Your Guide to Warehouse Staffing

Warehouse labour staffing is the backbone of any company’s warehouse. They are the people that ensure that all products get picked, packed, and shipped to the customers on time. They are also responsible for maintaining a safe working environment and ensuring that all safety regulations are followed.

Attracting, vetting, hiring, onboarding, and training warehouse labor personnel quickly is crucial. Having a professional team will determine whether operations operate smoothly or fall behind.

As a leading staffing agency in South Africa specialising in blue-collar recruitment, we have seen first-hand what it takes to build and maintain the optimal warehouse labour workforce. This article explores the warehouse staffing challenges you should be aware of and recommends labour staffing solutions to help you operate more efficiently, safely and cost-effectively.

The challenges of warehouse labour staffing

Labour staffing can be a challenging process in any industry. Still, the warehousing and logistics industry is quite complex due to the vast number of moving parts and variables, such as:

• The higher volume of workers required
• Managing working hours and shifts
• Catering for the variety of positions
• Accounting for the differing qualifications and skills required for each position
• Rigorous screening and vetting specifications
• Extensive training and onboarding

Warehouses often require bulk staffing for a higher volume of workers, such as during the recent boom in e-commerce or during seasons where products are either in higher demand or where there is a substantial amount of product to be packed, especially during the Christmas season.

Labour staffing managers must consider the complexities of a worker’s daily hours, especially when planning warehouse shifts: many staff members may be required to work on public holidays, during high-volume ordering times, or during maintenance and equipment inspections.

Some organisations may have multiple warehouses to staff in different locations across the country or continent, further increasing the complexity of the labour staffing process. A multi-location labour staffing strategy must account for the rules and regulations that may differ by region, thus increasing the need for an experienced labour staffing team.

More and more organisations are starting to see the benefit of having the right warehouse staff in the right location, thus leading to better selection processes; improved efficiency in training candidates before their commencement at the business and increased focus on career development.

Without efficient labour staff, a company’s warehouse will eventually decrease in functionality and products will not arrive at the end destination. This will cause stakeholders along the supply chain to take their business elsewhere. So, what is the most efficient way to manage this process?

Outsourced labour staffing for warehouses

Labour outsourcing agencies like MASA generally have a process of recruiting and vetting candidates to ensure they are of a high standard, matching the high standards of client companies. Your labour outsourcing agency will effectively streamline your labour staffing pipeline and ensure that only the most suitable candidates make it to the interview stage and receive an offer.

For example, they will only hire those labourers with relevant experience and the correct combination of skills, education and cultural fit to meet your company’s precise labour needs. To ensure it employs candidates most suitable for your company’s warehouse, your labour agency will consider the candidate’s length of service with previous employers, prior experience in a similar role and languages spoken.

Further vetting and screening

A key question for any company looking to outsource labour for their warehouse is how the agency will ensure the quality of labour staff provided, particularly since the company representative may only meet these workers for the first time when they arrive at the warehouse.

Before taking up a position at a client company, candidate staff undergoes rigorous vetting and screening, which includes confirming their employment history, background checks and personality profiling based on company specifications.

Learn more about the value of vetting candidates through hiring experts.

Extensive labour pool

As mentioned before, warehouses often require significant volumes of human resource capacity at short notice, which is why staffing agencies like.MASA maintain a large labour pool of reliable, experienced workers who are well-trained and familiar with the processes.

We leverage extensive candidate databases that allow companies to hire on-demand,.providing staffing flexibility that an in-house recruitment team may struggle to maintain. Your company can engage temporary or permanent warehouse labor based on changing business demands, allowing you to focus on core activities.

Training and development

One of the most fundamental parts of achieving success with warehouse and logistics operations is ensuring that labour staff are trained and onboarded effectively. Top staffing agencies offer their clients high-quality training classes to prepare labor personnel for a company’s operations.

Labour workers need to enter the warehouse with the correct safety knowledge, including:

• Following emergency response procedures for potential hazards in your warehouse;
• Wearing the proper personal protective equipment
• Having a comprehensive awareness and understanding of the environment
• Maintaining all occupational safety & health regulations

What is your ideal staffing solution?

Since each warehouse has distinct staffing needs, professional staffing firms offer flexible choices you may tailor to your company’s needs. They employ a modular strategy and industry understanding to customize warehouse staffing to your company’s needs.

Staffing the MASA way

As we have proven in the past, we can successfully handle all facets of outsourced labour staffing for warehouses, including:.providing staff at short notice, conducting ongoing training to maintain a high standard.of service and punctuality and designing a robust safety management system.

By hiring professionals to manage the.HR and payroll of your employees, your company can free up staff members’ time to work on managing essential aspects of the business. This can also result in lower costs because outsourcing your company’s payroll and HR allows you to access.MASA’s expert services for a fraction of what it would cost to carry out these tasks internally.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with MASA if you have any questions about our company’s warehouse labour staffing services. We’re here to help, so feel free to ask us anything and request details about our services.