Shed Talk Podcast

Warehouse disaster recovery is the plan most operations have written down and never tested. Lynn Parnell has spent 26 years finding out what actually breaks.Around 40 percent of businesses that have a continuity plan have not tested it or trained anyone on it in the last twelve months. Two thirds now run on cloud systems, which means the server nobody really understood has been replaced by a broadband line nobody has a backup for.Lynn walks through what actually happens at half six on a Monday morning when the WMS is down, the weekend orders are stacked up and the warehouse is paperless. Where the local saves need to be. Why you need a box of pens. And why somebody always switches off the standalone machine that was quietly taking the backups, because "I don't think that's doing much".She also explains the Bob Dylan's birthday test, named after an IT director at a bakery who pulled the plug on the AS400 once a year without warning, and why that discipline still works thirty years on.Then it gets into cyber. Passwords on post-it notes in seven or eight out of every ten sites Lynn health checks. Boards with nobody trained in cyber awareness. Contractors still in the Teams group months after they left. And the route into M&S, Co-op and Harrods, which Lynn and Tony argue is the thing this industry is least prepared for: first tier software providers with standing access to your data.Plus the Fukushima paint shortage that stopped certain cars being built in the colours customers had ordered, and the Ever Given dinosaur that missed its own launch.GUESTLynn Parnell, Founder, Logistics Partners Consultancyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnparnell/https://www.logisticspartners.co.ukHOSTTony Grestyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/SUBSCRIBEhttps://www.youtube.com/@ShedTalkPod

Warehouse staff turnover, hidden performance gaps, and why the biggest costs in a warehouse never show up on a KPI dashboard.In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Ian Kirkpatrick, a consultant who has run supply chain and global HR functions inside a major Japanese owned group, to look at the clash between hitting your KPIs and building a culture people actually stay in.The conversation covers why the industry average for warehouse staff turnover sits around 37 percent, why half of all leavers go within their first year, what a trained worker really costs to replace, the exit interviews nobody runs, presenteeism, communicating change without wrecking trust, and why wellbeing keeps getting handed to HR instead of sitting with the board.Key points:📉 Why 37 percent staff turnover gets written off as "just the industry" when it does not have to be💷 Why losing one trained worker runs past £20,000 once training and lost productivity are counted🔧 The £70 torque wrench that exposed a £100,000 per site project nobody on the floor needed🧹 How one cleaner's answer uncovered 200 lost man hours a day sitting in a shift crossover🪞 Why wellbeing is a boardroom number, not a problem to hand to HRIan's central idea is the hidden performance gap: the thing that is not working that nobody has thought to ask about. His way in is a single question put to the people doing the work, which is what is stopping you being more successful. In one fast fit centre the answer was a missing fifth torque wrench costing about £70, while an improvement programme running at £100,000 a site was already underway. In a distribution centre it was a cleaner coming in an hour early to put the forklifts on charge, which turned out to be 200 lost man hours a day sitting in the gap between shifts.The same pattern runs through change and communication. Ian argues for a fountain up approach rather than a waterfall down one, starting with the people who face the customer every day, and for asking why five times until the answer means something to the person actually doing the job. Where that fails, the cost lands somewhere concrete: a new routing system turned away at the back door of a store, a driver who stops caring, shelves that stay empty.There is a hard commercial argument for wellbeing here too. An insurance claim reserved at £2 million rose to £8 million once it emerged that the motorcyclist involved had a disabled child who would need long term care. That was the point the conversation moved from regional level to board level. Ian's position is that the right thing to do and the commercially sensible thing to do are usually the same thing, and it should not take a shock to get the subject onto the agenda.The episode closes on a question worth sitting with. Take two logistics businesses with identical technology, warehouses and fleets, where one consistently outperforms the other. What is going on inside one building that the other building cannot see?If you run a warehouse, a transport operation or a 3PL, this one is about the costs that never make it onto a report: the people who leave, the people who stay but switch off, and the questions nobody thought to ask.Guest:Ian Kirkpatrick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-kirkpatrickConnect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement: https://www.youtube.com/@ShedTalkPodShedTalk. All Shed and Done.

