Recruitment for logistics and warehousing

Plan the peak hire backwards from the first sale

Start from the date the client's first sale begins and count back. If it opens on 25 September, the batch should finish induction and a week of supervised picking by 18 September. That means offers out by early September, walk-in drives in the last two weeks of August and requisitions approved by mid-August. Raise one requisition per site and shift, such as 40 pickers for the Hoskote outbound shift, so each closes on its own when filled and the site manager can see exactly what is still open.

Where floor staff come from

Pickers and loaders rarely apply through job portals. They come through people they know and places they pass every day, so put your effort there. Executives and shift in-charges are the exception, and they can be sourced like any office role.

• Referrals from current pickers, with a small referral payout after the joiner completes a month
• Sunday walk-in drives at the warehouse gate or a nearby community hall
• Posters in surrounding villages and industrial areas with the careers page QR code
• Local ITIs for forklift operators and maintenance technicians
• Job portals and LinkedIn for inventory executives and shift in-charges

Test the job, not the resume

Most floor candidates do not carry a resume, and a long interview tells you little about how they will pick. A 20-minute practical test tells you more. Ask a picker candidate to read ten bin locations and SKU codes and scan them with a handheld. Ask a packer to pack five orders with the right labels. Put a forklift operator on your own machine in an empty aisle, and check their training certificate before the test, not after the offer. For an inventory executive, a short spreadsheet task on a cycle count is worth more than any question about strengths.

For shift in-charges, use a scenario: four loaders absent, two trucks delayed, cut-off in three hours. How they plan the next hour shows whether they can run a dock. Ask them to talk you through who moves where, which vehicle goes first and what they tell the client, and listen for whether they protect the cut-off without burning out the same loaders.

From offer to first shift

Floor candidates who wait three days for an offer often take another warehouse's job. Send offers the same day through a link the candidate can accept or decline online, then move each accepted candidate straight into onboarding. Recruitment analytics show the funnel for each requisition, so HR can see if a site is losing people between offer and joining and call them before the first shift, not after.

How to set it up in ZeniaHR

1. Raise a job requisition for each site, role and shift, so openings are approved and closed separately when they are filled.
2. Share the careers page link and print it as a QR code on gate posters and walk-in drive banners.
3. Move applicants through New, Screening, Interview, Offer and Joined on the pipeline board, and add screening notes from the practical test.
4. For executive and shift in-charge roles, use the resume match score to shortlist and offer interview slots that candidates pick themselves.
5. Send offers with the online accept or decline page, then move accepted candidates into onboarding in one step.
6. Check recruitment analytics weekly for pending offers and open requisitions at each site.

Read more about recruitment in ZeniaHR.

Roles this applies to

Frequently asked questions