A case study in keeping production running when it’s hard to find reliable people.
The Small Town Staffing Problem
Running a food plant outside the city creates real headaches when it comes to finding people. Your local talent pool is small, good workers have to drive an hour each way, and when peak season hits, you’re competing with everyone else for the same people.
Here’s the thing we see keeping plant managers up at night: missing production because you don’t have enough good people. In food manufacturing, when someone doesn’t show up, entire production runs can get delayed. That’s overtime costs, missed shipments, upset customers, and lost revenue. We’ve seen it many times.
The Challenge: Record Orders, Not Enough People
A 2,000 employee food producer across upstate New York was having record orders right as their busy season started. They needed 10-15 reliable new people every single week, but their main facility was more than an hour from the nearest city center where most workers live.
The staffing agencies they tried struggled to help:
- They’d send resumes for people who had no idea about the drive time
- New hires would show up unprepared and quit after a few days
- When production was in trouble, it took forever to get help
- The metrics they provided didn’t tell you what you really needed to know
The result? People not showing up when you needed them most, scrambling to cover shifts, and real fear about missing production targets during their biggest season.
The CareerStart/WAE Solution: A Playbook Built for Small-Town Manufacturing
We knew the usual approach wouldn’t work, so we built something specifically for our customer, and their specific situation.
What We Changed
Old Way → Our Way
- Generic resume drops → On-site interview blocks that respect candidates’ travel time
- Sink-or-swim onboarding → Day-one support including travel requirement education and end-to-end drug testing coordination
- Slow escalations → Multi-layer responsive team with direct Recruiter, Regional Account Manager, VP, and CEO-to-CEO relationships
- Basic fill metrics → Reliability scoring system with live dashboards and quarterly business reviews
What Made the Real Difference
Reliability Scoring: We developed a “credit score” system for attendance and performance, helping predict which candidates would succeed in long-commuter positions.
Travel-Optimized Scheduling: Everything built around the reality that your best workers might drive an hour to get there.
Real-Time Visibility: You know exactly who’s on your floor, which lines are covered, and which shifts might be short before they become a problem.
The Results: People Actually Showed Up
Our client got:
- 98% show rates (most places are lucky to hit 80%)
- Way faster hiring when they needed people fast
- Better retention among people making the long drive
- Less scrambling and overtime because staffing became predictable
“WAE didn’t just fill our open spots—they made sure we had the people we needed when production was on the line. Night and day difference in reliability.” — Production Manager, Upstate NY Food Manufacturer
Why This Matters for Your Fall Ramp-Up
As food and beverage processors gear up for peak season (August-November), the same problems hit everywhere:
- Seasonal spikes that require scaling up fast
- Small-town locations where traditional staffing falls short
- Long commutes that make reliability even more critical
- Production schedules that can’t afford to miss targets because people don’t show
How We Solve Small-Town Manufacturing Staffing
People Ready to Work: Thousands of pre-screened workers, including plenty willing to make the drive for steady work.
Reliability You Can Count On: Our scoring system finds people who actually show up and stick around, especially for longer commutes.
Know Before You’re Short: Real-time visibility into your workforce so you can fix problems before they hit production.
Fast Response: When you need people, we move fast. Our teams understand that in manufacturing, timing is everything.
Don’t Let Staffing Kill Your Production Goals
Location doesn’t have to limit your growth. We’ve helped dozens of food manufacturers keep their lines running during their busiest seasons, even when they’re nowhere near city centers.
Book a 15-minute info session to see how we can customize a staffing solution for your facility’s unique challenges.
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