Warehouse and yard safety: why most forklift accidents hit people who aren't even forklift operators, and what genuinely works to stop it.Most forklift accidents in a warehouse don't involve the forklift driver at all. Logistics safety consultant Ruth Waring of RW Consulting joins Tony and Naomi to break down why so much of workplace transport risk gets missed, and what a genuinely good safety culture looks like when the customer's shouting and the clock's ticking.Ruth explains the hierarchy of risk reduction: PPE, the thing every warehouse leans on first, is actually the last line of defence. Elimination, getting people out of the yard altogether, beats a high-vis jacket every time. She walks through the "accident iceberg": for every fatality, there are reckoned to be up to 20,000 near misses that went unreported, and why getting people to report them is one of the cheapest, highest-value things a warehouse can do.The conversation covers the loading bay "driveaway", one of the most overlooked fatal risks in logistics, where a lorry pulls away before unloading is finished. It covers why 65% of forklift incidents hit people who had no reason to be near the truck at all, from visitors to people walking to the canteen. And it covers AI detection systems (Zone Safe, Davis Derby, Anchor Security Systems), and where the software gets bought and never properly used.Ruth's closing takeaway: if everyone in your warehouse feels safe calling out someone else's unsafe behaviour, you've got a good safety culture. If they don't, you haven't, whatever the plaques on the wall say.Ruth Waring, Logistics Safety Consultant, RW Consultinghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthwaring/Tony Grestyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Joneshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe to ShedTalk: https://www.youtube.com/@ShedTalkPod

In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Claire Bottle from the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA) to explore why warehousing is still so widely misunderstood, and what this really means for warehouse and logistics teams.This conversation looks at the huge role warehouses play in the UK economy, why careers in warehousing are anything but dead-end jobs, how the sector is changing through automation and AI, and why warehouses are becoming much more than places where products simply sit on pallets.Claire shares lessons from visiting 80 warehouses across the UK, from highly automated fulfilment operations to specialist sites handling everything from luxury lingerie to batteries for London buses. She explains why almost everything around us has passed through a warehouse, and why the industry still struggles to get the recognition it deserves.Key points:📦 Why warehousing has a visibility and perception problem⚙️ Why automation and robotics are not the same thing, and why warehouses should start with the problem, not the technology👷 Why warehouse careers can create genuine opportunities and social mobility at every skill level📊 How 3PL, warehouse property, business rates and changing customer expectations are reshaping the sector✅ Why warehouses are increasingly becoming centres for manufacturing, returns, repair, recycling and the circular economyOne of the biggest themes running through the episode is how badly the warehouse sector is understood outside the industry. Claire challenges the idea that warehouse work is low-skilled or lacking progression, sharing examples of specialist roles, highly skilled equipment operators and people who have built major careers after starting at entry level.The conversation also moves into automation, robotics and AI. Rather than chasing the latest technology, Claire argues that warehouse operators should first identify the actual problem they are trying to solve, use evidence and data to prioritise it, and then decide which technology, if any, is appropriate.Along the way, there’s also the history of British warehousing, the rise of 3PL, warehouse development and planning, the circular economy, digital twins, Socrates, sheep, biodiversity and, somehow, Queen Victoria’s knickers.It’s a wide-ranging look at an industry that quietly sits behind almost everything we buy, use and consume.If you work in warehousing, logistics, fulfilment, supply chain, automation or materials handling, this episode is designed to give you a broader understanding of where the warehouse sector is heading, why its people and skills matter, and how to approach change without overcomplicating it.Connect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement.ShedTalk. All Shed and Done.

