Empower Tomorrow’s Industrial Distribution Workforce With a Modern Business Platform

In 2021, during the “Great Resignation,” a record-making 47 million U.S. workers (about 28% of the workforce) left their jobs. However, a February 2025 Gallup poll showed a trend that is still holding true:  51% of American employees (about 86.7 million people) “are watching for or actively seeking new job opportunities.” This trend is becoming a hallmark of what Gallup calls the “Great Detachment” — a period in which “employee satisfaction has hit a record low ... [and] people feel increasingly disconnected from their employers.”

The “Retirement Wave” is also heavily impacting the labor market. An August 2024 study from the Alliance for Lifetime Income found that, for the next five years, U.S. employers will need to hire over 240,000 people per month just to fill positions left open by retirees.

In this labor market, companies are finding it more difficult than ever to attract and retain talent. According to Gallup, job seekers are looking for four main attributes in new positions:

• Work-life balance and personal wellbeing.
• Pay or benefits.
• Stability and job security.
• A job that allows them to do what they do best.

Knowing what job seekers are looking for, how can industrial distributors navigate the pitfalls of an uncertain labor market to find, keep and empower top talent? Strategic use of technology is key.

Providing Flexible Work

Today’s employees demand flexible work options that provide a good work-life balance and allow them time to nurture their personal wellbeing. Upwork’s 2021 Freelance Forward Survey (the most recent research of its type) found that 36% of the U.S. workforce was participating in the freelance and gig economy, choosing flexibility and the opportunity to set their own schedules over working for a traditional employer. Many of these workers, who contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy, are highly skilled: 51% of all American workers with post-graduate degrees were freelancers in 2021.

Industrial distributors can circumvent the labor shortage by tapping into the skilled talent pools available in the freelance and gig economy — appealing to the desire for truly flexible work. Industrial distributors may choose to make various roles remote or hybrid, provide flexible shift schedules, or use flextime — allowing employees to choose their own start and end hours within a prespecified range. All these options (and more) can be managed through modern business software, like a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Such systems provide a truly connected, mobile interface that places companywide information at employees’ fingertips. Everyone works with the same data, no matter where they are or what time it is. This gives employees the freedom to work flexibly while ensuring business objectives are met well and on time.

Allocating Resources

For an industrial distribution business to succeed, decision-makers have to allocate resources to the right place at the right time. Modern ERP software helps by providing end-to-end visibility of the entire company. Real-time reporting and alerts keep key performance indicators front and center, so resources can quickly be allocated based on priorities and issues can be stopped before they escalate.

However, beyond this, one of the most important allocations of resources is payroll. Today’s employees are, of course, looking for compensation that matches their skill levels, benefits that will help them care for themselves and their families, and PTO policies that encourage work-life balance. Modern business management technology is built to help distributors manage these fundamental processes in a single system.

But monetary resources aren’t the only resources distributors can provide to gain and retain talent. Business technology can also help them onboard, train and provide continued professional development education to their employees. Learning and development are key to employee retention, and LinkedIn Learning found that, around the time of the Great Resignation, 94% of employees said they would stay in their roles if career development education was provided.

Ensuring Stability

Employees want to work for companies that provide a stable environment and job security. They are looking for employers they can count on. Business management technology can help distributors fit this bill in multiple ways. For instance, it can:
 

• Leverage AI to Automate Operations: When AI streamlines or eliminates manual tasks, employees are free to work on more creative, innovative, business-enhancing tasks. This increases job satisfaction and generates more business, boosting the company’s stability.
• Provide Real-Time Data Analysis: The difference between succeeding and losing ground in industrial distribution often comes down to making the right decisions at the right time. By putting data at employees’ fingertips, ERP solutions drive fast, accurate decision-making. When better decisions are made faster, the business reaps better outcomes. Better outcomes equal a stable competitive advantage that makes employees feel more secure.
• Create New Roles and Skills: Implementing new technology opens the door to new roles and upskilling opportunities for distribution employees. Updated inventory, warehouse and supply chain management techniques can create job openings for specialists. Current employees get the opportunity to upskill in areas like compliance and quality control, taking on new responsibilities. This contributes to their job security, and employees with specialized skills give their organizations a competitive advantage.

Prioritizing Purpose

Employees crave purpose and want their work to matter. They want to feel valuable, to be valued, and to be able to do the work that they do best. Technology can help distributors prioritize purpose by:

• Building a Collaborative Environment: ERP solutions facilitate company-wide communication. Working from the same real-time data keeps everyone on the same page. Such open and easy communication helps employees feel connected to each other and to the organization.
• Recognizing Achievements: ERP systems track employee data for accounting and payroll purposes, and that data can be used to recognize employee achievements. Sales and performance awards, teamwork awards, innovation awards, work anniversary awards — all help employees feel that they are valued and their work has purpose.
• Encourage Autonomy: A modern business technology platform built with industrial distributors in mind will offer configurable role-based dashboards that display the information each employee needs to succeed in their roles. This empowers individuals to work autonomously without having to ask other people for information they need but can’t access. They can then collaborate as needed but keep their individual tasks moving. They won’t have to wait for others to fill data gaps, which causes frustration and slows operations.

Building the Future of Your Business

Combating the labor shortage requires creating a workplace that entices job seekers with top-notch benefits, an engaging culture, work-life balance, modern technology, and meaningful development opportunities. To meet employee needs, distributors can work on improving the culture and empowering employees. Equip workers to focus on critical priorities and minimize wasted efforts. Examine each role and the experience it generates. Invest in the practices and technology that improve the employee experience and deliver the flexibility individuals need to do their best work. 

James Mallory is senior product marketing manager, manufacturing, distribution, field service at Acumatica. To learn more, read Acumatica's free eBook, "Beat the Labor Shortage and Build a Better Future."

This column originally appeared in the May/June issue of Industrial Distribution magazine. Sign up here to subscribe to ID’s Today in Industrial Distribution daily newsletter.