Unless you live under a rock, it’s common knowledge that labor shortages are occurring in just about every industry in the United States. These shortages often cause bidding wars on talent which eventually leads to increased wages and costs for employers and consumers alike.

The bidding wars don’t just drive-up labor costs they also result in other costs associated with employee turnover like new hire training and productivity losses of experienced employees.

This has been especially true for the warehouse fulfillment industry. As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world, consumers made the switch from traditional point of sale options like retail store fronts to online purchases being fulfilled from a warehouse. This increased the demand for new warehouses and fulfillment centers as well as the labor required to operate them.

Employee attraction and retention has become paramount in this industry and has created the need for new recruitment tactics beyond higher wages. Modern warehouses and fulfillment center designs historically featured minimal occupant comfort features such as air conditioning. This has been an increased focus on these employers as they seek new talent to join their workforce. Employers that operate air-conditioned warehouses experience lower employee turnover, higher productivity levels and reduce the risk of OSHA violations, HR claims, labor strikes or other business disruptions.

This is great for new warehouses, but what about all the existing warehouses that don’t have air conditioning? Simply adding air conditioning systems is much more complex than one might think.

Henderson Building Solutions has studied this problem for our clients and developed turnkey solutions to address these deficiencies. We’ve studied all existing US climate zones to tailor solutions specific to each unique climate zone.

These solutions consider the following issues:

• Amount of cooling capacity required to meet ASHRAE & OSHA occupant comfort standards for warehouses.
• Electrical capacity requirements to operate new mechanical equipment.
• Structural requirements to support mechanical and electrical upgrades.
• Building envelope upgrades required to meet the ASHRAE comfort standards.
• Project phasing to minimize the impact to facility operations.
• Current supply chain availability of required equipment.

Henderson Building Solutions has been designing and implementing infrastructure solutions for our clients for more than two decades.