Episode 3 Britain's Hardest Workers: Inside the Low Wage Economy

In Britain, more than 5 million people are now in low-paid work.

I am left with ?12.76 every single week.

Some weeks, I'm just really struggling.

I have to borrow, in fact, off people.

Whether we're unskilled workers, graduates or aged 50 or over,

many of us could have a future in low pay.

Everybody is vulnerable.

Work is the new poor.

With zero-hour contracts, automation and global competition,

employees need to be more adaptable than ever before.

There's losers in any transition period.

The question is what do you do to make sure that some of the losers

don't fall through the cracks.

So, how tough are these jobs and can anyone do them?

20 people, all proud of their work ethic...

I'm a grafter, I've always been a grafter.

I don't ever believe anything is above me or below me.

Money doesn't just come to you, you've got to go out and get it.

..are taking part in a unique experiment.

I'm your factory manager for the next ten days.

They're putting themselves to the test,

trying out a range of low-paid jobs in real British workplaces...

So, that's what we're trying to achieve.

Better crack on then, hadn't we?

I thought it was going to be easy.

..and in a specially-constructed factory.

I'll get there. I knew it would be a slow start, but I'll get there.

Facing an uncertain future in the job market...

I want to prove to myself how hard a worker I can be.

I'm taking part to show that there are hard-working people out there.

..they'll discover what skills you need to survive

in today's low-paid jobs.

I don't understand.

No. Sorry.

It's squirting everywhere.

And just like in the real jobs market, it's competitive...

Jesus. ..with the least productive worker being laid off

after every shift...

The shift is finished.

..until we're left with the most adaptable

and most resilient worker of all.

Over the last four days,

the workers have taken on jobs from across the low-wage economy.

KNOCK ON DOOR Housekeeping.

Boy, this one is a mess.

They've seen what it's like to be part of an invisible workforce...

In fact, pigs are probably cleaner than this.

..from the working conditions...

It's smelly, dusty, I can get some disease from that.

..to the targets they're expected to meet.

Faster, faster, faster, faster.

It sounded really easy, same as all the tasks, but it's actually not.

And they've learned how in this world...

Oh, no.

All of that product might now have to be rejected.

..you're only as good as your last day's work.

Let me a little bit for a few minutes.

I'm afraid you're going to have to leave.

Now the nine remaining workers are going to have to enter

one of the newest and most talked-about business sectors -

e-commerce.

Us Brits spend more online per head

than any other developed nation.

Last year, we spent more than ?40 billion.

Now, to cope with our ever-increasing demand

of next-day delivery,

quality guarantees and bargain prices,

there's an army of low-paid workers.

To keep up with our increasing orders,

online global giants like Amazon

have built massive warehouses

in the UK,

capable of shipping over 2 million items a day.

But to make sure that staff working in those warehouses

as pickers and packers are fast and accurate,

their work rates are continuously monitored.

It has lead to headline stories and controversy.

How much pressure can companies place on workers?

And what's it like to work in a hi-tech warehouse

where every move you make is being watched by the boss?

That's what we want our workers to find out,

so they're off to do a shift at an online retailer in Sheffield.

I'm nervous, cos I don't even know what to expect,

cos I've never done this job before.

And for the first time in the experiment so far,

they won't be working in teams.

I think the opportunity today to work individually

will be good to see just how strong

mentally and emotionally I can handle it.

Today, the workers will be trying out their next low-paid job

at a multi-million pound online grocery business...

Good morning, everyone.

..where they'll be managed by its founder, Dan Cluderay.

I started this business eight years ago.

We're now sending out 45,000 to 50,000 items every single day.

I'm putting my business in your hands.

So - picking, packing, you've got to do this with speed,

but most important - quality.

Keep keen, keep lean, but be smart.

Come on, follow me.

After being made redundant,

40-year-old Dan spotted a gap in the market.

He'd take food nearing its best before date,

buy it at a discount and sell it on to bargain hunters.

Now the business is six years old,

worth millions and is reaching customers in the UK

and across Europe.

To keep up with customer orders,

Dan employs a team of 25 pickers and packers,

who all start on minimum wage.

Our customers expect next-day.

They're not bothered about what happens in this building.

They just want it delivered.

It's absolutely crucial that these pickers work at the speed we need.

They have to get it right and they have to be quick.

Dan's developed a computer system

to process orders and run the warehouse.

The trolleys are loaded with separate trays for each customer.

The computer plans the quickest route down the aisle

and tells the picker what items to collect

and which tray to put them in.

The packers then box up the orders, ready for dispatch.

The workers are about to do a four-hour shift,

picking and packing.

On-screen, it tells you where to go next

and it tells you what to do.

In warehouse work, as in other sectors,

the use of technology is increasing.

And to be able to do these jobs,

you have to be able to get to grips with it.

You'll have to really get in here to go and see this.

So, with Capri-Sun, it'll say to go to 13 A3

and to get one Capri-Sun.

The picture that you see is the product that you're going to pack.

SCANNER BEEPS

Before doing it for real,

the workers have a trial run to see how the system works.

What do you do?

You scan your item and then scan your tray.

This is really confus... I thought it was going to be easy.

Now, if you press... Yeah. That's it.

