JD Smith Trades Manual Processes for One System

Turnover decreased

50 %

over the past 12 months.

Estimated annual savings

500 K

in recruiting, onboarding and lost productivity costs.

Growing or thriving

63 %

70 %

employees who feel engaged and supported at work.

Platform participation

65 %

company-wide, and climbing as more sites come online.

The Challenge

JD Smith runs logistics and distribution work out of Toronto, with roughly 300 employees. Turnover was elevated, and leadership could see the outcome without seeing the cause.

Before NxtPath, JD Smith relied on many manual processes across several core functions.

Employee handbook
Internal communication
Employee surveys and feedback
Learning and training
Continuous improvement, with no formal operational excellence program in place

JD Smith wanted more than one-off processes. Leadership wanted consistency across locations and a direct line to the kind of employee feedback that can change policy, not just measure morale.

How It Works

One system:

JD Smith updated its manual processes and brought them together in NxtPath.

A built-in improvement process:

JD Smith didn't have a formal system for surfacing and fixing operational problems. NxtPath's Obstacles feature filled that role. Frontline employees flag issues as they come up, and leaders work through them the same way they'd track any other improvement item.

Policy gaps surface fast:

Feedback through NxtPath showed leadership how differently salaried and hourly employees experienced time-off and attendance policy, a gap leadership hadn't had visibility into before.

The Results

Once JD Smith had one system instead of a scattered mix of tools and manual processes, patterns leadership had never seen before started showing up in the data.

Turnover fell by roughly half over 12 months.

That improvement is worth an estimated $500K a year in recruiting, onboarding, training and lost-productivity costs.

The share of employees reporting they were growing or thriving rose from 63% to 70% between JD Smith's first assessment in 2023 and its most recent in 2025.

Platform participation sits at 65% company-wide, with additional locations still coming online.

JD Smith used employee feedback from NxtPath to close a gap in how salaried and hourly employees were treated under time-off and attendance policy, one of several small fixes adding up to more consistent company-wide experiences.

What I value most about NxtPath is that it gives our employees a voice and gives us the opportunity to listen and respond. It has helped create more meaningful conversations and turn employee feedback into real improvements across our organization.

— Crystal Popadynec, Director of Human Resources, JD Smith Logistics Solutions

What’s Next

JD Smith set out to fix turnover and ended up with one system doing the work of many. As more locations come online, that system only gets more valuable and offers a clearer view of what's happening across the company.

Talk to us about what NxtPath could do for your organization.

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