Warehouses Are Trying Harder to Court Gig Workers.

"The gig economy is starting to reach into the warehouse.

Logistics companies competing for workers are offering more flexibility in areas such as scheduling and choices on shifts as they vie for labor with companies like Uber Technologies and Instacart where workers make their own hours.

More operators "are using a flexible worker, and they're using software not unlike Uber or Lyft or Grubhub" to fill slots, said Brian Devine, chief executive of Columbus, Ohio-based warehouse staffing agency Ignite Industrial Professionals. "That's how they're filling many of their holiday seasonal needs."

The flexibility in a field known for rigid schedules and grueling workloads is a sign that the practices of app-driven operators are seeping into more traditional workplaces, particularly in a tight market for blue-collar workers.

But warehouse managers aren't dialing up gig workers the same way a passenger calls an Uber, partly because industrial jobs require specific training and expertise, logistics experts say.

"You can't just have someone who lists themselves as a warehouse worker go into a facility," said Hisham Khaki, president and founder of Alpharetta, Ga.-based flexible labor service HapiGig. "It actually takes someone who understands warehousing and knows how to operate a forklift."

Employers hiring people on HapiGig's platform, for example, choose from a list of available workers rather than being randomly assigned to whoever is online.

Workers set their availability in advance -- for example, Thursdays and Fridays -- and go through a background screening process with HapiGig, whose clients include third-party logistics provider Kenco Group, appliances manufacturer Electrolux and carpet maker Shaw Industries.

Employers can then see each person's attendance rate and ratings from past employers before asking that worker to pick up a particular shift.

The share of logistics workers who have had a gig-type job where they chose which four-to-six-hour shift they wanted rose to 21% this year from 15.1% in 2021, according to a survey by industrial staffing agency EmployBridge." [1]

1. Warehouses Are Trying Harder to Court Gig Workers. Young, Liz.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 Oct 2023: B.2.