And now you scan the tray.

Warehouse worker Majka and graphic designer Leon

have both used this type of technology,

so they're finding it easier to understand the system.

Every crate is organised - A, B, C, D...

And when it tells you B,

you need to know exactly where it is to be more efficient,

you need to know that inside out.

The computer tells them which item to pick and once it's scanned...

SCANNER BEEPS ..which tray to put it in.

If they scan the wrong product or the wrong tray,

the system won't allow them to move on to the next item.

We're like robots then...

doing all this.

For ex-mortgage adviser Judy, this technology is all new.

It wouldn't scan the new tray,

so I thought maybe they hadn't finished the picking,

so I put it in a different tray and it still wouldn't scan it.

And working with a computerised system

is completely different for agency chef Stephanie.

That's it, order complete.

I'm getting my process fixed in my head.

Gentleman making approving signs

so thinks that I might...

I've got potential.

Just got to get going.

Training over.

The workers now have two hours to see how close they can get

to the company's target pick rates.

Right, guys, this is it, off you go.

Rob, move your bloody tray, mate.

SHE CHUCKLES

These first few minutes are going to be the ones

of where they're going to be flapping, you know,

"Am I doing it right?"

Ah!

HORN BEEPS

I've done something wrong then. Yeah.

Oh, two of them. Oh, goodness me.

The computerised trolleys don't just show the pickers

what items to select,

the onboard system also records how fast they're working

and sends the data back to Dan.

As these scans happen,

we're going to see this data fall live into the system.

So I can see from my computer exactly where everybody is.

The scanning right now -

Leon's took an early lead with four items

that he's scanned into his basket.

But over the next ten-minute period,

we're going to get a feel for how people are going.

So how does Dan's monitoring system work?

How does he see who's on target and who's not?

What am I looking at here?

So, we've created a system where we can monitor, in ten-minute segments,

the productivity of all our workers throughout the entire day.

Green - it's meaning that they're going really well.

Blue - that's acceptable.

But if I start seeing people in reds and oranges,

that performance is low.

Looking at it like this, it seems very cold,

it's quite calculating,

it's ten minutes, ten minutes, ten minutes.

These are human beings who are doing a job.

Does it...

Do they appreciate this?

Is it working for them? I think so, I think so.

Because what use is it that I tell someone at the end of the day,

"You've been no good today"?

We developed this, not to bash people over the head.

As an employer, it just gives you the workability

to give merit to people.

Someone can say, "Have you seen what I've done over the six months?"

"Yes, I can see everything you've done.

"I can see absolutely everything." Yeah.

And how is your productivity? We are...

Are you hitting targets?

Are you where you want to be?

We are achieving pick rates

in excess of 500 to 600 items

per hour per person.

We developed it, cos as a business, if you want to be lean,

if you want to be productive

and keep up with the Amazons of the world,

this is what you've got to do.

Dan's system means that his workers have a pick rate target

of almost ten items a minute.

Our novice workers' target is half that.

(Sugar! Sugar, sugar, sugar.)

But so far, none of them are getting anywhere near.

Oh, BLEEP. This is meant to be...

Oh, it's not. OK, 21 E1.

It becomes really interesting to see who is performing, you know?

Who's having a good time? Why are they having a bad time?

What's the reasons why?

It's hard to perform when you know that someone's watching you.

I guess there's a reason why they do it,

but it can get people off-guard

and I would say it's really under pressure.

I think it's a good management tool.

If you're falling behind, at least someone else knows

that you're falling behind and they can tell you

where you're going wrong and how to work harder.

In previous jobs where I've worked,

where it's target driven,

the person who had done the least that day would buy the drinks.

It's not that I want to put pressure on them.

It almost becomes a bit like a game.

Using monitoring data to incentivise workers

to compete against each other

is an increasing trend and productivity becomes a game

they can either win or lose.

Professor Kirstie Ball has been studying how companies

use competition in the workplace.

What's gamification?

So, gamification is where management

use elements of gameplay

in the way that they organise work.

So that would be things like league tables, point systems,

tournaments, that kind of thing.

It's been much hyped, I suppose, in the management press.

I mean, does gamification work?

The people who really push it,

the proponents of it, they say it engages employees better.

So if you gamify something, you make it fun,

you bring an element of competition, you know,

with your peers and so on, and this can be really engaging.

Can there be a negative side to it?

There can be a negative side to it,

because not everybody responds well

to the whole carrot and stick approach that you get in a game.

People learn in different ways,

people absorb information and take things on board in different ways.

So it doesn't work for everybody.

And for those people,

it can actually be quite alienating and disengaging.

So it splits opinion.

I think, like monitoring,

it really needs to be applied in conjunction

with a whole bunch of other things.

What do you think the future of monitoring will be?

Is it something we need to be worried about?

Monitoring and the way it's done

says a lot about how the company views its employees.

If you retain the right as an employer to hire and fire people

on the basis of monitoring statistics

and monitored performance alone,

that really is questionable in terms of the ethicality of that practice.

And do you think there's room for that to happen?

Do you think that is happening? It does happen.

It happens in places like call centres

where the work is outsourced.

