Keys to Keeping Talent in the Warehouse

It seems that companies have stopped grumbling about how “this warehouse down the street is poaching workers for 25 cents more an hour” and have accepted the reality of the current warehouse labor shortage.

And while the turnover statistics themselves are a bit fuzzy, by some industry estimates, the typical turnover rate for warehousing is around 37% (versus an overall average of 3.6% across all industries right now).

This means that during a 12-month period, 37% of a distribution center's or warehouse’s workforce will have exited for greener pastures. And the larger the warehouse, the higher the turnover rate.

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Knowing that the situation may not improve anytime soon, companies are coming up with creative ways to offset the problem. Some are infusing more automation into their operations, others are testing out robotics and many others are being creative to ensure their existing labor forces stay put for as long as possible.

These are important moves in a business environment where workforce participation remains at pre-pandemic levels, and where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says there are 9.5 million job openings and 6.5 million unemployed workers, as of January 2024.

Keith Ingels, lean management manager of solutions and support centers at The Raymond Corporation, credits the retirement of the Baby Boomer workforce as one key driver of current job vacancies in the warehousing sector.

“That’s a big trend that isn’t getting as much publicity as it once did, but with that generation retiring more people are leaving the workforce than entering it at this point,” says Ingels, who advises companies to focus on “continuous improvement” within their operations as a way to “do more with less.”

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