Why the Holiday Rush Demands Strategic Planning
The holiday rush is one of the most crucial times of the year for warehouses. A successful busy season can set the stage for success. While dropping the ball during the holiday rush can be detrimental to a warehouse.
Despite uncertainties holiday retail sales surged in 2024 with eCommerce alone accounting for $380 billion USD. We can expect eCommerce to play a similar role this year. With how uncertain and volatile the warehouse industry has become, the holiday rush has risen in importance this year.
The busy season stretches warehouse capacity, staffing, and processes. This makes preparation essential to meet customer expectations.
Five Top Strategies for Managing the Holiday Rush
1. Analyze Last Season & Forecast Accurately
“You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been” -Maya Angelou
That quote has got a much deeper meaning than warehouse data, but a similar concept still applies. Using historical peak data can help accurately forecast demand for this year. Consider looking at data for shipment volumes, workload spikes, and bottlenecks. You can also use demand forecasts to get an estimate of surge staffing needs.
2. Optimize Warehouse Layout & Flow
Optimizing warehouse layout and flow can create small adjustments that accumulate to big gains. When workers can do their entire job in a small area they are faster and more likely to be on task. This principle also applies to warehouse temp staffing who may be less familiar with your warehouse and processes.
Consider reconfiguring fast moving SKUs closer to packing and shipping zones. Set up temporary aisles or packing stations as needed to maintain throughput. And leverage cross-docking strategies to minimize storage time and maximize flow efficiency.
3. Cross-Train and Engage Core Team
During the holiday busy season it is not uncommon for unexpected needs to pop up in different departments. This can create a need for additional man power. Preparing your full-time workforce to handle these unexpected circumstances can be helpful.
Train your full-time workers to rotate into picking, packing or staging roles. So during surges if additional manpower is needed, your workers already know how to do the job needed.
Consider implementing quick pre-season training or micro shifts to reduce confusion when under pressure. This pre-season training can also be used for temporary warehouse workers. So your temps know how to operate under pressure as well.
4. Scale with Temp Labor
Temp labor is a tool many warehouses use to find warehouse staff to scale up during the busy season. Temp agencies near you provide access to workers. Traditional temp agencies use contracts to outline how many workers will be sent, what they will be paid, and how long the workers will work.
Temp labor can be used to fill roles like picking/packing, loading/unloading, and general warehouse work.
5. Flex Faster with Staffing Apps like Bacon
Traditional temp agencies are the traditional way to staff warehouse shifts, but staffing apps are the modern solution. Staffing apps, like Bacon, are a faster and more reliable way to find pickers and packers to work as temporary warehouse workers.
Using warehouse job apps managers post the shifts they need filled and tap into on-demand labor in real time. Bacon lets managers connect with local, background checked warehouse workers who can pick up warehouse shifts.
Because Bacon is a tech driven process it can operate much faster than temp agencies manual processes. This includes speed of finding warehouse workers as well as, flexibility to scale up and down and transparency.
With staffing apps there are no contracts, so warehouses can hire picking and packing workers for just the shifts they need them. This allows warehouses to scale their workforce according to demand.
Final Takeaways & Planning Checklist
The holiday season means everything from sales targets to customer satisfaction hinges on operational readiness. To stay prepared, consider forecasting with last year's data, optimizing warehouse flow, cross train full time workers, scale with temp labor, and flex your workforce with Bacon.