So, you have a set of employees working in a team,

answering calls from an outside client

and the client can demand a particular level of performance

and if the employee does not offer that performance,

yes, they can be shown the door.

Back at the warehouse and Dan's noticed a sharp drop

in productivity with one of the workers.

Bulgarian-born Martin has done a lot of low-paid jobs

since moving to the UK four years ago.

But today, he's finding the combination of English

and technology difficult. OK...

Calm down. Calm down.

6...13B.

Honestly, I'm not feeling very confident,

but I will try to be as quick as I can.

To make sure that I'm picking up the right stuff.

Martin's scanning the wrong trays

and the computer won't allow him to move on.

You've got your trays muddled up.

So Dan sent one of his pickers over to sort it out.

So 41948.

Hi, Scott. Have we got to the bottom of it?

Yeah, I think what's happened is the trays have got muddled up.

Swapping the trays, I don't think it's my fault, because...

We ship out 45,000 items a day and we don't have this problem,

but we seem to be having it with you, Martin.

But what we need to do is just move on from this now,

we've got it right and you can do this.

OK? Great stuff, mate, keep going.

21 D1.

An hour into their shift and Majka and Leon

are already hitting the target of five items a minute.

They've done this type of work before,

so they're used to the combination of physical and technical work

and they're able to deal with the pressure of being monitored.

In my warehouse, I've been quite used to

if someone check how much I done.

When they told us, for me, it's more motivation

to make my work better.

So, for me, that is like small kick in my arse

to keep together and try the best what I can.

So far, who's at the bottom?

Rob down here - he's found a pace, but it's the wrong pace.

He's just at the wrong speed.

He's consistently flat.

It's taken him three minutes to pick one product

which, in all honesty, is terrible.

I need to talk to Rob.

That's all I've done so far,

so not great.

Better carry on. HE CHUCKLES

Working in a warehouse is very different to the career Rob had

as a graphic designer.

I had some pretty amazing jobs.

I actually worked in special effects on Superman 1

and also the James Bond film Moonraker.

It was quite a glamorous lifestyle, really,

and being the sort of person I am, I liked earning decent money.

I spent it all because that's how I am,

that's my character.

If I've got something, I'll get rid of it.

So I haven't got it left now.

But gradually, the design contracts petered out

and Rob had to look for other kinds of work,

much of it in the low-paid sector.

The worst job I had was cleaning trains,

because you had to get underneath them

and clean the underside of the train.

It's all thick with grease and it all falls on top of you,

it was pretty awful.

Pay for that job was more or less minimum wage,

slightly over, but not a lot.

Rob needs to work, but finding the right job is proving difficult.

I think it's quite a challenge when you're getting a bit older,

you can't do some of the jobs you might have been able to do

when you were in your 20s.

You don't see any 40-year-old footballers, do you?

All right there, Rob,

I just wanted to give you an update of where we're at. OK.

Right now you're at the bottom, that's where it is at now.

So, in this next hour now,

what you're doing at the rate,

we just need to step it up.

You can become the leader in this next hour.

So, just get cracking and move on.

All right, pal? OK.

It's disappointing to know you're the slowest.

I'm 63, oldest one here

and you've got these youngsters,

they've been playing computer games since they were two years old.

I'm very computer literate, you know, I do computer graphics,

yet I'm right at the bottom.

So, what is the situation facing workers aged 50 and over?

Will a growing number find themselves looking for low-paid jobs

and having to adapt to a very different labour market?

Economist Chris Giles has been looking at the trends.

Are we seeing an older workforce doing low-pay work?

We're seeing a huge increase in work among older people.

Some of that is because older people,

when they're in their 60s and early 70s, don't feel that old

and actually like work,

but some of it is because pensions are quite low

and they've been disappointed

in what their private pensions are producing.

Now, I don't think we're seeing

a lot of that disappointment quite yet.

The group of pensioners who are retiring right at the moment

are the most wealthy and richest pensioners we've ever had.

Ten, 15 years' time,

when people in their late 40s and 50s now get to retirement age,

they will have much worse pension rights

than the current crop of retirees

and I think we're going to see a lot more of that then.

So I think the rate of employment among over 65s

is only going to rise and rise really quite rapidly still.

Is that going to be a problem?

I think it's a problem if people are in work

that they really don't like

or if it's heavily physical work when they're older and frailer.

So, there are potential problems, but also, I think,

work is actually something that lots of people enjoy doing.

So, so long as people have the ability, in some ways,

to choose the sorts of work they do and have a nice experience

in the workforce, then I don't see a big problem

in older people working at all.

Back at the warehouse,

the workers have been picking for an hour and a half

and Dan's seeing an increase in productivity.

So something has just happened in the last ten minutes.

Sabrina's been struggling for the first part of the morning,

but she's just clicked into gear.

We've just seen her now hit the first green ten-minute period.

Let's see if she can do the next ten minutes just the same.

And casual farm hand Berwyn, whose future in farming is uncertain...

Two of these from location D - hand-picked.

..is showing potential.

Berwyn's, you know, now starting to hit greens, which is great.

That means he's at the same level as my workers have been here,

what I would expect from those.

To be honest, I'm feeling quite proud of myself.

My worries were the technology, but I am succeeding.

It's not in B4. It's not in B4.

