In our last blog, we wanted to inform our DMW&H clients about the increased demand for warehousing services in recent months. A key theme of this piece was the uncertainty that has come as the industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, we are still waiting to see what changes from the pandemic are here to stay and which ones are only temporary. Labor is another great example in addition to the demand for warehouse space. Let’s take a look at a few recent trends in labor, and how you can adapt to them efficiently.
THE SHORTAGE
Recent reporting from news outlets puts the recent labor shortage in clear terms. The Guardian’s most recent article on this topic indicates that “On top of the quarter-million people of working age who have died from coronavirus, at least twice that number across all ages have permanently disappeared from the workforce, the analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows.” This is a particular concern for distribution centers, which rely heavily on manual labor to operate. There are other long-term factors to consider as well. Lower birth rates in the US mean that we are now seeing significant portions of the workforce retire with fewer laborers to replace them. Also, aging workers are less likely to continue performing manual labor than they are, say, an office job. Another fallout from the pandemic has been high turnover rates. Many laborers have had to work longer hours and perform an increased share of the overall workload due to illnesses. All of these factors combined mean that finding good laborers for distribution centers is a challenge.
EFFICIENCY
This is a strategy that we have stressed before, but it becomes even more important as we see the labor market shift. When labor is hard to find, it is of the utmost importance that you use existing workers as efficiently as possible. In this case, we can consider limiting the tasks of manual workers to those that they are best-suited to. Now is the perfect time to take a good long look at your workforce and ask the question “are my workers being used in the right ways?” Reorganization and streamlining of your existing workforce is something that DMW&H is happy to help with.
INCENTIVIZE
Keeping laborers happy at work is a necessity in this market. Incentives can come in the form of increased pay, flexible schedules, productivity incentives, improved benefits, etc. These are the strategies that your competitors are going to be employing, and sooner or later you will have to join the race if you want to compete for good workers that will help your business flourish.
AUTOMATE
Going hand-in-hand with efficient use of your labor force is automation. Implementing automated solutions to the most repetitive or physically demanding tasks is a great place to start. These often take the form of robotic sortation or inventory of goods. Automation is not a great fit for all tasks, and it should only be pursued with a full cost-benefit-analysis. Our team at DMW&H has the experience to walk you through these important developments.
