Staff management is a core element of warehouse operations. You need enough hands on deck to safely complete each set of tasks required for your logistics objectives. Your teams also need to be made up of skilled workers with an experienced understanding of how your warehouse operates. However, the staffing needs of a warehouse are not always consistent. Peak seasons, high turnover, and other factors have sparked the debate about whether a warehouse thrives better with either temporary or permanent staffing.
In this article, we will explore the benefits and challenges associated with both temporary and permanent warehouse staff and how to make the best logistics staffing decisions for your warehouse.
Pros of Temporary Warehouse Staffing
Temporary staffing offers the benefits of flexibility, speed, cost-effectiveness, and streamlined onboarding for potentially permanent hires.
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Flexibility in workforce management
- Temporary staffing gives you the ability to adjust the size of your warehouse workforce based on demand. You can respond to peak seasons, rush orders, and sudden turnover more flexibly when you have a line on temporary logistics staff available when you need them.
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Cost-effectiveness
- Temporary workers cost less in terms of benefits and perks than permanent employees. This allows you to cut costs on overall compensation packages when a larger staff is not needed.
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Speed of hiring
- Securing a source of temporary warehouse staff can rapidly speed up the hiring and onboarding process. This makes it easy to quickly increase your staff when there is urgent need.
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Trial period for potential permanent hires
- Many warehouses enjoy using temporary staffing positions as a way to evaluate potential long-term hires. The best temporary staff are offered permanent positions in the warehouse.
Cons of Temporary Warehouse Staffing
The potential downsides of temporary warehouse staffing include possible lower productivity, a greater need for oversight, less team cohesion, and less overall staff loyalty to the company due to a lack of mutual commitment.
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Potential for lower productivity
- Temporary staff are less experienced with your distribution center's way of doing things. They do not get a chance to become experts in your layout and process, therefore their productivity may be less than permanent staff who know the ins and outs.
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Training and supervision requirements
- When you are cycling through temporary staff, you will need to continually onboard, train, and supervise new hires.
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Potential impact on team cohesion
- Frequent changes in your team composition can rob your teams of the chance to coalesce into a well-oiled machine. Temporary staff can be recruited in team units, but this is a rare service offered by only a few logistics staffing agencies.
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Limited loyalty and commitment
- Because the company does not commit to temporary workers, temporary workers do not commit to the company. This leads to a higher turnover rate and less personally driven dedication to the company goals.
Pros of Permanent Warehouse Staffing
The benefits of permanent staff in your warehouse include the opportunity for greater efficiency, better teamwork, mutual loyalty, and the reduced cost of training your long-term staff over time.
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Higher productivity and efficiency
- Experienced long-term staff are able to become not just familiar with warehouse operations, but also develop a personal expertise in your specific routines and procedures. As they gain more experience, they may even share their own techniques for speeding up productivity and become more efficient over time.
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Stronger team cohesion
- Teams that work together over time develop better collaboration and cohesion. Their teamwork becomes second nature, reducing the slow-down of communication and coordination as each team becomes a well-oiled machine at completing their shared tasks.
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Long-term loyalty and commitment
- When the company invests in employees, employees become more invested in the company's goals and shared success.
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Reduced training costs over time
- Well-trained employees require significantly less training and oversight compared to temporary staff, and this benefit compounds over time.
Cons of Permanent Warehouse Staffing
There are a few downsides to permanent warehouse staff as well. These include a higher long-term cost for quality employees, somewhat less flexibility in adapting your staff size, a longer hiring process, and a long-term risk of staff members becoming complacent in their roles.
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Higher long-term costs
- Long-term employees require quality employee contracts. This includes salaries, benefits, job perks, and other long-term commitments that temporary staff are less likely to require or have the bargaining power to request.
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Reduced flexibility
- If your warehouse staff is entirely permanent, you may have less ability to adapt your workforce size based on demand such as peak seasons, rush orders, and slow seasons.
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Potential for complacency
- Without employee engagement and upward mobility, there is a risk that permanent employees will experience reduced motivation and the drive to innovate their efficiency over time.
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Longer hiring process
- It takes more time to recruit and onboard a permanent employee because you are choosing to invest in them.
Examples
When deciding which type of logistics staffing is best for your warehouse, it can help to see the two staffing models in action.
Temporary Staffing in Peak Seasons
Warehouse A experiences significant peaks and valleys in their yearly demand. Peak season requires more than double the staff compared to the slow season. As a result, Warehouse A contracts with a logistics staffing agency to provide temp staffing services. Temporary warehouse staff are recruited just before the beginning of each peak season and quickly onboarded to handle the increased tasks of inventory receiving and order fulfillment. When the peak season ends, most of the temporary staff are released, while the top performers are offered permanent roles in the all-year team.
Permanent Staff for Core Operations
Warehouse B is part of an industry with steady supply and demand all year. They invest in a stable permanent staff, focusing on teamwork and streamlining operations so that each team member operates as a top performer and their teams work like clockwork to fulfill monthly warehouse operations. When they hire, they carefully consider the skills and performance of new permanent members. As a result, they have built a reputation as a rock-solid supply chain partner for their clients with flawless performance and timeliness.
Blended Warehouse Staffing
Warehouse C experiences a moderate peak season along with steady baseline demand. They maintain a significant core staff of operational experts who take charge when temporary staff is hired to increase their ranks. During the peak season, core staff members lead teams of temporary staff, teaching them the ropes and providing widespread oversight to meet the increased fulfillment needs.
Factors To Consider When Choosing Between Temporary and Permanent Staffing
What should you consider when choosing a warehouse staffing solution and the services of a staffing agency?
Nature of the warehouse operations
- Consider your demand and operational requirements. Some distribution centers experience a significant rise and fall in demand, some have more steady operations. You might have clients with clockwork order patterns or clients who sometimes make large orders that require extra staff to fulfill in a timely fashion.
Budget and cost considerations
- Temporary staffing vs permanent staffing have very different financial profiles. Consider the short-term vs. long-term financial impacts and determine which fits your operations budget better.
Workforce management strategies
- Consider the need for balance between a stable core warehouse staff and the potential flexibility of temporary staffing. Striking the right balance is key to maintaining optimal performance and meeting varying demands.
Company culture and goals
- Consider how your organizational values, company culture, and goals align with either permanent or temporary staffing. Look for ways to match your values with how you manage both permanent and temporary staff.
Building Your Warehouse Staffing Strategy with Eclipse IA
Most warehouses thrive on the right balance between both permanent and temporary warehouse staffing, and both begin with excellent recruitment practices. Eclipse IA can help you source valuable permanent warehouse staff and skilled logistics teams. We offer flexible supply chain workforce solutions that align with our clients' needs.
Eclipse IA approaches workforce solutions in a unique way, offering a cost-per-unit (CPU) pay model that incentivizes employees to work productively and efficiently. We are able to supplement your staff with qualified workers at any time as well as offer robust recruiting services to build your permanent teams. We will help you recruit, retain, and actively manage efficient teams through data-driven insights to achieve your desired results.
Wherever businesses rely on light industrial workforces, that's where you'll find our team members. They're on the docks, in warehouses and manufacturing plants, on production and assembly lines, and more. Contact us to explore warehouse staffing services that align with your distribution center's staffing strategy.