It's not in B4.

But not everyone's managed to get faster.

"Park item. Take action."

Judy's in a bit of a world of pain at the moment,

because she's making mistakes, I think she's getting confused.

BLEEP BLEEP! I don't understand. They're not here.

62-year-old Judy was a highly-experienced

financial manager,

but since being made redundant four years ago,

she's struggled to find similar work.

I'd been in finances for a long time

and this was very hard-hitting for me.

I didn't know what else I could do and also with my age,

I was no longer in my 20s and 30s now, I was now sort of 40s, 50s,

it was getting more difficult to compete with the young crowd.

With her white-collar prospects in doubt,

taking part in the experiment is a chance for Judy

to explore other options.

Look, guys, you're supposed to tell me, not just let me go.

Over the past four days...

It's very strenuous, it's very hard.

..she's been challenged physically...

It's a bit daunting, I'm daunted.

..emotionally...

Totally, totally, you know, out of order.

..and mentally.

The only difficulty I have with computers is that

they're advancing so fast, I can't keep up with it.

When I sit in front of my computer, I'm thinking,

"What does that key do or what does this key do?"

I feel inadequate.

How do you know there's two?

Because it's already said there was two. Oh.

"Pre-picked fail. Cannot scan item with no barcode."

It had a barcode.

Sugar, sugar, sugar.

57-year-old agency chef Stephanie is one of the slowest pickers.

She thought she'd got the hang of the job in training,

but the reality is proving very different.

C. Why don't you like that?

A, B, C - you've got five in.

Come on.

SHE SIGHS

Our employees tend to be in their 20s, early 30s and, you know,

they like to be on top of those scoreboards.

They've grown up playing computer games and, you know,

we're kind of plumbing into that a little bit, because there is, like,

an incentive to be at the top.

I'm not saying everybody's leaving work high-fiving each other,

saying they've had a great time, but it's just a little more fun,

"Who is going to be at the top of that list?"

Right, I need to focus now.

In the final ten minutes of picking,

everyone tries to up their speed to get as many items as possible.

30 B1.

Yes. Come on.

Right, guys, that's it.

We're over, the shift has finished, so put down what you're doing.

SCANNER BEEPS Done.

The workers have picked for two hours.

My brain and... It's really tired.

It looks easy, but when you start doing it,

it's not that easy,

and when you're under pressure...

..it's not easy at all.

They've completed a quarter of a regular shift.

I'm actually tired.

You could assume that it was literally just picking

things of a shelf like a shopping list

and just put it into a basket,

but you do need to actually have a lot more concentration.

Now, they'll be packing...

I find it easier if you use a knife, because it's faster.

..and the workers will be trained by expert packer Diane,

who will show them how to box up customer orders

so they can be sent out by post and arrive in perfect condition.

So, as you're packing, anything like this has to be taped.

All your jars have to be bubble-wrapped.

OK.

If you have quite a few jars, you need to use a divider.

Right. These are dividers, yeah?

To avoid refunds, it's crucial there are no breakages

and no items missed.

Shipping around 45,000 items a day,

Dan's team achieve over a 99.9% success rate,

and that's what he expects of the workers.

You don't put tins, anything ever, you don't put with crisps.

It's going to squash, going to break,

then they're going to be no good.

Processing up to 600 orders per day, packers also have to work at speed.

Dan expects them to box up an order every eight minutes,

and there's around 80 items in each order.

We're now going to be monitoring you every single second.

Right. So, good luck and let's get going, off we go!

I think you know I'm going to do a lot better in this one.

Pick it up, it won't bite.

Pick it up. Like that?

Scan it.

While Dan's supervisors are on hand

to make sure they're packing correctly...

Martin, it's all wrong. Hm?

This pop and biscuits together, no.

..once again, the computer system will record every item

the workers pack to measure their productivity.

Having a job where you're constantly monitored

can add a bit of pressure to your job.

I think I work well under pressure, most times.

Yeah, I like to get the job done and know that there's a target

to be reached, so I don't mind so much.

As someone who runs his own business,

fish and chip shop owner Stewart understands the value of monitoring.

Every job anybody does, at some stage, they have to be monitored.

You can't just walk in and do a job and expect people just to let you go

and do it without checking your work. It has to be done.

Without monitoring, you don't learn anything.

I'm just trying to use my logic.

In the first half, Judy struggled with picking,

so will she fare better as a packer?

Hey, Judy. How are you finding this part?

Horrible. Horrible?

I would have thought you'd be liking this. No.

What don't you like about? I'm not understanding the logistics

of how they pack and you can only go up to a certain time.

I'm sure that you're going to excel at this, right?

But based on what came from the previous job, on the picking,

I wouldn't be asking you back here tomorrow if you worked for me

based on what you did on that side.

This is your opportunity to excel. Was I that bad?

Was I that bad? You were in the lower two. Oh, my God.

But on this side, from here, this is where you can excel.

You know, you're dextrous, you're doing well, don't flap,

this is perfectly within your skill set to do. OK? OK.

Keep going, you're OK, keep going.

'I've tried my best, I thought I was better.'

Judy, seriously, let it motivate you.

They told me I was second to last.

Let it motivate you, keep going.

