The labor crisis permeates every level

As the warmer weather moves into New England, my wife and I have been taking more walks through our town to see the local businesses that are springing back to life as restrictions are eased. I’m happy to report that the vast majority of establishments have weathered the storm—and the rebirth of small business is hard to miss.

Also hard to miss: “Help Wanted” signs taped to many store and restaurant windows. In fact, on a recent walk, we bumped into a friend who operates a restaurant in town. She told us that on a recent Saturday evening she needed to shut down operations before 9:00 p.m. because the staff she had on hand was maxed out on orders they could manage.

Starting on page 20, contributing editor Bridget McCrea dives deeper into the factors that have worked together to exacerbate this labor shortage across industries—a shortage that was building before 2020.

“In the supply chain sector, even before the pandemic, we had cited a U.S. labor report that indicated that there was one qualified candidate for every six supply chain job openings,” says McCrea. “Now, we’re seeing creative incentives that businesses everywhere are using to recruit. And, in most cases, they’re looking for the same workers we’re looking for in our operations.”

As McCrea reports this month, it’s imperative that logistics operations position themselves as “employers of choice” to attract an eager workforce at every level of the supply chain. “And this positioning needs to happen now,” says McCrea. “Over the course of 2020, we saw e-commerce orders jump 44%, and by all reports that number is only going to skyrocket as more pressure will be put on finding talent in our warehouses, DCs, truck cabs as well as the front office. It’s time to take action to fill the gaps.”

McCrea shares a number of tips offered by recruiting firms and associations that are helping logistics and warehouse/DC operations become an employer of choice, including flexible scheduling, implementing a mobile app that employees can use to manage shifts, four-day workweeks, and more remote work if possible.

“These are terrific, and may attract a workforce that was turned off during the pandemic,” says McCrea. “But then you have to work to keep them engaged once they’re in the door—that might be the bigger challenge.”

And that’s where labor management systems (LMS) may help things along. Starting on page 30, contributing editor Roberto Michel reports that as more automation systems are being implemented inside our logistics operations to augment the lack of labor, it’s still the people who remain essential to getting orders out the door on time.

“Today we’re seeing LMS being integrated with enterprise systems through mobile user interfaces that create more advanced analytics,” says Michel. “And due to that, we’re seeing more ‘gamification’ of labor management, and that keeps warehouse associates motivated, retained and engaged as more operations are tying that data into incentives that weren’t measurable or possible before—and that could be a game-changer in keeping people around.