Logistics and delivery companies ramp up temporary staffing for the holiday rush.

As the holidays begin, logistics and transportation companies worldwide are gearing up for their most hectic delivery season ever. Amazon expects to hire 250,000 seasonal workers in the US. In the UK, Royal Mail announced plans to hire 16,000 temps before Christmas 2023, and Evri, the UK delivery firm formerly known as Hermes, is expected to create 6,800 new courier and customer service jobs to handle the holiday rush.

Despite reports that retailers will hire fewer temporary workers this year than in 2022, the growth of online shopping is driving demand for logistics and delivery workers to record levels around the globe. DHL Netherlands expects a busier holiday season than last year, and Australia Post is adding 3,000 temporary positions across their delivery network, including freight handlers and parcel processers.

Seasonal warehouse and distribution center workers needed

There have been no reports of temporary hiring at Santa’s North Pole workshop and distribution center, but others are staffing up quickly for the holidays. In their final Global Outlook Survey for 2023, global staffing supplier Manpower noted that due to a surge in both offline and online retail business, logistics and warehouse assignments are among the roles in greatest demand. 

Logistics People, the UK’s largest logistics recruitment provider, is currently looking for drivers, warehouse workers, forklift drivers, transport and administrative staff, security officers, and other positions throughout the UK in advance of the holiday rush.

Insider Intelligence, a US-based market research firm, reports that brick-and-mortar and online retailers will battle for retail channel supremacy in 2023. They estimate that ecommerce sales will grow by 11.3% year-over-year, while non-ecommerce holiday shopping growth will be 3.0%. But whether the shopping transactions are done online or in-store, whether the shipments are wholesale or retail, temporary workers in warehouses and distribution centers will pick, pack, sort, and ship the packages on their way.

Year-round planning and early hiring at Royal Mail

To meet the holiday challenge, Royal Mail started planning early this year and began increasing their temporary staff in October. Commenting on why they are hiring so many extra people before the holidays, Royal Mail’s chief operating officer, Grant McPherson, said: “We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers. It’s our busiest time of the year, and we know how important it is for people that we deliver letters and parcels on time.”

To manage its high-volume, shift-based workforce, Royal Mail and its temporary staffing agencies use JoinedUp by Beeline, the automated temporary staffing solution that makes it easy to:

• Plan and schedule shifts
• Communicate with workers
• Match candidates with assignments
• Manage time and attendance
• Produce reports that provide data-driven insight into performance and spend

With JoinedUp, Royal Mail and its suppliers can easily manage complex shift arrangements, including split shifts, night shifts, and weekend shifts, in accordance with UK overtime laws and Agency Workers Regulations (AWR).

Taking (some of) the stress out of holiday preparation

According to Harvard Medical School, the holiday season can be especially stressful. The brain’s prefrontal cortex goes into overdrive as we try to manage more responsibilities than usual. “Over time, a high level of demand can decrease memory, halt production of new brain cells, and cause existing brain cells to die.”

Before you kill more brain cells than necessary this holiday season due to warehouse or delivery shift planning and staffing, there are a few things you can do to reduce your anxiety.

Understand the problem

Scheduling and managing shift-based workers can be stressful any time of year. Managing multiple shifts on a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week schedule through the holidays can be mind-numbingly complex. To do it manually while trying to optimize operational productivity is practically impossible.

Consider a solution

One powerful way to reduce the chaos of shift-based staffing – and lower everyone’s stress levels – is for staffing suppliers and logistics operations to get on the same staffing automation solution. A proper fit-for-purpose solution will provide:

• Streamlined scheduling with shared calendar views, real-time rosters, and instant visibility into shift schedules
• Intelligent rate management engine that accommodates various rate structures and automates nuances specific to shift work, country by country
• Simplified shift fulfillment that addresses split shifts, night shifts, weekend shifts, minimum guaranteed hour shifts, sick leave and holiday policies, and skill types
• Support for recurring requisitions (e.g., cyclical, short-term, and long-term assignments)
• Mass assignment management, including requests, work orders, timecards, rate adjustments, and notifications
• Compliance with company policies, laws, and regulations
• Accurate worker payments – always the right thing, but essential during the holidays. They bolster morale, aid retention, reduce credits, and get invoices right the first time. So, everyone wins.

These are a few productivity benefits provided by JoinedUp, the system Royal Mail, Evri, Manpower, Logistics People, and other companies will use this holiday season to manage their expanded logistics and delivery staffing programs. With the right staffing plans and technology, they will be well prepared to handle the anticipated increase in mail and parcels while maintaining the high service standards their customers expect. Santa will be proud.

To find out what JoinedUp’s shift-based staffing automation tools can do for your manufacturing, logistics, or delivery operations and how JoinedUp can support your business, talk to us.