'I've been in financial sales for years

'and many people think that's stressful.'

But I've never had to think like that in a job,

where I have to think that I could be on the way out

or I'm about to lose my job and that they're watching me

every five minutes or every ten minutes,

it was just horrendous.

I just felt that pressure.

It's not helping me, I'm not having a good day, been told that.

What can I say?

You all right? Cracking up.

No, I'm cracking up. Are you finished? No.

Judy's 40 years older than most of Dan's warehouse staff,

and when they were picking,

the older workers were the least productive.

Is that OK there like that? Yeah.

So, how is Rob coping with this task?

I'm going to crush the crisps.

How are you finding it? OK.

Is it all right? Yeah. I've worked in a warehouse before.

When you would've started and you learnt this job inside out,

our target is 60 orders.

That's what you have to do in a day. Wow.

Do you think you could manage that? I'd work up to it.

You'd work up to it? Yeah. THEY CHUCKLE

You don't want to go too mad, do you?

I like to pace myself, you see.

What's Dan's computer system telling him

about how the others are getting on?

We're starting to see some people

who are just starting to edge in front.

It's quite close in this list.

I can see here that Majka's packed over 200 kilos within one hour.

She's level pegging with Leon with the amount of lines

that she's packed and over 677 items.

So, it really is going some.

But being monitored has also meant that other people have improved.

Martin's getting a bit more confident.

He's picking his speed up now.

It's getting interesting now, cos I can see this table levelling up

and I can see the people who are starting to click into gear.

Who's actually going to be the most productive?

It's completely fluid.

Stephanie, who was one of the slowest at picking, now knows

she's one of the fastest packers.

I like feedback, because it means

that I'm sort of thinking I'm doing OK.

Now I know I'm doing OK.

I've got sweat on my brow and I'm effective.

I am a happy bunny. SHE LAUGHS

Now it's a final race to the finish.

Oh, you're joking.

Everything fell out of my box.

No, I'm not hitting it.

Right, guys, that's it.

We're over, the shift has finished, so put down what you're doing.

For the past five hours,

the speed and accuracy of their every move

has been recorded and analysed.

I couldn't do this as a living.

I would find it very hard, I'd struggle.

It has been difficult, yeah.

You can only do your best.

Yeah, I tried my hardest. Yes, that's all anybody can ask you.

I know. Oh, come on.

Judy.

I just got so depressed with it all.

Let's go get some water, come on. I've got some make-up wipes.

Come on.

The workers are on their way back

to the factory for their pay packets.

For their five-hour shift,

they'll be paid the pre-April rates of minimum wage...

Hi. ..which was ?6.70 an hour before tax.

Welcome back to the factory.

You've completed another job,

so I'd like to give you your wages.

Berwyn. Cheers, mate.

Sabrina. Thanks, Sabrina.

Martin. Thanks, Martin.

What can I say?

This isn't pay packages, it's so little.

And it's for all that effort, physical effort.

I appreciate far more what they do now that I've seen it,

the real world, myself.

I do honestly think 6.70 is the right wage for that job.

Certainly, that job, to me, I would do for that money,

I would do it for 6.70 an hour.

So, who had the skills to thrive in warehouse work?

Was anyone able to maintain the company's exacting targets?

Mike Matthews, who's overseeing the experiment, is collating

the productivity data that's come back from the warehouse.

This is the first time they've been judged as individuals.

It will suit some of them, but it won't suit all of them.

Because the warehouse records work rates every ten minutes,

Mike's able to see whether the workers improved over their shift.

What's interesting about the monitoring,

I'd expect that those at the bottom, if they were being monitored,

they would have got better, but, actually,

it seemed to make them worse.

So, how do the workers compare to employees at the warehouse?

The rate for an experienced worker is 360 picks

and for a new one is 180.

Five of our workers didn't even pass the standard expected

of new employees, but the top four did.

What we noted about them about the most productive people,

they really do know how to work fast.

The top three - they've all had lots of jobs

and they've all got a range of skills,

so they all demonstrated they could learn and work very fast.

HORN BLARES

THEY GASP Oh, my God.

With her years of experience,

warehouse worker Majka came top of the productivity rankings.

I feel proud of me, because I tried the best,

I do everything what I can, so if I have any job,

I always go to the work and give everything

to being good and try the best.

It's all right. Sorry, buddy.

63-year-old Rob's output was six times slower than experienced staff.

I think anything that requires a lot of speed

and fiddling with the computer and stuff like that,

I find it a bit difficult sometimes.

I'm not a methodical person, you know, I'm a bit haphazard.

It didn't fill up my environment, really.

You can't stop and talk to somebody.

I've been in many environments like that where you start

to talk to somebody and the boss comes over and says,

"We don't pay you to stand around talking."

I find that difficult.

I'm absolutely over the moon,

cos I felt so close to the edge

emotionally and physically and mentally.

Although I'm relieved, I feel very sad that he has to go.

It could have been me, quite easily.

We're over halfway through the experiment and the six remaining

workers are about to do another shift in e-commerce,

but this time, they'll be working in the high-end luxury market.

Britain is the online shopping capital of Europe

with 35 million of us buying at the click of a button,

so rather than going into a shop to examine what we want,

we enter a virtual world of perfect images.

