Warehouse operations fluctuate from season to season, thanks to normal changes in demand. One of the constant challenges of running a warehouse is ensuring that you have enough staff to meet peak periods while avoiding overstaffing during slower periods.
Using a temporary staffing plan can help your warehouse align your staffing needs with seasonal changes.
Liberty Staffing Services offers seasonal staffing support to warehouses throughout Southern Ontario. Reach out to us to find out how we can help you develop a great temporary staffing plan.
What Causes Fluctuations in Warehouse Operations?
Before we can talk about the best ways to use temporary staffing to avoid over or under staffing at your warehouse, let’s explore the reasons why your warehouse sees changes from one season to another.
There are many reasons for this, but most of them have to do with the seasonal nature of consumer demand. In the retail industry, warehouses experience a huge holiday surge in the fourth quarter, thanks to holiday shopping. At the same time, ecommerce orders spike. This spike in warehousing activity is often followed by a slowdown in Q1 and Q2.
Other fluctuations may be caused by unexpected changes in order volumes or catching up from supply chain delays.
During periods of high traffic in the warehouse, you need more people in positions throughout the facility, including shipping and receiving, handlers, managers, forklift operators, and more. When things are slower, you want to avoid laying people off or paying out way too much in labour costs.
Benefits of a Temporary Staffing Plan
A temporary staffing plan allows you to scale up your staffing quickly to meet peak operational periods. Essentially, hiring temporary workers means that you are casting a wider net when it comes to open positions. Instead of only appealing to people looking for full time and permanent positions, you can attract job seekers who want temporary or part time work.
The first thing this does is lower your risk of understaffing. Understaffing, of course, leads to unfufilled orders, customer dissatisfaction, and low worker satisfaction. Because these contracts have a natural ending point, you can downsize at a scheduled point in time, thus avoiding overstaffing, which eats up your overall budget by creating unused labour costs.
A temporary staffing plan also allows you to tap into specialized labour pools of temporary workers with the ideal experience for your open positions.
One of the things that we hear all the time from our clients at Liberty Staffing is that they are grateful for the flexibility that temporary staffing provides. When you work with a temporary staffing agency, you can easily adjust your staffing plans down to the month, or even the week!
Last but not least, there are a few additional benefits to hiring temp workers. For example, it’s a great way to get to know an employee in the short term before deciding if they would make a good long term addition to the team. You can also increase your employee retention rate by avoiding the stress and frustration that comes with being understaffed and overworked.
How to Create an Effective Temporary Staffing Plan
Now that you know why a temporary staffing plan is a good idea, let’s take a look at how to create one!
Your first step will be to analyze historical seasonal patterns to help you project future needs. Year-over-year data is very helpful at this point. You may also need to research forecasts in your industry to anticipate what is coming your way in the next weeks and months.
Second, find a staffing partner who can recruit and hire qualified temporary workers. A staffing agency in your region will know the ins-and-outs of staffing in your community; they will know where to find great workers and how to recruit them.
Third, it’s time for onboarding! That said, a great staffing agency can also handle your onboarding for you.
Fourth, and finally, you will implement the labour plan that you and your staffing agency came up with. Monitor labour needs continuously so that you can adjust staffing throughout the season.
Liberty Staffing: Your Temporary Staffing Partner in Southern Ontario
At Liberty Staffing Services, we have spent the last 24 years matching qualified employees with great employers. That includes permanent and temporary positions, as well as full time and part time roles.
We have seen countless warehouse facilities benefit from implementing a high quality temporary staffing plan. From avoiding both understaffing and overstaffing, to nimbly responding to changes in the industry, temporary workers are a great addition to any warehouse team!
If you’re ready to find your facility’s next great employees, reach out to Liberty Staffing today! We look forward to learning about your warehouse and how we can help you fulfill your staffing needs, especially when those staffing needs change with the seasons.
