The Jürgen Klopp of Logistics? Stephan Friebel on Leadership and Teamwork

In a nutshell: In this interview with Stephan Friebel, Site Manager at Radial Europe in Halle (Saale), he discusses topics such as the skilled labor shortage, workforce flexibility, and the integration of temporary workers. He places particular emphasis on the importance of training, onboarding programs, and transparent communication.  

Stephan Friebel, who has been Site Manager at Radial Europe for almost 3 years, runs a multi-client warehouse currently serving eight clients in Halle (Saale). Flexibility and tailored solutions are at the heart of operations here. "Our strength lies in meeting individual requirements, which demands a high degree of agility and expertise from our teams", Stephan explains. This philosophy makes it possible to address the specific needs of each client while ensuring efficient processes. 

 In the interview, it quickly becomes clear that Stephan, as a leader, places great value on empathy and long-term employee retention, inspired by role models such as Jürgen Klopp. His goal is to create a positive work environment in which employees feel valued. In addition to explaining how his teams are trained for a multi-client warehouse, Stephan also shares his approach to people management. 

Greater Flexibility Through Cross-Training 

Employee flexibility is a key success factor in a multi-client warehouse. One of the biggest challenges was therefore the introduction of job rotation. "Previously, our teams were often assigned to a single client, which led to bottlenecks when someone was absent, for example", Stephan explains.   

Today, cross-training ensures that employees can be deployed flexibly across multiple clients. "We cannot afford for a process to stall just because someone is off sick", Stephan makes clear. That said, there are still processes that require specialist skills and are carried out by specifically trained individuals. Overall, however, workforce flexibility has improved significantly thanks to the new structure. 

Focus on Developing In-House Teams 

To remain fully operational during seasonal peak periods such as Black Friday, Radial works with staffing agencies. Surprisingly, a recent internal analysis revealed that certain temporary workers were outperforming permanent employees. This finding prompted a clear strategic shift: "We have placed a stronger focus on training and development so that our core team has a solid command of the fundamental processes", Stephan reports.  

The onboarding of new employees is supported by a comprehensive support program. Alongside traditional training videos and team leader coaching sessions, co-workers are also deployed as mentors to guide new starters: "Co-workers accompany new colleagues during their first two weeks, are available to answer questions, and help with integration into the teams", he explains. This concept has proven its worth, as it enables individual strengths to be identified at an early stage and team assignments to be adapted accordingly. 

Another milestone was the introduction and training of the 5S methodology approximately one year ago. In addition to boosting efficiency, the primary focus is on workplace safety. "Since then, we have not had a single workplace accident", Stephan emphasizes.

Temporary Staff and Core Team: A Balancing Act 

As in many companies, the skilled labor shortage is a major challenge at this site as well. "The bottleneck exists primarily from the Team Manager level upward", says Stephan.  

The Radial site in Halle (Saale) currently employs approximately 75% permanent staff and 25% temporary workers. The goal is to shift this ratio further in favor of permanent employees. "We want to increase the share of permanent staff to around 80 to 85%", Stephan explains. At the same time, he places great importance on treating all colleagues equally: "It was important to raise awareness among managers that temporary workers should be assigned challenging tasks in a fair and manageable way." 

Stephan points to the collaboration during Black Friday as a successful example of temporary worker integration. "With a DJ in the warehouse, food trucks, a red carpet, and a photo booth, the atmosphere was fantastic – the event brought the teams closer together while we gave our best for the clients and delivered outstanding performance." 

Goals and KPIs for 2025 

The warehouse operates with a focus on clear objectives and transparent communication. "I'm a firm believer in sitting down together as a team and developing our goals collaboratively", Stephan explains. Workshops like these not only strengthen team cohesion but also boost employee engagement. 

This year, the focus will once again be on increasing employee satisfaction. An innovative approach to achieving this are skip-level meetings, in which managers hold conversations with employees without the direct team lead being present. "This gives us unfiltered insights into day-to-day operations – both positive and negative", Stephan elaborates. In parallel, he himself regularly conducts conversations with randomly selected employees to gather first-hand feedback. Combined with the data from satisfaction surveys, this provides a clear picture of the challenges that need to be addressed.  

Current goals and KPIs are displayed transparently for everyone in the so-called Lean Corners. Once a quarter, the Site Manager updates the entire workforce at an all-hands meeting on financials, client feedback, and new developments. "Communication is the key to bringing everyone along on the journey and building trust", Stephan stresses. 

Challenges Facing the Logistics Industry 

The logistics industry faces numerous challenges: from thin margins and intense cost pressure to a shortage of suitable managers. "All too often, the best picker is promoted to team lead without any consideration of social skills", Stephan criticizes. To address these challenges, he