How to sustain your workforce during labour shortages?
Throughout 2021, the UK has experienced the worst labour shortage since 1997. This insufficiency has occurred despite the 819,000 workers who lost jobs in the UK between February and November 2020.
The drastic drop in vacancies can undoubtedly be attributed to the pandemic and the forced closure of many “non-essential” businesses, which led to mass job losses across an array of industries. In addition, post-Brexit regulations have also contributed to a huge loss of EU workers as it’s estimated 1.3 million EU workers have left the country.
However, the drastic rise in vacancies isn’t just a reflection of the lockdown restrictions easing over 2021. It reflects how much the labour market has changed during this time.
Have candidates reclaimed the labour market?
Despite the widespread cull of jobs, candidates in desperate need of an income altered their expectations to the labour market they were in, seeking roles that were available to them at the time.
Feeling the sting of staff shortages
Currently, even if a business’s staff levels are adequate, the strain on their suppliers and third parties is still impacting their supply chain.
Warehouse-utilising businesses and companies within the logistics management industry have been amongst the worst affected by this labour shortage. As a result, it has been increasingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, for businesses to fulfil orders and meet their delivery deadlines
Can you out tempt the competition?
As these are sectors that experienced rapid increases in demand during peak seasons, they are already well accustomed to hiring temporary workers to support the influx in demand.
Nonetheless, even the temporary labour market is in short supply and with vacancies increasing in the build-up to Christmas, the competition will be fierce to secure temps.
However, even the businesses that succeed in securing a satisfactory temporary workforce will still face challenges. With ongoing struggles to recruit permanent workers, existing perm workforces are already stretched trying to keep up with demand while short-staffed.
Although temps are onboarded to support your permanent workforce, those unfamiliar with your environment and processes will still require training and are more prone to make errors. The responsibility of teaching and rectifying this falls on your perm staff, distracting them from their main roles.
A sustainable workforce
To combat labour shortages and sustain your supply chain to ensure order fulfilment and customer satisfaction, your business must explore how to utilise your current staffing resource to achieve maximum productivity and growth.
With a cutting-edge, ERP or WMS software solution shaped to your business, you can fully integrate and automate your processes. By implementing this technology and creating a more robust infrastructure, you can maximise the efficiency and accuracy of your operations without exhausting your existing workforce despite staff shortages.
With the power to access accurate, real-time business data, from anywhere, your team can reduce lengthy, manual processes such as rekeying information and paperwork. An integrated ERP or WMS solution will provide your business with the resiliency it needs to excel in an ambivalent labour market by ensuring your workforce is performing at optimal speed and precision.
Your business will not only save costs, time and resources on additional hires, but you’ll create a more organised and enjoyable work environment for your existing employees; therefore, improving retention. With a sustainable workforce and more accurate data, you can focus on making more profitable business decisions when forecasting, routing or scheduling.
In addition, when you are able to secure temporary workers, they will require less training and will be able to operate a lot faster through with automated technology.