Nearly 76% of the supply chain and logistics leaders surveyed are experiencing notable workforce shortages in their operations, according to a recent report from Descartes Systems Group. What’s more, 37% of respondents would characterize the resource shortage as high to extreme. While the issue is affecting companies’ financial, peak season and logistics partner performance, the survey also showed it’s taking a toll on customer service performance, with 58% specifying that workforce shortages have negatively impacted service levels.
“With economies cooling and COVID more manageable, the general thinking has been that companies would see the workforce shortages of the past few years subside, however, this does not appear to be the case,” says Chris Jones, EVP, industry at Descartes. “The study shows that, post-pandemic, supply chain and logistics organizations continue to struggle getting the labor, knowledge workers and leaders they need to thrive. With business performance driven by both the quantity and quality of the workforce, supply chain and logistics leaders need to rethink not just their hiring and retention strategies but also how technology can help to mitigate current and future workforce challenges.”
Key takeaways:
- According to survey results, the areas suffering the most from resource shortages were transportation operations (61%) and warehouse operations (56%). While these areas are admittedly highly labor-intensive, findings also revealed that 55% of supply chain and logistics leaders said knowledge workers are the hardest to hire and are becoming increasingly important as supply chain and logistics operations become more technology-enabled and data-driven.
- Results also showed that the impact of workforce shortages varies by financial performance, growth, management’s perceived importance of supply chain and logistics operations, and the success of employee retention programs.
