Are stores ready for peak season?
- We’re seeing a lot of reports on businesses getting ready for peak season, as you might imagine. The Walls Street Journal is reporting that our store worker is “out of stock” and the needs of businesses are outpacing the number of people out there to be hired. Zacks reported that the “Gap plans to deploy around 65,000 seasonal employees for its Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta and Old Navy stores as well as call centers and distribution centers for the holiday period.” As we all know, peak season – the Holiday season – is a time for retail businesses (brick & mortar or online) to meet and exceed their annual financial goals. Since we’re talking about peak season, here are thirteen considerations from Multichannel Merchant, but really, these should have been considered before and after last peak season.
Are shippers ready for peak season?
- The hiring time for shippers has also come and the outlook is about the same as for retailers, it’s time to staff up and it could be a challenge. XPO reported that they plan on hiring 8,000 North American-based logistics personnel, staffers for the peak holiday season. UPS, reports they will add 100,000 seasonal staffers to support what it described as its anticipated package volume increase from November to January. Logistics Newsroom reported, “Every year, we deliver the holidays for millions of customers,” said Jim Barber, UPS chief operating officer, in a statement. “In order to make that happen, we also deliver thousands of great seasonal jobs at our facilities across the country.” Along with staffing up, hours and days open for deliveries will be extended.
How best can warehouse employees be obtained and retained?
- Apparently there are three significant factors revealed in the almost 16,000 employee survey to help companies to hire and, more importantly, keep staff. EmployBridge released results from a survey that included three points of interest to employers… 1) Wages. We can all guess that wages are an important factor, especially as states raise the minimum wage, potential employees also look for companies willing to meet a standard of minimum wage. 2) Working with employees and shift preferences (and paying more for undesirable shifts). 3) Employees want a more flexible HR department and policies. EmployBridge reported, “Just as employers in many other sectors are re-evaluating and relaxing their hiring criteria requirements and other policies to fill production critical positions, supply chain companies are beginning to do the same…”
As of September 8, 2020, Crimson & Co (formerly The Progress Group/TPG) has rebranded as Argon & Co following the successful merger with Argon Consulting in April 2018.
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