In retail and warehousing, operational agility is a year-round necessity. To maintain high service levels without over-inflating fixed overheads, forward-thinking operators like Urban Outfitters, West Ham United and Motor Parts Direct are moving away from traditional, rigid temporary agencies. By shifting to a digital platform, these businesses directly access a pool of pre-vetted, highly-rated independent professionals (FreeFlexers) the moment demand dictates.
Here is what leading brands across the retail, warehousing, and trade sectors say about using Temper.
Moving Away from Traditional Casual Labour
For regional businesses, finding high-quality staffing solutions outside major metropolitan areas has historically been an operational bottleneck. Relying on traditional part-time pools often limits growth.
"Temper provides a flexible solution for staff that has enabled me to move away from relying on part time, casual labour and try new staffing solutions to maximise sales. They have had a good supply of quality staff outside of London and been a great asset." — Regional Manager at Motor Parts Direct
Uncompromising Quality in High-Volume Fulfillment
When handling thousands of SKUs, inventory accuracy and picking speed are vital to the customer experience. For major retail operations, flexible staffing must deliver consistency and high execution quality.
- The Metrics: Urban Outfitters consistently sees over 7 unique applicants per position.
- The Quality Control: 980% of the FreeFlexers who have worked with them hold a 4-star rating or above.
"As a seasonal business, we require a flexible staffing 'layer' to operate effectively. Previously, we have relied heavily on zero-hour contracts in our stores and warehouses. We are now actively rolling out Temper across our stores across the UK. This allows us to reduce our reliance on zero-hours roles. As we scale, we intend to onboard flexible staff directly via Temper and to further reduce our zero-hours roster, potentially to zero, provided Temper continue to provide strong account management and reliable, hard-working people." — Head of Recruitment, Urban Outfitters
Navigating Matchdays and Major Events
Managing logistics for a Premier League club requires an elastic workforce that can scale up drastically for a single day, as well as handle broader commercial surges.
- The Metrics: Over 7,000 hours completed on the platform with an average of 90 unique applicants competing for shifts.
- The Quality Control: 97% of their workforce holds an average 5-star rating.
"We have employed many members of staff who are on Temper’s books, and we could not speak highly of the quality of people that they have supplied us with. Using Temper gave us the opportunity to get through the Black Friday and Christmas period with a high success rate, which is very pleasing as a business! Overall, we are very happy with the relationship between the 2 of us and long may it continue!" — Luke, Warehouse Manager at West Ham United FC
Streamlining Trade Counter Logistics
For trade suppliers like Brewers Decorator Centres, keeping service levels steady during challenging periods requires specialized staff who fit into the team culture immediately.
"Working with the Temper Team has been an absolute pleasure since our launch. From day one, they took the time to understand our needs and challenges. Most importantly Temper have played a key role in ensuring our service levels do not suffer during challenging periods. We predominantly use cargo bike riders, who are all well trained and a delight to have in our Team. Communication from Temper is brilliant, and the portal is so easy to use! We always book with complete confidence, which gives us real peace of mind. Thank you,to all at Temper.” — Head of Operations at Brewers Decorator Centres
With access to over 200,000 unique FreeFlexers across 28 categories, retail and warehouse operations no longer need to choose between flexibility and quality