In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Ruth Wearing and Clare Bottle from Women in Logistics to explore the reality of being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and what this really means for warehouse and logistics teams.This conversation looks at how much logistics has changed over the last few decades and how much still needs to change. Ruth and Clare share their own routes into the industry, the beginnings of Women in Logistics, the experience of being the only woman in the building, workplace culture, inappropriate calendars and exhibition practices, pregnancy and career discrimination, flexible working, recruitment and the importance of creating genuinely inclusive workplaces.Key points:📦 How Women in Logistics grew from an idea in 1989 into a major industry community⚙️ Why flexible shift patterns could help warehouses attract a much wider talent pool👷 What women still experience in male-dominated logistics and transport environments📊 Why recruitment, retention and workplace culture are operational issues, not just HR issues✅ Why creating a more inclusive workplace can make logistics better for everybodyChapters00:00 Why this conversation matters00:54 Welcome to Women in Logistics03:57 The idea that started on a warehouse night shift11:34 Workwear designed for women, or not17:14 Being outnumbered in logistics23:35 Pornographic calendars and workplace culture32:37 “Don’t interview her, she’s childbearing age”35:21 Rethinking warehouse shifts and flexible working42:14 The new Women in Logistics community57:01 What gives us optimism for the future?One of the strongest themes in the episode is that inclusion often comes down to practical decisions. Instead of automatically running the same traditional warehouse shifts, Ruth challenges operators to work backwards and ask what working patterns could attract the best possible people, including term-time contracts and more flexible hours.The conversation also explores whether AI, robotics and automation could help create a more diverse logistics workforce. As physical demands reduce and workforce planning technology improves, the industry has an opportunity to rethink who warehouse roles are designed for and how work is organised.Ruth and Clare also discuss the less visible barriers that remain: assumptions around pregnancy and childcare, women being assessed differently at industry events, inflexible working practices and workplace cultures that can unintentionally tell people they do not belong.But this isn’t simply a conversation about women versus men. Women in Logistics has deliberately included male allies from its earliest days, and the wider message is about building workplaces where more people can contribute, progress and succeed.As Clare puts it towards the end of the conversation, creating a more open-minded culture doesn’t just benefit women. It can make the workplace better for people from many different backgrounds.And there is reason for optimism. Women in Logistics has seen a surge in interest, membership and company involvement, while the conversation around equality and inclusion continues to grow across the sector.If you work in warehousing, logistics, fulfilment, supply chain, automation or materials handling, this episode is designed to make you think differently about recruitment, retention, workplace culture and how seemingly small operational decisions can widen or restrict the talent available to your business.Connect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement.ShedTalk. All Shed and Done.

In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Kevin from TRS Training to explore the logistics skills shortage, the industry’s struggle to attract young people and what apprenticeships can offer warehouse and logistics employers.This conversation looks at the outdated perceptions surrounding warehouse careers, why logistics remains largely invisible in schools and colleges, and why many younger workers believe the sector offers poor environments, inflexible shifts and limited career progression.Kevin explains how warehouse and logistics apprenticeships work in practice, from entry-level qualifications through to supervisory and management development. He also discusses the role employers, mentors and frontline managers play in helping apprentices build confidence, develop new skills and progress into leadership positions.Key points:📦 Why only a small percentage of young people would consider working in warehousing⚙️ How technology, robotics and AI are changing logistics career opportunities👷 Why attitude can be more valuable than previous experience📊 Why 68% of logistics companies struggle to recruit people under 30✅ How apprenticeships can improve recruitment, retention and productivityChapters:00:00 Why logistics is struggling to recruit young people01:05 What does NEET mean?01:35 The mismatch between unemployment and logistics vacancies04:03 Why logistics careers lack visibility in schools05:59 How warehouse apprenticeships work11:00 Developing apprentices into supervisors and shift leaders15:33 Do members of Gen Z really not want to work?18:20 Will AI replace jobs in warehousing?25:04 Why poor management causes good employees to leave26:50 The statistics behind the logistics recruitment problem40:53 The one takeaway for warehouse employersKevin shares how someone can enter the industry through a Level 2 warehouse apprenticeship and, with the right support, progress into a supervisory position within two or three years. The discussion also covers workplace mentoring, funded qualifications and why employers should create visible career pathways rather than expecting candidates to arrive with every skill already in place.The episode challenges the claim that Generation Z does not want to work. Instead, Kevin argues that younger people are looking for flexibility, work-life balance, modern technology and evidence that an employer will invest in their development.Tony and Kevin also examine the influence of management on retention. Many warehouse supervisors are promoted because they were reliable or productive operatives, but receive little formal training in recruitment, induction, conflict management or performance conversations. As Kevin explains, people may join a business, but they often leave because of poor management.The practical takeaway is simple: stop recruiting only for experience. Look for people with the right attitude, give them a genuine opportunity and invest in developing the skills the business will need in the years ahead.If you work in warehousing, logistics, fulfilment, supply chain, automation or materials handling, this episode is designed to give you practical ideas for attracting younger workers, developing future leaders and building a stronger logistics workforce.Connect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement.ShedTalk. All Shed and Done.

