6 Ways Waste Haulers Lose Big When They Don’t Embrace Digital Citizen Technologies
Opportunity cost – what will you give up to get something else? Research suggests that not going digital comes with hard costs. The good news is, moving your program into the digital realm has never been easier or more affordable.
Here are 6 potential opportunity costs to motivate you to go digital without delay.
- Keeping Up With The Competition. Waste haulers often improve their recycling programs through peer emulation, one of the most important functions of the state or regional recycling conference, if we might say so. But when your program begins to lag behind on digital, it’s hard to follow in the footsteps of the most effective programs.
- Retaining Staff. Employees already largely rely on digital services and systems at home, so there’s a bit of cognitive dissonance when they report to an employer that hasn’t adopted digital tools that work pretty well. In fact, this trend has long been underway, according to The Digital Renaissance of Work by Paul Miller and Elizabeth Marsh.
- The cost to replace a staff member who left due to workflow frustrations is about 33 percent of their salary, or $15,000 for someone who earns of $45,000 a year; as well, In 2021 the costs of turnover to employers exceeded $700 billion and the costs of turnover to employers have more than doubled since 2009, according to the Work Institute’s 2022 Retention Report.
- Attracting New Talent. US unemployment rates are historically low, giving workers a bit more elbow room in the job search. And as Generations Y and Z begin to crowd out previous generations as the largest cohorts in the workplace, slow-to-adapt organizations may find themselves hard-pressed to fill positions requiring outdated, analog processes.
- Safety of Staff Members. Solid waste consistently rates among the top 10 most dangerous professions, and in 2017, waste collection workers were the fifth most likely of all professionals to die on the job. In terms of worker safety, digital compliance and record-keeping systems allow better collection and analysis of incidents to prevent recurrence.
- We’ve got a guide to help create a safer workplace. Download it today.
- Retiring Antiquated Systems. Old systems and processes requiring manual monitoring and regular inputs to keep things running are common and really expensive: Many cities are still running on software from the 1980s, and 10 of the US federal government’s legacy systems cost residents $337 million a year. Often it’s impossible to retire a cranky, outdated system until a new one is in place—all the more reason to start the transition to digital ASAP.
- Operational Efficiencies. Collection is the most expensive piece of the solid waste pie, between the curb and final disposition, eating up as much as 60 percent of budgets. Moreover, trimming fleet costs, including fuel and maintenance, is one great way to save—but without digital route-mapping software, it’s difficult.
- Digital solutions can engender efficiencies in other areas, as well: Automated alerts, for example, that let residents know when a holiday will delay their collection quiet the phones, allowing frontline staff to focus on other tasks more effectively and efficiently.
That’s it: These days, going digital is a best practice in solid waste, just as it is in other industries. Effective digital solutions open up all kinds of opportunities, from increased cost savings and natural resource conservation to happier employees and better engaged residents. Now is the time to capture them!
Let’s Talk about doing so today. ♻️📲
