Managing Growth

Client: A processing plant with 1,000+ employees.

Situation: The addition of several very large accounts meant that suddenly, our client needed to hire 400 full-time workers within four months. During the hiring process, they would require all of their employees to work mandatory overtime in order to meet the production goals.

Assessment: At first, the mandatory overtime worked well. Employees liked the extra money, and management was able to meet production goals. Eventually, employees began to "burn out" working seven days a week and started to call in sick for their scheduled weekend overtime. Failing to supply the promised amounts of product put the client's contracts at risk; so in an effort to fix the situation quickly, management decided to pay the employees an additional bonus of one hundred dollars for each day they worked on the weekend, in addition to time and a half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays. Paying all the overtime and added bonuses caused production costs to increase dramatically.

Strategy: Life Style was brought in to meet two objectives:

1. Hire the 400 people necessary to fill the full-time permanent openings created by the increase in business. These workers would be needed in increments starting immediately, spread over a four month period.

2. Design a strategy to keep staff at appropriate levels, while at the same time being more efficient and cost-conscious.

Result: We immediately developed a multifaceted customized recruiting program to address the need for the 400 additional employees. Our objective was to hit 20% of the goal in the first month, 35% of the goal in the second and third months, and the remaining 10%, plus an allowance for attrition, in the final month. Using the recruiting plan we developed, we were able to reach 100% of the targeted levels by the middle of the third month.

To address the short-term immediate needs on the weekends, we designed a weekend-only staffing program. We developed a workforce that would take advantage of "moonlighters" or people with second jobs. We allowed these staffers to choose their own schedule - work one weekend day or two. We set a pay rate higher than the weekday rate, but lower than the overtime and double rates. We were then able to add the necessary people to meet the production goals each week, at a cost 23% lower than previous efforts, resulting in a savings of $80,000.

In the end, through the use of a part-time weekend workforce and an aggressive customized recruiting plan, Private Label Workforce was able to achieve both objectives under tight time constraints.

Hiring Right | Managing Growth | Controlling Costs | Cutting Expenses