The recently opened fulfillment center had as its goal to consolidate all of the online shopping for a local grocery store to one location. Instead of having personal shoppers in the aisles of the 12 stores in the area, the local employee owned grocery chain made a major move. With an initial hire of 500 employees, the plan was to first take over the fulfillment tasks of three of the smallest stores.
The first few days involved the kind of chaos that can come with the opening of a new business channel. Trainers helped personal shoppers how the scanning system worked. Voice activated, the computerized system would tell the personal shoppers the aisle, the shelf level and position, and the quantity needed. Using a specifically retro fitted shopping cart that allows shoppers to pick items for as many as 12 customers at once, the verbal commands then detail how where to put each of the picked items. Without even knowing the name or kind of the product before heading to a help location, the computerized system is efficient and exact.
Once selected, the products were then transferred to the delivery teams. With some individual drivers going to individual homes and some going to the stores themselves where shoppers want to pick up their own selected items, the delivery team is often the face to face contact that many customers have.
Unfortunately, at the end of the first week, only 400 of the initially hired 500 remained, creating a significant shortage in staffing for the fulfillment center that was hoping to expand the number of stores it served in week two.
Job Placement Agencies Provide Important Resources to Companies of All Size
Staffing issues can be a problem for companies of all size. Whether you are looking to fill an executive position in six months or you need to hire 30 short term workers by the end of the month, it is often in your best interest if you can work with an employment agency to get the help that you need.
From screening initial candidates with background checks and drug tests to vetting final candidates before any hiring decisions are made, there are many times when investing in the services of an agency can be beneficial.
Once you have found the staff that your business needs to be successful, of course, it is important to keep them. One of the challenges that companies of all size can face, however, is being able to meet payroll. Employees understandably will not continue to working for a company that does not pay on time, so for this reason there are many businesses that find themselves looking for the funds that business invoice factoring services provide. Business invoice factoring is a type of accounts receivable financing that converts outstanding invoices due within 90 days into immediate cash for a small business. And while there are many small businesses that are in need of these services, it is important to remember that there are also advance business capital factoring options available for larger companies.
Money factoring companies provide a solution to the cash flow problems that many new businesses face. The latest research indicates that there are currently nearly 28 million small businesses in the U.S., and some of these struggle to find the resources they need to pay employees or meet other expenses during some slow times of the year. Fortunately, working with a business invoice factoring company can provide a solution.