And when it arrives, we expect it to be just that - perfect.

So online companies employ quality controllers

who check every last detail of a product before it's shipped.

Good morning, everybody.

ALL: Good morning.

This next job requires determination, patience

and a keen eye for detail.

It lies behind those doors.

Good luck to you all.

OK, guys, let's go and see what the next job is.

In this section of the factory,

we've set up our quality control centre,

and the product our workers will be checking are tents.

I've been camping twice, when I was young.

I haven't made a tent before.

Someone gave me a tent, it's in the back of my boot,

I've never opened it, so...

I'm terrified, cos I never do like that.

Good challenge for me now.

They're about to do a four-hour shift working for John Harris,

managing director of an online luxury tent brand.

The last time I put up a tent was 20 years ago.

I work too hard to worry about going camping.

With a host of celebrity customers, from Rihanna to Fearne Cotton,

quality control is paramount.

It's vital for us that we get it right almost every time,

if not every time.

Each tent must be erected, checked and repacked to make sure

that customers get a perfect tent every time.

They're for the bottom of the legs.

OK? So they go into the floor.

The workers will be expected to quality control a tent

every ten minutes, so they'll have to be fast.

Change after the third pole.

They're your eyelets.

Right, guys, let's get to it. HORN BLARES

One in five of the tents they've been given is faulty,

and to ensure none slip through quality control

requires exceptional attention to detail.

John's own team of quality controllers

will be monitoring their work and awarding points

for correctly passed or failed tents.

First up, they'll start with the simplest test - a sunshade.

And they have an our to assemble and check as many of them as they can.

I can't see the hole I'm supposed to put it in.

It looks a bit wonky, doesn't it?

The workers have to assess every detail of the sunshades.

The guide ropes, the tent poles, the flysheets,

making sure that every eyelet is in place,

all stitching correct

and every label attached

and the print clear and undamaged.

If there's any fault, then the tent is a reject.

One of these rings are missing on the opposite side in the middle.

So obviously, this can't be sold.

What we're looking for in a quality controller

would be somebody who is calm, somebody with a good eye

and able to spot the mistakes, because mistakes are made.

Midway through their shift,

the workers' individual results will be displayed on the leaderboard

to see how it affects their progress.

I think there's not much point in rushing this at all,

because if you get any bit of it wrong,

then I've just gone and wasted all my time.

Judy struggled with yesterday's task at the warehouse

and narrowly escaped going home.

I think in this task I have to be more calmed and controlled

and less erratic.

I think I've been erratic and nervous.

I've got to reject this one... SHE CHUCKLES

..after all that.

The Made in Britain tag's missing,

so I have to reject this one straightaway.

John's company has just 14 employees,

and half of them are involved in quality control.

Just how important is quality control for your business?

I think it's vital.

The idea that we have people who aren't happy with the product

and they can spread that news nowadays very quickly

through social media.

So I think it's absolutely critical for any business,

but for our business in particular.

And how much do you pay staff?

We start people, normally, on minimum wage

and we hope to be able to increase their wages

as their skill sets improve and as the company grows.

Could you afford to pay them more?

Today no, but the business is growing,

we've got big aspirations and, eventually,

as we produce more sales and produce more profits,

then the staff can share in those benefits, yes.

So as the minimum wage goes up,

there's talk that by 2020, it going up to ?9 an hour.

How will that impact a small business like yours?

I think staff are an absolutely vital part of the business,

so we would look at reducing costs elsewhere

before we reduce staff costs,

and it might mean that we spend less on marketing or other operations

within the business,

which might affect the scale of growth of the business.

This one's faulty.

There's no eyelet on there. OK. I'll leave that to the side, yeah?

The workers must report all faults to the monitors.

There's another one.

They're scored both on the faults they find

and, if the tent is perfect, on their ability to repack the tent

to the standard that's expected by John's customers.

If I were to see this in a shop, I wouldn't buy it, if it was dirty.

You'd normally ask for a clean one, wouldn't you?

While others are finishing their second tents,

Sabrina's still on her first,

because she wants it to be immaculate.

Sabrina's stepfather was a diplomat

and she had the perfect life growing up in Yemen.

I had one of the best childhoods.

I was so spoilt, you know, everything.

Anything that I wanted, I would get it.

You know, we had the drivers and the maids

and it was just a life of luxury.

You know, private schooling and it was really nice.

But at the age of 17,

she got married and came back to the UK

with the hope of going to college.

I wouldn't have imagined at the age of 23 I'd be divorced

and I've got a five-year-old little boy, no.

It's hard, like, bringing in the money,

because there's only one of me, there's only one wage, but...

..you've just got to keep going.

To fit around childcare, Sabrina's started up her own business.

So I clean business premises, personal houses.

You would think it's easy, but it's not.

Doing the cleaning - it does half break your back.

But with only a handful of clients,

Sabrina's business isn't making enough money for her to get by.

I don't want to be living my life like this forever.

I don't want to stay in the low-wage economy. Who does?

Even though being a perfectionist is slowing her down,

Sabrina's sticking to her strategy.

See, mine have got all marks on. This place is dusty.

Sabrina's proving to be a little bit slow.

