Logistics is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Warehouses are no longer just hubs of manual labor, but are being transformed by autonomous robots, AI-driven planning, and digital twin simulations. In transportation, capabilities like route optimization, real-time route tracking and navigation tools are supporting drivers throughout their journeys.
The changes and opportunities brought by digitalization are being embraced by companies as part of their response to the growing need for agility and cost efficiency. In today’s volatile world, supply chains need to be continuously reimagined and reinvented to stay resilient and competitive.
Yet, despite the rise of digital technologies, AI, and automation, human talent remains the decisive force behind successful transformation. As technology and changing rules of the game redefine logistics, supply chain leaders need to ask themselves the question: Are we redesigning systems with our workforce in mind?
The World Economic Forum cites 63% of employers identify skill gaps as their top barrier to transformation, and by 2030, 59% of the global workforce will need reskilling. People-centric strategies will not only address the current workforce challenges in logistics, but it will propel overall supply chain transformation forward.
Workforce challenges in logistics
The logistics sector is currently grappling with several challenges that are inhibiting its ability to meet the increasing demand for efficiency and speed. These challenges span the entire workforce, from recruitment and training to retention and engagement.
Labor shortages and the changing demands of the younger generation: Labor shortages are among the most pressing issues for logistics companies. Accenture research shows that in transportation, the top jobs with the highest demand continue to be CDL-A truck drivers and support drivers with respectively 43 and 40 open job postings for every existing driver.
The root causes behind this shortage include long recruiting processes and high qualification standards, such as perfect driving histories, resulting in many potential drivers looking elsewhere for quicker jobs.
Warehouse and delivery jobs are also hard to fill, despite pay increases. Reason: These roles are physically demanding, and today’s younger generation want more than just a paycheck. They value and prioritize respect, quality management, work-life balance, good managers, flexible schedules, and opportunities to grow personally and professionally. In fact, studies show that “lack of respect,” not just money, is one of the main reasons people leave jobs or don’t apply in the first place.
According to Gartner, 31% of supply chain employees intend to leave their organizations within a year, and 20% are actively job hunting. Furthermore, up to 30% of peak-season hires in logistics don’t return the following year due to unpredictable scheduling, inadequate onboarding and lack of supervisory attention. These statistics signal an escalating challenge: Unless organizations reimagine the employee experience, they risk losing critical talent and falling behind in transformation initiatives.
Rising automation, shifting roles creating the need for upskilling: Labor shortages are driving automation, but rising automation, in turn, is changing the nature of logistics work and demanding new skills. Many warehouses lack sufficient headcount, pushing companies to deploy autonomous forklifts, AI tools, and robotic systems. These technologies fill immediate labor gaps and increase efficiency.
Yet these also shift worker responsibilities from manual tasks to managing exceptions, troubleshooting complex scenarios, and overseeing collaboration between humans and machines. Some companies now use cameras to spot unsafe behaviors and recommend ergonomic improvements—al powered by AI. However, if workers aren’t properly trained, they resist using these tools, limiting their benefits and business impact.
This creates a second challenge: upskilling. Most frontline workers aren’t trained for digital tools, and many facilities still use outdated systems. Without modern software (like ERP integration), even the best of technologies won’t work.
When automation isn’t well integrated, it often makes worker’s jobs more cumbersome and less efficient. For example, it could introduce more steps to complete simple tasks, more errors to fix, and more time spent juggling both machines and paperwork. So “working alongside machines” isn’t always as smooth as it sounds. As a result, automation potential remains underutilized.
Accenture surveys reveal that 60% to 70% of operational time is still spent on repetitive manual tasks such as restocking shelves, updating asset records, and maintaining equipment—activities ripe for automation. At the same time, only 19% of logistics workers are engaged in strategic or analytical work.
The skills gap is real and growing. If the workforce isn’t reskilled in time, companies would not be able to take full advantage of their investments in digital transformation, and the labor problem will persist in a new form.
