Hire an order picker in Greater Montreal
Hiring an order picker turns on three things postings almost always leave out: the expected rate, the pick format — piece, case or full pallet — and the temperature of the warehouse. This page gives you a job description to copy, what Quebec's regulation actually requires depending on the machine you hand over, and eight questions that tell someone who has held a rate from someone who has toured a warehouse.
Job description to copy
Replace what is in brackets, then post it as is.
Order picker
Location: [city], Greater Montreal · Schedule: [day / evening / night], [number] h per week
Pay: [to be set] (benchmark: median $22/h in Quebec, $21/h in Montreal (Job Bank))
Responsibilities
- Pull order items from the pick list, the terminal or the voice headset, in pick path order.
- Confirm every line on the scanner and settle any discrepancy before leaving the location.
- Build stable pallets and totes: heavy loads at the bottom, fragile goods on top, height respected.
- Wrap, label, weigh and drop finished orders at the shipping bay or on the conveyor.
- Pack and cushion cartons for orders that ship by the piece.
- Operate the zone's motorized hand pallet jack or order picker truck, within the authorization given.
- Check the format, item number and date before dropping a product into the order.
- Report empty locations, stockouts and misslotted products to the wave lead.
- Replenish pick locations from reserve pallets.
- Take part in cycle counts for the zone and end-of-shift checks.
Requirements
- Able to walk, bend, lift and place across a full shift.
- Reads item numbers, formats and location codes accurately.
- Comfortable with a scanner, an on-board terminal or a voice picking headset.
- Training and authorization for the machine used in the zone: the motorized hand pallet jack, which the CNESST ties to sections 256.2 and 256.3 of the Règlement sur la santé et la sécurité du travail, or the order picker truck at height, which falls under the forklift training in that same section 256.3.
- Confirmed availability for the shift on offer, weekends included if the wave calls for it.
- WHMIS training (SIMDUT in French) if your warehouse receives or stores hazardous products.
- Tolerance for cold if your zones are refrigerated or frozen.
Assets
- Hands-on experience with the warehouse management system you run.
- Used to voice picking or pick-to-light displays.
- A valid forklift card, useful the day replenishment runs short.
- Piece picking experience from e-commerce, where orders carry more lines each.
- Food warehouse experience: date rotation, cold chain, allergens.
- Working English or French, depending on the language of your shipping paperwork.
What we offer
[benefits, insurance, shift premiums, training]
Order picker pay benchmark
| Region | Median | Offered in postings |
|---|---|---|
| All of Quebec | $22/h | — |
| Montérégie | $23.28/h | $22.50 (284) |
| Montréal | $21/h | $22.66 (134) |
| Laval | $21/h | $23.20 (29) |
| Lanaudière | $22.74/h | $20.96 (69) |
| Laurentides | $20.80/h | $21 (53) |
Median published by Job Bank (NOC 75101) and median offered in job postings (6 months, February to August 2026); in brackets, the number of hourly postings.
Eight interview questions
- How many lines an hour do you pick at your current warehouse, and how do you know?
- Do you pick by the piece, by the case or by full pallet? Walk me through a typical order.
- You have light, fragile items to pick and the same order also holds heavy cases. In what order do you work the aisles?
- The location is empty and the order has to ship within the hour. What do you do, in order?
- Tell me about a picking error that came back to you. How did you find out?
- Have you worked off a scanner, an on-board terminal or a voice headset? Which do you prefer, and why?
- Which machines have you operated in a warehouse, who trained you, and on which model?
- What is the longest stretch you have held a night or weekend shift, and what ended it?
Timelines and difficulties
This hire rarely fails at the posting and often fails in the first week, because three details are almost always missing. The rate: a warehouse that measures lines per hour has to say so, or the person finds out on day three and leaves before the month is out. The pick format: picking by the piece for e-commerce, by the case for food, or by full pallet for wholesale are not the same job in the body, and experience in one does not always transfer to another. The temperature: frozen and refrigerated zones shrink the pool, and the CNESST notes that cold reduces blood flow to the extremities and raises muscle tension and fatigue. Then there is the machine. If the zone needs an order picker truck that rises to the upper levels, the forklift training set out in section 256.3 of the Règlement sur la santé et la sécurité du travail belongs on your calendar rather than at your door: a posting that demands a current card rules out people a one-day course would qualify. Finally, evening, night and weekend waves draw fewer candidates. Put the shift at the top of the posting, not at the end.
We run this search for employers in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore and the South Shore. Our recruitment service: warehousing and distribution
If the placement does not hold six months, we replace it.
The replacement is on us. You do not pay twice for the same role.
A role to fill?
Fifteen minutes on the phone is enough to know whether we can deliver your mandate, and to tell you straight whether the salary range holds.
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