Trying to make sure everything's absolute perfect,

but that really is slowing down her productivity.

With ten minutes to go before they stop working on sunshades,

Sabrina's only on her third tent...

I'm not going to rush.

..and the other workers are much quicker.

I'm learning a bit more.

Realising that I remember where my pole hole is.

Stephanie is checking a tent every 13 minutes,

which means she's only just three minutes slower

than one of John's experienced quality controllers.

Oh, this is a failure.

The eyelet is missing completely.

This is a defunct tent, so I don't have to go any further.

Since taking a career break because of illness in her family,

57-year-old agency chef Stephanie

has been unable to get back into catering management.

I wanted to take part in this

because I've been on both sides of the fence.

I've been someone who's been forced to pay zero hours

and now I'm on zero hours myself.

Last year, I earned 13,000, but it wasn't enough to survive.

I want to see if there's a better way of doing it than I'm doing it.

Oh, sugar, I've walked all that way for nothing.

Over the course of the experiment,

Stephanie's found it hard to toe the line...

Can we change this bed?

We've got to get on.

..but she's proved herself highly adaptable...

I've found that when you do work like this,

you don't need to go to the gym.

..and she's making the most of the experience.

I'm seeing all these different jobs

and I'm realising that I've got all these different,

well, potential skills,

I might make a complete hash of this,

but I could be a tent quality controller.

Majka, who normally works in a warehouse as a forklift driver,

is even faster.

I don't have another one. I finish.

She's finished five and has run out of tents to inspect.

Hello. I think it's good going, I don't know.

It looks as though you're doing a great job. Thank you.

It looks as though you've got a very good eye for detail

and you'd make a great person in our factory.

Thank you very much, I try the best what I can.

Very fast as well, which is great. Oh, thank you. OK? Thank you.

I have been focused and I try find the way

to making good without nerves and stress.

I think that your emotion can only break your work.

That shouldn't happen. Jesus!

They've been quality controlling sunshades for over an hour...

Be nice to me.

..and the workers will now move onto another type of tent.

But first, the productivity data collected so far

is going to be used to motivate the workers.

HORN BLARES

The hour always goes too quickly.

Right guys, gather round, please.

Come in tight.

Factory manager Mike runs a globally competitive car parts factory

in Teesside, and he believes the public display of performance data

is central to productivity.

We're standing by a board here with stars and numbers.

Yeah. It looks like some sort of incentivisation board.

What's going on here? What we're doing here is we're telling them,

"We know how you're performing."

This is making sure that we have the optimum environment

for productivity and quality. Right, does your leaderboard work?

Well, you may notice, we don't have names, we have the cells.

So, it's a group of people, they know who they are,

they're aware of the numbers, and that's as far as we need to go.

You're not actually naming and shaming, but, certainly,

the cell who's doing the worst will know that they're at the bottom

of the leaderboard. You find workers in an industry like this

have got a great deal of pride, and those guys don't want to be

at the bottom of the leaderboard, they want to be at the top.

So, basically, what we're replicating in our factory

is what's happening in a real-world environment. Absolutely.

It's one thing monitoring team productivity,

but some sectors, like call centres and retail,

are taking it a step further by ranking individuals

throughout the day and displaying it prominently

so the whole workforce can see.

This means everyone knows who's doing well and who's not.

Majka's continuing her winning streak from yesterday...

..and Stephanie's come second.

I feel absolutely fantastic, I didn't expect to be there.

I just need to maintain it.

Sabrina's come last.

It's all right. If I go, I go.

Now that everyone's seen their results on the leaderboard,

will the least productive be motivated to improve?

I'm fine.

How do you feel about being at the bottom of the leaderboard?

I'm not surprised, cos I know I took a lot longer,

cos I think I was maybe concentrating a bit too much

on the detail. Yeah.

I don't know... I do think I'm a really hard worker,

but maybe it's because I'm not confident.

I'm sure you can do it, you look very skilled,

you just look nervous. I think you need to relax

and just crack on with it. Yeah, I know.

Bang in the middle of the leaderboard, Leon has come fourth.

I've worked in environments where there's leaderboards

and there's scoreboards,

there's incentives for whoever comes first and things like that

and, yeah, it works, it works.

There's a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that you're top.

And if you're not top, you are going to push harder.

HORN BLARES

Next, the workers must erect and check a wigwam.

It's aimed at the children's market and designed specially

to be simple and easy to assemble.

Sorry.

This tent is definitely a lot more fiddly than the last.

I think that's the hardest part, remembering what part goes where.

I'm finding this quite difficult.

Every clip and buckle has to be checked.

It's not as easy as it looks, not at all.

But now the job isn't the only thing on people's minds.

Yeah, Majka, she's top on the leaderboard again.

She's doing really well in a lot of the jobs that we've been given.

I'm second to last.

I am bothered. I am trying my best.

I just get on with it.

I try to ignore the leaderboard as much as possible.

If you're showing somebody that they're last on a board,

it doesn't necessarily make them do the job right,

all it does is put them under pressure,

thinking "I'm last, I'm last."

I'm panicking now, so I need to stop panicking.

It's just got in knowing that I'm at the bottom.

