When the peak seasons roll around, industrial and logistics businesses have to work extra hard just to keep up with the competition, even adjusting their strategy to respond to demanding conditions.
To that end, temporary staff members are a vital resource for employers during the Christmas season, but they have become associated with some issues that make employers wary, including burdensome paperwork and compliance problems. With Indeed Flex, logistics and industrial employers can overcome these staffing challenges and utilise a reliable pool of labour for any time of the year.
1) Creating consistent staff attendance
Time is of the essence during the peak season, which means employers may require team members to arrive earlier and finish later than usual, plus be more stringent with break times. However, this approach can cause a few problems; it’s challenging for staffing managers to check all workers are present and on time, and there’s a risk of overworking team members, which can damage staff recruitment and retention. How can employers deal with this?
With Indeed Flex’s flexible staffing service, employers are able to post shifts that clearly outline the time and date, working hours and break details, so staff members are fully aware of expectations before they claim the shift. When Indeed Flex workers – Flexers – arrive, staffing managers can check them in using a QR code scanner, which is quick and offers transparency for all parties. By using Indeed Flex, employers can rest assured that staff attendance won’t be a problem.
2) Ensuring worker engagement in stressful conditions
Industrial and logistics work can entail demanding labour, unsociable hours and unrewarding wages, factors that cause the sector’s high turnover and low worker engagement, which becomes pronounced during the peak season. Employers need their team to be working as a flawless unit, so how can this be assured on occasions as important as Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas?
By using Indeed Flex, employers connect with staff members that want to work each shift they claim. In comparison to other staffing services, Flexers have the flexibility and no requirement to undertake a set amount of shifts, so Flexers arrive enthusiastic and ready to work. As shifts are completed, Flexers are able to access a range of perks, such as high street discounts and exclusive offers, a perfect source of motivation around Christmas time. Lastly, employer feedback and the strikes system means that Flexers are conscious of their performance and accountable for each shift.
3) Guaranteeing legal compliance, avoiding penalties
A benefit of permanent team members is that employers can be confident of their legal compliance as they’ve successfully navigated the hiring process. The same confidence doesn’t exist for temporary workers due to inefficient vetting procedures of the past, which caused issues such as, staff that lack the right to work, are inexperienced or unskilled, and have an inadequate grasp of English. The results can be disastrous, including legal penalties and unsafe workplaces.
Indeed Flex ensures its pool of flexible industrial workers meets all aspects of legal compliance. Before staff members can book shifts, they must attend an onboarding session where their passport and right to work are verified by Indeed Flex’s internal team. Additionally, they must pass language, numerical and cognition tests, have health and safety awareness, plus hold valid licenses where needed. If hiring temporary workers used to be a gamble, with Indeed Flex, sourcing reliable, legally compliant flexible staff is a dead certainty.
4) Clear budgeting and painless admin
Keeping budgets under control during the peak season can be an immense challenge. For instance, employers can find themselves reliant on expensive agencies to plug rota gaps, which eats through contingency expenses that also have to pay for other costs. It isn’t just money that employers have to worry about using up. Excessive admin, in the form of right to work checks, payroll and other paperwork that agencies often pass to employers, takes up hours that can be spent on other pressing tasks.
Indeed Flex cuts out the middleman between businesses and job seekers, meaning that the former can save up to 55% on agency fees, while the latter can be paid above the minimum wage per hour. Before employers complete a booking on the app, they can view a full cost breakdown, which allows for more accurate budgeting, whether they’re booking staff at the last minute or well ahead of time. Indeed Flex handles admin such as the right to work and payroll, while other tasks – like clocking in and clocking out – are automated on the app.
5) Keeping multiple sites on track
It’s enough of a challenge to make one industrial or logistics site match-fit for peak season, but employers often have several venues that they have to oversee. Maintaining clear communications, fairly delegating the workload, and ensuring all processes are followed correctly are all challenges to overcome. Fortunately, there’s now an innovative solution to these problems which businesses of any size can adopt.
Indeed Flex+ is a license fee-free rota and team management platform, which allows employers to manage their entire workforce – from staffing managers to casual staff – across multiple sites. Employers can use an instant messenger to keep in touch with their team, assign tasks and responsibilities through different user permissions, plus extract financial data from each site to analyse the ebb and flow of staffing spend.
Workers within a business are able to claim unfilled shifts, creating a pool of reliable flexible labour within a business, while staffing managers can deploy workers to sites that are consistently understaffed or overstaffed. Lastly, employers can connect with top-rated flexible staff on-demand or ahead of time, creating confidence that shifts will be filled during every peak season shift.
