Descartes Systems Group has released findings from its study indicating 76% of supply chain and logistics leaders surveyed are experiencing notable workforce shortages in their operations.
The study by Descartes and SAPIO called ‘How Bad is the Supply Chain and Logistics Workforce Challenge,’ signifies this with 37% expressing the shortage faced is at high to extreme levels.
Respondents were based across nine European countries as well as in Canada and the US.
One thousand decision makers within supply chain and logistics were surveyed across sectors such as manufacturing, distribution and retail, carriers and logistics providers.
Chris Jones, EVP, Industry at Descartes said: “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.
“The study shows that, post-pandemic, supply chain and logistics organisations continue to struggle getting the labour, 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.”
Descartes said 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.
Areas suffering the most include transportation operations (61%) and warehouse operations (56%). Other findings show 55% of supply chain and logistics leaders said knowledge workers are the most difficult to hire.
With supply chain and logistics operations becoming more technology enabled and data driven, workers within the sector are becoming increasingly important to the industry the research suggests.
Read the report in full here.