In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Jen Swain MBE and Yasmin Actar to explore how better recruitment can improve retention, performance and opportunity across warehousing and logistics.This conversation looks at why the industry may not simply have a talent shortage, but an opportunity shortage. Jen explains how Road to Logistics helps people facing barriers to employment move into sustainable careers as HGV drivers and warehouse operatives, while giving employers access to motivated people who are often overlooked by traditional recruitment.Yasmin also shares her personal journey from spending 25 years working in care to training for a completely new career as an HGV driver. She talks openly about overcoming fear, cultural expectations and self-doubt, and how the right training and support gave her the confidence to build a different future for herself and her family.Key points:📦 Why logistics employers need to look beyond traditional recruitment⚙️ How tailored training can prepare safer, more work-ready drivers👷 Why attitude, behaviour and potential can matter more than experience📊 How Road to Logistics achieved 89% employment and 94% retention✅ Why the industry needs to create opportunities instead of repeatedly searching the same shrinking talent poolChapters:00:00 Introducing Jen Swain MBE and Yasmin Actar02:37 The business case for diverse recruitment03:29 Achieving 94% retention after 12 months15:30 Levi’s journey from homelessness into logistics18:37 Yasmin’s career change into HGV driving28:35 Preparing new drivers for the real working environment32:19 Does logistics have a talent shortage or a visibility problem?37:02 Why it is really an opportunity shortage42:05 The true cost of traditional recruitment55:43 How an HGV career could change Yasmin’s futureJen shares the operational results behind Road to Logistics, including 750 people trained, 89% moving into logistics employment and 94% remaining with the same employer after 12 months. She explains why investing in training can offer a stronger return than repeatedly paying recruitment fees, overtime and agency costs to fill the same vacancies.The episode also explores what good employer partnerships look like. By working closely with organisations such as Brakes and the Department for Work and Pensions, training can be designed around the real role including drivers’ hours, bridge strikes, mental health, customer service, food distribution and urban driving.The central lesson is straightforward: logistics will not solve its recruitment challenges by continuing to search for experienced people in an ever-shrinking pool. Employers need to identify potential, provide the right training and build their future talent pipelines before vacancies become urgent.If you work in warehousing, logistics, fulfilment, supply chain, automation or materials handling, this episode is designed to give you a more practical and commercially useful way to think about recruitment, retention and the hidden talent your organisation may be overlooking.Connect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement.ShedTalk. All Shed and Done.

In this episode of ShedTalk, Tony Gresty and Naomi Jones sit down with Steve and Val from Tempus Novo to explore how employment can help people break the cycle of reoffending, and what this really means for warehouse and logistics teams.This conversation looks at why so many people leaving prison struggle to find stable work, why employers are often hesitant to hire people with convictions, and how the right support structure can turn overlooked candidates into reliable, loyal and motivated employees.Key points:📦 Why warehousing and logistics can offer a strong route back into work⚙️ How Tempus Novo supports both employees and employers for 12 months👷 Why trust, structure, culture and relationships matter so much📊 The real cost of reoffending compared with the cost of getting someone into work✅ Why hiring ex-offenders safely can create better outcomes for businesses, families and communitiesSteve and Val share powerful real-world stories of people who moved from repeat offending into stable employment, family life, confidence and progression. They explain why the right job is not just about income, but identity, structure, self-worth and the chance to become part of something better.They also explain why the model works particularly well in warehouse and logistics environments, where structure, routine, clear expectations and progression routes can help people settle, perform and grow. For employers, the message is clear: this is not about taking reckless risks. It is about working with the right organisation, understanding the person, supporting the supervisor and building a safer route into work.If you work in warehousing, logistics, fulfilment, supply chain, automation or materials handling, this episode is designed to give you a practical look at recruitment, retention and the hidden talent pool many businesses still overlook.Connect with the hosts:Tony Gresty: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygresty/Naomi Jones: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-e-jones/Subscribe for more real-world conversations about better warehouses, smarter logistics and practical operational improvement.ShedTalk. All Shed and Done.