Focus on workforce transformation strategies
To build a fit-for-purpose, resilient, tech-enabled workforce in logistics, leaders must take immediate steps across three key areas:
1. Smarter recruiting: Meet candidates where they are
The logistics job market is fiercely competitive. With fast food chains and gig jobs offering quicker, simpler hiring, traditional logistics companies must compete harder for talent. Here’s how top companies are adopting new strategies:
- Gamified hiring: One global logistics company increased job applications by 15% by using mobile games to assess skills which is fun and effective for younger applicants.
- Speeding up offers: Online contracting flows are reducing job offer turnaround from days to minutes, meeting the expectations of candidates who need immediate income.
- Tapping alumni networks: A leading North American logistics company launched a “boomerang program” to rehire former employees who left on good terms, significantly reducing recruitment cycles and onboarding times.
- Expanding non-traditional talent pools: Companies are offering flexible shifts and access to leased delivery vehicles to attract students, part-time workers, and parents, particularly vital for last-mile delivery demands.
- Using targeted data-driven hiring: A global consumer goods company leveraged data from its long-term employees to create detailed profiles and map where good hires came from. This enabled them to better understand hiring patterns and improve recruitment strategies to be much more targeted, for example, to launch billboard campaigns. For one location, this resulted in going from 67% annual turnover with a head count deficiency of 30 to 40 people to immediate 200 qualified candidates and 20+ new hires, among whom retention improved by 100%.
2. Strategic retention: Rethink employee experience
Hiring is only half the battle, retaining them is now a strategic priority. Successful logistics companies have applied a number of key strategies in this area:
- Empower frontline supervisors: Supervisors play a key role in employee retention, but with large numbers of colleagues coming onboard and many leaving during peak seasons, this is not always a top priority. Those companies which prioritize coaching supervisors to improve new joiner’s day 1 to 100 experience, improving communication within their teams, and providing mentorship have improved early-stage retention by 50% to 60%. Peer mentorship embedded into onboarding accelerates better integration and loyalty.
- Offer predictable, flexible scheduling: Giving workers more control over their shifts with better forecasting of demand and workloads helps reduce holiday season churn and improves job satisfaction.
- Create career mobility pathways: Showing clear progressions from frontline roles to technical or leadership tracks keeps people motivated, encouraging longer tenures and tactically filling emerging skill gaps internally.
- Strengthening onboarding and early support: New hires who get structured onboarding experience with early supervisor engagement and regular feedback are more likely to stay past the first year.
- Focus beyond pay: Workers seek culture, purpose, and psychological safety as much as financial incentives. Recognition and wellness initiatives increasingly drive long-term loyalty.
These examples demonstrate a vital insight: Talent solutions are available, but these require focus, customization, and above all, leadership commitment.
3.Modern upskilling: Invest in skill building and digital fluency across the workforce
As automation and AI reshape logistics operations, upskilling is not optional, it’s urgent. Key priorities:
- Digital literacy: Training workers in the use of AI systems, mobile apps, WMS platforms, and robotics to ensure day-to-day operational competence.
- Career mobility and internal progression: Offering micro-learning modules, immersive tools like digital twin simulations, and internal talent marketplaces encourages workers to grow within the company rather than exit.
- High-demand tech expertise: Focus on areas for advanced upskilling, including robotics, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), and business intelligence tools like Python, Power BI, R and Tableau.
Take the example of a leading global logistics provider. To future-proof its logistics workforce, the company combined these strategies and invested in tech-savvy talent, upskilling existing employees, and aligning college recruiting with operational needs.
A dedicated recruitment team now targets data and engineering roles, while internal growth is fostered through initiatives like a Supervisory Academy. This dual focus on external hiring and internal advancement is ensuring readiness for a more automated, hybrid work environment.
The logistics industry’s future won’t be defined by technology alone, but by how well people and machines work together and can quickly adjust to the external market conditions. New gen AI-enabled tools for supervisors, for example, can help them get out from behind desks and spend more time supporting teams on the floor.
As digital platforms, robotics, and AI tools become the norm, the real opportunity is for humans to take on more meaningful, higher-value roles, like managing intelligent fleets, solving complex problems, analyzing real-time data, and coordinating complex supply chain ecosystems.
One thing is clear, as we move towards 2030, technology will not replace the need for people—it will redefine it. Competitive advantage will belong to companies that act now to rethink how they attract, engage, and grow talent at every level.
