Logistics workers: staffing a logistics operation

What is specific to logistics

Logistics covers a series of connected roles — from warehouse and handling positions to support for distribution and dispatch — and often runs in shifts. The volume of work fluctuates markedly with season and demand, which makes planning permanent headcount difficult.

Because the links are connected, a gap at one point slows the whole flow of goods. That is what distinguishes logistics from a single warehouse: the cost of one unfilled position is not confined to it.

How to recruit for logistics

A fluctuating requirement is well covered by a combination of a permanent core and flexible agency capacity, which can be raised for a peak and lowered outside it. Immediate availability is not something we promise.

What that combination looks like in practice:

• A permanent core through direct hire and retention
• Seasonal swings through agency capacity
• Recruitment from abroad for shortage occupations
• Recruitment planned in good time, ahead of the peak

Training and processes

Starting in logistics involves initial health-and-safety training, familiarisation with the processes and systems, and the relevant authorisations for equipment. Clear onboarding matters most before seasonal peaks, when several people start at once.

Planning capacity over time

Planning starts from the expected volume and its seasonality. Splitting the requirement into standing and burst components, and securing it in good time, makes it possible to handle peaks without gaps and without unnecessary cost out of season.

Current labour-market data is published by the Czech Statistical Office, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Czech Labour Office. No figures are stated here.

The legal forms flexible peak cover can take

Seasonal peaks in logistics can be covered lawfully in more than one form: fixed-term employment, agreements on work performed outside an employment relationship — in Czech law the dohoda o provedení práce (DPP) and the dohoda o pracovní činnosti (DPČ) — and temporary assignment through a staffing agency. Each is governed by different rules under the Czech Labour Code and Czech Act 435/2004 Sb. on employment.

Both the chaining of fixed-term employment and the scope of those agreements are limited by the Czech Labour Code. The exact limits have to be verified against the current wording of the law, and no figures are stated here.

For temporary assignment, the agency worker must have pay and working conditions comparable to a core employee in a similar position, and the staffing agency must hold an employment-mediation permit. In our ecosystem that permit is held by the staffing agency; the platform itself does not hold one.

Health-and-safety duties towards the people working at a site are borne by the operator of that site — on an agency assignment, by the user company — whatever the form of engagement: initial training, familiarisation with the risks of the operation, and protective equipment. For night work and risky handling positions, occupational health assessments apply on top of that.

• Every engagement has to be properly registered for social and health insurance and recorded; otherwise it can amount to illegal work.
• Compliance with employment-law obligations is checked by the Czech State Labour Inspection Office.
• Which form to choose is best driven by how long the need lasts and how often it recurs — one-off help, a recurring seasonal peak and a long-term fluctuating volume lead to different answers.