Are you ready to freshen up your warehouse staffing plan? Even if some things are working really well in your warehouse, there are always opportunities for improvement. Stagnancy is never good, even if you feel like things are going well.
If you're struggling with things like keeping a fully staffed warehouse and retaining your top employees, updating your staffing plan will help you find new solutions to frustrating problems.
Liberty Staffing Services can help with your staffing needs! Reach out to our office today to find out how we can help you develop a staffing plan that works.
Here are 7 staffing plan changes you can make today to start seeing improvement in your day-to-day operations.
1. Learn from Previous Years
Take a look at your previous years to learn what changes you should make for the future. You can review historical sales and shipment data to forecast upcoming busy periods and adjust your staffing needs accordingly.
Pay attention to seasonality, as well as special promotions and new product launches that have impacted your order volume. These forecasts should help you plan to increase your staffing levels during peak periods.
2. Look for Bottlenecks
An analysis of your warehouse’s workflows will help you identify bottlenecks. Nobody wants to see their warehouse operations slowed down because of backed-up deliveries, inventory errors, poor warehouse layout, unbalanced workloads, or any other reason.
Staffing changes can address these bottlenecks. Adjust your staffing strategy in critical functional areas like receiving, put away, picking, packing, and shipping. If you find that one area consistently slows the rest of the line down, don’t automatically assume that it’s the workers’ fault. Instead, consider that there might not be enough people in that role to get the work done on time.
3. Provide Cross-Training to Your Workers
Assess your workforce utilization. Is everyone trained and supported so that they can run the warehouse efficiently?
Look for ways to cross-train your employees to shift them into different functions as needed. You can have people change roles from one shift to the next or train people to move into new positions when seasonal changes affect your operations.
4. Evaluate Each Shift
Not all shifts are the same. An obvious difference is when shipments arrive. If you find that the majority of your shipments arrive during a consistent hourly window most days, that’s when you need to have plenty of receivers and unloaders on staff. If you don’t generally get shipments after a certain hour, you will need fewer receivers.
Think about other areas of your operations where you have an unbalanced staffing schedule. Look for redundancies one shift at a time and make changes as necessary.
5. Factor in Predictable Fluctuations in Staffing
Are you expecting to see growth in the next year? If so, be sure to factor that growth into your staffing strategy. You can plan to hire seasonal and/or temporary workers to handle holiday order peaks or other predictable increases in demand.
Similarly, you can anticipate increased requests for vacation time during certain popular seasons, like summer break and the winter holidays.
6. Take a Look at Your Use of Overtime
Monitor your employees’ use of overtime and analyze it from a staffing perspective. High rates of overtime are not just expensive, but they also indicate an understaffing issue. Too much overtime can also leave your employees feeling burnt out and undervalued.
A significant dependence on overtime is often linked with high rates of turnover. If you see these problems popping up in your warehouse, you need to find more staff right away.
7. Use Temporary Workers as Part of Your Warehouse Strategy
Warehouses that leverage temporary workers as part of their staffing strategy run more smoothly and efficiently – with less expense!
Temporary workers are available almost immediately, and they often come with a variety of workplace experiences that make them valuable members of your team. You can quickly scale up operations with temporary workers, even if you know you will need to scale down after a busy season.
We also recommend temporary workers because you get the chance to get to know your new hires before you decide if they would make a good fit as permanent employees.
Many of the positions in your warehouse could be staffed by temporary workers. Curious about how that would work? We would be happy to share more with you!
Contact Liberty Staffing to Update Your Warehouse’s Staffing Plan
Updating your warehouse staffing plan does not have to be an overwhelming process.
By taking the time to thoroughly analyze your operations, you can identify opportunities for improvement. Leverage historical data, look for bottlenecks, provide cross-training, evaluate each shift, and factor in growth and seasonal needs. Most of all, consider using temporary workers to add flexibility and buffer busy periods.
With an optimized staffing strategy, your warehouse can run more efficiently. The team at Liberty Staffing has the experience to help you develop and execute a staffing plan tailored to your unique needs. Reach out today to get started on refreshing your approach. 