Peak Season Staffing: How to Retain Top Talent in Distribution Centers
Peak season in distribution centers can be mentally exhausting and physically demanding on your workforce. Unlike remote-capable roles that can "flexibility hack" their way through busy periods, distribution work requires physical presence on the floor.
When November hits and order volume triples, your team faces 10-12 hour shifts of constant lifting, picking, packing, and moving. The pace isn't sustainable, and your workers know it. The result is predictable: your best people leave because they physically can't maintain the intensity, not because they lack engagement or motivation.
Smart warehouse staff retention strategies address these physical and operational realities head-on, not with generic tips that ignore why distribution turnover actually happens.
Why Distribution Center Turnover Looks Different
General advice about "employee engagement" misses the point in distribution work. Your workers aren't leaving because they need better team-building activities but because the job demands things their bodies can't sustain during peak season. These include:
Physical Breaking Points, Not Just Mental Fatigue
Distribution work means standing 10-12 hours straight, lifting quota after quota, repeating the same motions hundreds of times per shift.
Overexertion and bodily reaction accounted for over 1 million workplace injury cases in warehousing and distribution between 2021-2022, with 52.1 percent requiring time away from work.¹ Peak season amplifies these risks as workers push past sustainable limits. Bodies give out before motivation does.
Schedule Chaos Unique to 24/7 Operations
Logistics workers already clock the industry's longest workdays at 9 hours and 10 minutes, with 20 percent chronically overutilized and 15 percent at active burnout risk during normal operations.² When workers can't plan their lives outside the warehouse, they start planning their exit.
Performance Tracking Adds Psychological Pressure
Pick rates, pack rates, and error rates get monitored to the second. Leaderboards display who's fastest and who's falling behind. This competition drives some workers and crushes others. You can't hide a bad day when your productivity is publicly tracked, and the pressure compounds physical exhaustion.
Assess Your Retention Vulnerability: A Pre-Peak Diagnostic
Before you can fix retention, you need to understand where your operation is most vulnerable. Use this assessment to identify which pressure points are pushing workers toward the exit.
Physical Sustainability Check:
- Do you track which roles have the highest injury or pain complaints?
- Have you assessed ergonomic risk in your highest-volume stations?
- Can workers request task rotation to avoid repetitive strain injuries?
- Do you have recovery protocols like stretching stations or optimized break schedules?
Schedule Management Check:
- Do workers have any input on shift preferences during peak season?
- Are shift changes communicated with advance notice, or announced day-of?
- Do you track which shifts have the highest turnover rates?
- Is there flexibility for workers with family obligations like school pickup or eldercare?
Safety & Support Check:
- Do supervisors know how to spot injury risk before it becomes a workers' comp claim?
- When accidents happen, do workers feel protected or blamed?
- Are safety protocols enforced even when volume is crushing?
- Do temporary workers receive the same safety training as permanent staff?
Performance Pressure Check:
- Are productivity expectations adjusted for peak volume chaos?
- Do you recognize effort and teamwork, or only output numbers?
- Can workers request help without being seen as weak?
- Are leaderboards motivating your team or demoralizing them?
The gaps you identify here reveal where to focus your retention efforts before peak season starts.
How to Keep Your Best Workers Through Peak Season Chaos
Here's how to address the realities that drive distribution center employee retention during your busiest months.
Design for Physical Sustainability
Task rotation systems let workers shift between picking, packing, and quality control throughout their shift to vary physical demands instead of repeating the same motion for 10 hours straight. Implement micro-breaks; five minutes of stretching every two hours prevents injury better than skipping breaks to meet quotas. Invest in anti-fatigue mats, adjustable workstations, and lifting aids.
Half of distribution operations still lack warehouse automation, meaning workers absorb physical demands that technology could alleviate.³ When automation isn't an option, these smaller investments matter. People stay when they believe they can physically last the season.
Give Workers Schedule Control Within Reason
Create a shift bidding system where workers lock in preferences before peak starts. Establish minimum three-day advance notice for schedule changes except true emergencies. Let workers who want split shifts volunteer instead of forcing everyone into the same structure. Honor time-off requests for family obligations when submitted early. Loss of control over life outside work triggers immediate resignations.
Make Safety Non-Negotiable Even Under Pressure
Maintain visible supervisor presence on the floor during chaos. When incidents happen, investigate process failures, not worker blame. Give temporary staff the same safety training and equipment as permanent employees. Allow workers to flag unsafe pace without retaliation. Feeling unsafe is the fastest path to quitting.
Manage Performance Pressure Thoughtfully
Set transparent expectations so everyone knows what "good" looks like during peak versus normal times. Recognize effort, teamwork, and quality, not just speed. Keep performance conversations private instead of publicly shaming slower workers. Create a culture where asking for support is normal, not weakness. Competitive pressure motivates some people and crushes others.
Protect Your Workforce and Boost Retention with Allied OneSource This Peak Season
Peak season doesn't have to mean losing your best people. Small changes in how you structure work make a significant difference in who stays and who walks out mid-season.
Allied OneSource helps distribution centers build sustainable peak season workforce strategies that keep your core team intact while providing flexible staffing when volume surges.
From pre-screened temporary workers who understand the physical demands to temp-to-perm pipelines that reward peak performance, we partner with you to create retention-focused staffing models that actually work. Contact us today.
References
1. National Safety Council. (n.d.). Top work-related injury causes. Injury Facts. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/work-overview/top-work-related-injury-causes/
2. Mayer, M. (2025, May 8). Logistics sector has longest workday, highest burnout risk: ActivTrak study. Supply & Demand Chain Executive. https://www.sdcexec.com/professional-development/retention/news/22940730/activtrak-logistics-sector-has-longest-workday-highest-burnout-risk-activtrak-study
3. Brown, T., et al. (2023, May 15). Operational efficiency: A clear path to outperformance in distribution. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/logistics/our-insights/operational-efficiency-a-clear-path-to-outperformance-in-distribution
