By the Warehouse Learning team, as told to Internal Communications
What is a mistake you learned from?
For my first year, I tried to be thorough. A new starter would arrive for an evening shift and I would walk them through the whole welcome pack at the start: the site map, the shift pattern, the break rota, who to ask about what. It took about forty minutes, and I felt good about it.
Then one new starter told me, very politely, that she had been forty minutes into her first shift before she found out where she was supposed to be working. She had nodded through everything I said because she didn't want to interrupt. I had given her a lot of information and not one answer to the question she actually had.
I now think of the start of a shift as having room for three answers: where am I working, who do I ask, and what is different today. Everything else can wait for the first break or the second day. Nobody remembers a welcome pack at ten past four. They remember whether they knew where to stand.
You tested a small change with the evening team. What was it?
We put a single sheet, which we called the start board, next to the huddle point. It has three lines for each person starting that shift: their zone for the day, the name of a colleague to check in with, and one thing that is different from yesterday. That might be a changed dock door, a pallet type that needs extra care, or a late truck.
We ran it for three weeks on the evening shift only. The team leads filled it in at the end of the previous shift, so it took them about five minutes. We asked the leads and the new starters the same question each Friday: in your first ten minutes, what did you have to hunt for?
The answers got shorter every week. By the third Friday, team leads told us the same three questions had stopped arriving at the dock door. The board didn't remove all the confusion, but it moved the questions to a calmer time. Two of the experienced colleagues also started reading it, because the "different from yesterday" line was useful to them too.
In their words
Nobody remembers a welcome pack at ten past four. They remember whether they knew where to stand.
What would you ask a new starter?
I used to ask, "Do you have any questions?" It almost always gets a polite "No, I'm fine." Now I ask, "What is one thing you expected someone to tell you by now?"
That question gives people permission to name the gap without admitting they were lost. The answers are surprisingly practical. Someone wanted to know whether it is normal to walk past the supervisor's desk without stopping. Another wanted to know which door to use after a break. Each answer goes straight onto the next start board, so the person after them doesn't have to ask.
I also ask it again on day three, because by then people know enough to know what they were missing. That second answer is usually the most useful one I get all week.
A habit to borrow: the three-line start board
It takes a team lead about five minutes at the end of a shift. Try it for a fortnight, then ask the next starter what they still had to hunt for.
Zone: where they are working today
Check-in: a named colleague to ask
Different today: one change from yesterday
Keep it on one sheet at the huddle point, where everyone starting the shift will pass it.
Know someone whose approach others could learn from?
Features like this one come from colleagues across sites and shifts.
Can I suggest a colleague, or myself?
Yes. Features work best when they show a specific, useful habit from someone's day-to-day work, whether that is a warehouse floor routine, a handover method or a way of welcoming new starters. You can suggest yourself or someone else.
Does the colleague have to agree first?
Yes. Nobody is featured, named or quoted without their agreement. Before anything is written, the colleague is asked whether they are happy to take part and whether they want to be named or described by role, as in this feature. Their manager is told, and the colleague can read and change the draft before it is published.
Who do I send my suggestion to?
Start with your shift lead or your site's learning or people team. They pass suggestions to Internal Communications, who agree the format with the colleague and arrange any photos. Photos show the workplace or the work rather than a posed portrait unless the colleague prefers otherwise.
What if I work a night or weekend pattern?
Tell Internal Communications which shift pattern works for you. They can arrange a short conversation or written answers; agree the timing with your manager before taking part.