Is monitoring something that'll just be part and parcel

of the low-paid economy or will it become the norm

in other sectors of the labour market too?

Hello, Mark. Hi there, good to see you.

Economist Mark Beatson has been looking

at who's going to be affected.

How much are we going to see an increase in monitoring of staff

to make sure that they hit targets to help increase productivity?

Well, it's happening everywhere. I mean, to differing extents,

because it does depend partly on the ability to be able

to cut jobs down into little pieces.

If you want to be recognised as being the best at what you do,

then the best way of being able to show that is to measure it,

so it can be positive.

What experimental research shows is that people love being first

and they really hate being last, so those are very powerful motivators.

Is this inevitable now?

With technology going the way it is,

are we going to be seeing more and more of this in the workforce?

I mean, the pressures for time

are all the same at all levels of the economy. So it's not just

low-paid workers who are going to see more monitoring,

it's also going to be professional workers.

Accountants, lawyers, doctors, anybody, really,

where you can cut things down and measure them,

and that's pretty much across the board.

Midway through their shift and Judy is currently third

from the bottom of the leaderboard.

For some bizarre reason, I can't get my brain around this one. Right.

Right.

Working at a managerial level,

I've never seen these kind of in-your-face targets.

I'm having a mental block.

Seeing your name on that leaderboard is brutal.

While Judy is finding it hard to cope with the pressure...

I'm just being thick.

Check.

..Stephanie, who is in second place on the leaderboard,

is getting more confident.

Check.

Each time I go round, I can do it in less steps.

Next time, that one will be quicker.

Martin was just below Stephanie, so he's trying to go more quickly.

Martin was very fast in the way that he put the tent up,

which was great, because we all like to see productivity,

but towards the end, he rushed folding the tent up

and almost stuffed it into the bag.

And that really isn't what our customers want,

they want a neatly-folded product.

That tent's going to have to be

unpacked and repacked, unfortunately.

Oh, God, it pulls out.

With just ten minutes to go,

everyone is trying to add to their scores

so that they move up the leaderboard.

So that's correct or not, we accept that or not?

Not acceptable, no?

It's like a mathematical puzzle.

HORN BLARES

High-five. Come here. Give me a hug.

Never take jobs like this for granted, cos you could end up

doing the same thing yourself.

Before the workers find out who's going home,

they'll be paid for their shift.

You've completed another job, so now I'd like to give you your wages.

Stephanie. Thank you, Stephanie. Thank you.

Martin. They've worked for three hours on minimum wage

and at pre-April rates, they've earned ?20.10 before tax.

It's a subsistence and, I think,

for the amount of physical energy they put out for this kind of job,

you know, the outside world should see what they do

and they should pay them more.

So how have the workers done as quality controllers?

Have they shown the attention to detail and speed needed

to do the job well?

And did putting their individual productivity on display

make a difference?

Mike's been analysing the data to find out.

The effect of the leaderboard in this task was really interesting.

Essentially, we were monitoring our guys, and what that did

for the guys at the front, it gave them confidence.

But what it did for the guys that weren't doing so well,

it undermined their confidence.

In these conditions, the company would expect

an experienced quality controller to get a total of 70 points.

The least productive worker got just 43 points, that's a third less.

But the best worker was just two points away from getting

what the company would expect its own staff to score.

The person who won this task

won it because of their attention to detail.

It enabled them to get great scores for quality and it also allowed them

to be consistent, so they won the task really easily.

HORN BLARES

57-year-old Stephanie came top of the leaderboard.

I feel absolutely amazing.

I'm the oldest one that's surviving at the moment.

The next person who wants not to employ me

because they think I'm old -

no, I can work hard.

Judy came last.

She got slower throughout the task, so she'll be the one going home.

I've reached my limitation now and I think it's time for me to go.

But I'm proud, I'm proud I got this far, I really am.

Maybe it's a bit of a wake-up call,

just to understand what happens out there in the real world.

You've done well to make it here, you really have.

I'm gutted for Judy, cos I know that she did try hard.

And I know I only got through by the skin of my teeth.

I feel so relieved. I'm really happy.

Since taking part in the experiment, Judy's had some good news.

I've been very lucky, I've managed to find myself a job.

It's not perfect, but I'm earning money that can pay my bills.

She's got a job as a sales executive,

earning well above minimum wage.

The alternative to that was that I would have probably had to

have one of those kind of jobs in unskilled labour and,

quite honestly, I don't know if I could've done them.

I have a great deal of respect for people who do that kind of work.

I cannot, by any means or form,

match anything in the way that they do their job.

And Rob's found work as a delivery driver for a health care company.

Yeah, I love it, because I've always enjoyed driving,

you know, being out and about.

It's fantastic - seeing different places and meeting different people,

they're always friendly. And in a way, you're your own boss,

to some extent. Just being able to get on with it on your own,

under your own pace, it's fantastic.

I couldn't really want for anything better.

Next time...

Welcome to my factory, let's get you inside.

..the workers are entering the world of manufacturing...

This is how we can compete with places like China,

India, Russia, Brazil.

..where their resilience... I can't remember the next stage.

..and endurance...

I never want to see a flipping cushion in my life again.

..will be tested to extremes.

That's sewn the wrong way, and that one - you left a hole in it.