STACKINGTHEWORKFORCE
Anticipate a convergence of training, plus better pay and benef its for existing employees, as wel l as hiring talent with foundational ski l ls in data analytics. Organizations must be creative when attracting, reski l l ing, and retaining talent , as traditional approaches may not be
Labor will be a tricky issue for merchants to navigate in 2022. Supply chain labor costs are up and warehouses had to get smart about hiring and onboarding processes. To get employees up to speed quickly, they had to make their technology and processes easy to learn and implement with a huge focus on user experience. Additionally, the e-commerce boom has introduced unique challenges. First, it is now a requirement to ship on Saturday to be competitive on top-tier marketplaces. Second is the way e-commerce order volume is typically dispersed. Because most online shopping happens on the weekend, merchants have to signi cantly pick, pack, and ship more volume Saturday through Tuesday compared to the rest of the week. These challenges tend to
disproportionately affect mid-sized merchants who don’t quite have the volume to secure Saturday ful llment or guaranteed labor on their highest-volume days. These merchants need to take advantage of ful llment providers that can aggregate their weekend order volume to negotiate affordable and reliable labor on their behalf.
as relevant to future supply chain needs. Abe Eshkenazi CEO, The Association for Supply Chain Management (ASCM)
Steve Denton CEO, Ware2Go, a UPS company
To attract and retain talent, companies need to take a data-driven approach to improving employee retention. First, quantify the problem––both the scope and its impact on the organization. How does your turnover rate compare to the industry average? How much does your turnover cost annually? Second, identify the root causes: pay, time between promotions, training opportunities, bad bosses, locations. These are all variables which, when evaluated using accurate and consistent data, can reveal hot spots for resignations.
In 2022, supply chain labor shortages will continue to grow and make it difficult for providers to retain and keep top talent in jobs long-term. Organizations continue to look for ways, outside of bonuses, to attract skilled candidates for roles since they aren’t applying for them. They need to redef ine the work environment to create an engaging culture that wi l l work to entice ski l led candidates. Labor management enhancements and pay performance wi l l also be critical components to attracting the right candidates. Additional ly, with the labor shortage and expense of adding net new warehouse square footage, we’ l l also see a rise in automation designed to make the most out of a l imited footprint .
Mark Fagan Global Leader, Manufacturing and Distribution, Moore Global
Hiring for retention will be the main hiring focus for the supply chain industry in 2022 , with a particular emphasis on streamlining applications due to increased competition. Introducing innovations like automation will help further streamline the process while ensuring it is effective and fair for candidates. Companies will also be focused on evaluating and hiring candidates with transferable, generalized skills—like critical thinking and problem solving—instead of specific industry or technical expertise to fill roles quicker. In 2022, hiring managers will continue to be challenged with building a hiring process that is effective and efficient. The biggest difficulty will be hiring good workers quickly to mitigate turnover and candidate dropout. To increase efficiency, companies will have to make intelligent changes to their hiring processes, such as implementing more focused hiring assessments and taking advantage of the data they already have within their organization.
Steve Shebuski VP, Digital , Blue Horseshoe (Part of Accenture)
Carter Gibson, Ph.D. Managing Associate, Modern Hire
152 Inbound Logistics • January 2022
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