Increased customer demand for logistics labor, combined with rising worker expectations around training and career opportunities, has led Prologis, Inc. (NYSE: PLD) to expand its logistics training program to six major logistics hubs, with plans to add programs in nine additional national markets by the end of 2021.
Speaking on Nareit’s REIT Report, Steven Hussain, vice president of workforce programs and community relations at Prologis, explained that the REIT’s Community Workforce Initiative (CWI) training program launched in 2018 in response to conversations with Prologis’ largest customers that identified labor and talent as their number one pain point. At the same time, Prologis’ community partners were looking for “on ramps” to well-paid jobs for individuals they served.
Since then, the labor market has become even more challenging, Hussain explained. “It’s incredibly competitive and incredibly challenging to recruit right now and worker concerns around COVID-19 persist and safety is top of mind. At the same time, worker expectations around ongoing education, training, and career paths are also rising, so there’s a lot that customers and employers are having to do to adjust to this new reality,” he said.
Prologis plans to train 25,000 individuals for jobs in transportation, distribution, and logistics by 2025. “We wanted to be ambitious” and find new ways to scale, Hussain said.
As a result of the ramped up training programs, “we’re having conversations with community partners in ways we’ve never really had before. They have been incredibly receptive and excited,” Hussain said.
Meanwhile, Prologis launched a workforce training program in the United Kingdom earlier this year and sees more opportunities to provide training in that market. The REIT is also preparing to launch a training platform in Mexico.