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In October, Newcastle Systems’ own Kevin Ledversis was on a team of presenters in a webinar that dug into the challenges managers are facing with labor issues – sourcing, hiring, training and retaining in addition to things like performance and pay.  We’ve covered labor and staffing as a regular topic here over the years, and think the data that was assembled for this webinar is worth sharing widely.

Join Us on Friday, March 22nd 

With the growth of e-commerce, a strong economy, and a shortage of nearly 1M warehouse workers, the pressure to hire, train, and retain quality talent has never been more challenging.

Please join us Friday, March 22nd at Bryant University

& discover the new talent that will soon be ready

to join the supply chain workforce in 2019. 

Staffing, employee retention, and productivity are hot topics during an economy with a low unemployment rate of 3.7%. In August we shared the benefits of Big Ass Fans, and in July we shared how to reduce employee turnover and improve productivity.

(Or, we just wanted  to use the word “Big Ass” in a serious business article.)

While we’ve seen the topic of staff retention in warehouses and manufacturing plants  come up more frequently than ever, most of the discussion until now has been focused on compensation and skill training. While there are legitimate needs to address stagnant pay, lack of career paths and insufficient training, in many cases retention is much more about creating a great work environment.

There’s no doubt—manufacturing is a tough industry to work in. With tight turnaround times, increasing shipping demands and the need for immaculate quality, it’s a challenging space for a business to grow and thrive. To further complicate things—administrators are finding it difficult to attract and retain talent.

I’ve been a business owner in the warehousing industry for more than a decade now, and the labor shortage issue has never been more prevalent.

At the beginning of the year there was more than 12.5 billion square feet of industrial space across the U.S., and this will only grow as an excess of 200 million square feet is currently under construction. Add to that the growth in ecommerce, which is expected to grow to $4 trillion by 2020. As warehouses grow and expand, the need for workers becomes increasingly critical. But who's going to do the work if your business is not ready to heavily invest in automation and robotics?

There has been much written about finding and retaining happy warehouse workers. These issues are not going away as eCommerce is expected to grow.  But, who is going to do the work? It has never been more important to have the right equipment which includes an advanced warehouse cart with portable power.