Labor shortages aren’t just an HR problem — they’re a strategic threat that can derail production schedules, inflate costs, and compromise compliance.
For food manufacturing executives navigating an increasingly complex workforce landscape, the traditional playbook of working with one or two staffing agencies and managing labor on spreadsheets is no longer sufficient.
In this Q&A with Jason Oswald, President of Simple, we break down the labor realities reshaping food manufacturing and offer a roadmap for building more resilient workforce strategies. With deep expertise at the intersection of staffing, technology, and operations, Oswald explains why the gig economy has fundamentally changed worker expectations, how onshoring trends and automation will reshape facilities in the coming years, and why treating staffing agencies as true strategic partners — rather than just vendors — can unlock hidden talent pipelines and cost efficiencies.
From VMS platforms that consolidate multi-agency management to flexible scheduling tools that compete with Uber-style for workers’ attention, Oswald reveals how leading manufacturers are using technology to transform their approach to contingent labor. Whether you’re struggling with night shift coverage, managing compliance risks, or planning facility expansions, this conversation delivers actionable insights for strengthening your labor strategy in an era of persistent workforce challenges.
Q. What do you think that most food manufacturing executives are misunderstanding about today’s labor market, and how is that affecting their overall workplace strategies?
Jason Oswald: The gig economy has really shifted the general workforce. Companies like Uber and Lyft, and your local grocery store have all these flexible opportunities that compete directly with their workforce, and they need the strategy to be able to meet those types of workers where they’re at.
Prior to COVID, a lot of companies were working with just one or two agencies. Now they work with several just to be able to keep up with their hiring needs.
Q. What other external forces are going to have the biggest disruptive impact on the food manufacturing labor force in the next three to five years?
JO: There’s a lot going on right now — compliance, a focus on ICE, increased turnover, and difficulty replacing people.
We’ve seen a shift on the other side of this for companies that are onshoring labor. We have several clients that are actually building facilities. They have new opportunities coming back into the States, and they’re focusing on new expansions in ‘26 and ‘27.
Lastly, AI and automation are going to continue to be a part of workforce considerations. Companies are asking, “How can I do more with less?” Logistics and distribution are already taking advantage of the rapidly evolving technology. It’s something I think the food industry will also be looking at.
Q. What kind of strategies can executives adopt to build a more resilient workforce pipeline to help combat turnover and absenteeism?
JO: I mentioned earlier about companies working with multiple staffing agencies. A lot of them are using technology to help streamline that process, where they can have pipelines of talent set up, be able to rank talent, and get them engaged, as well as re-engage talent that worked for them previously.
It’s important that they have some sort of tool to keep track of this in one place. Doing it all through email with a Google Sheet or an Excel document isn’t going to work anymore. There’s just too many moving pieces at this point.
Q. Labor challenges can lead to things like productivity loss, compliance risks, and missing customer demand targets. What are some other hidden costs of a labor shortage that food industry executives underestimate?
JO: The big one is those short-term assignments where you bring in the worker, and they’re there for one or two days. By the time you get them up to speed with training, they’re gone.
Then there’s the costs of hiring internally versus working with staffing agencies as a partner. There are a lot of opportunities that come with staffing partners — they specialize in recruiting and can build deep relationships with workers to keep those pipelines full. They can also shift their talent pools around to accommodate multiple clients as their hiring needs fluctuate. Where one client may not need as many workers through a slower period, the next may need the extra support for a seasonal ramp — the agency already has the talent ready to fill in where needed.
Q. What are some other big opportunities for staffing agencies and food manufacturers to work together more strategically?
JO: We’ve got clients in this industry all across the country, and a lot of them are located in areas that aren’t convenient. Agencies can help come up with solutions like busing workers in, providing on-site services, and helping with onboarding.
Companies often use staffing agencies for a “try-before-you-buy” approach. They’ll have someone work for 60, 90 days, and then convert them to a full-time employee once they know they are a fit for their organization. That’s another really effective way to partner with an agency. Let them do the heavy lifting on the front end of recruiting and onboarding, then hire your preferred talent after you’ve had a chance to see how they work in your environment.
In general, staffing agencies, since they can specialize in one specific area like food manufacturing, are able to build deeper pipelines to recruit that type of talent.
Q. What makes staffing agencies uniquely positioned to support what has historically been the responsibility of an in-house HR team?
JO: They’re set up for high-volume transactional staffing. They’ve got the software in place, they’ve got recruiters that spend their entire day on recruiting and building that pipeline. They’re putting the advertising out, hosting job fairs, maintaining an online presence, and more to strengthen that network.
And, as I said earlier, if you’re working in the industry and you’ve got 25 clients and one client has less work, you have an opportunity to shift talent from one place to another. So now those workers can stay consistently employed. Whereas, some of these food manufacturing companies that get busy through peak seasons and have fall-offs struggle to keep that same level of consistency for those employees.
Q. How does technology, like VMS platforms, help manufacturers better align with their staffing agencies and manage costs, compliance, and workforce quality?
JO: This is the whole concept behind a VMS, to consolidate everything that you’re doing with your staffing agency. It tracks all of the job requisitions, so you can send them out to 10 agencies at the same time, have them filter talent back through, and then start tracking all of that information.
The compliance data has to be locked in before they start, so you can eliminate that risk out of the gate. You can then understand quickly who your best agencies are and which ones have more turnover or less tenure with their talent.
And then there are platforms, like ours, that have the capability to flexibly schedule your talent, so that you can have pools of talent that are pre-qualified and ready to go to work. If you need 10 people on Monday, four different agencies can alert talent who can take those shifts. This allows you to compete with the gig economy.
Q. Can you share an example of how a manufacturer has used staffing partnerships and technology together to help strengthen their labor strategy?
JO: Our customers that are working with multiple agencies run the orders directly through our flexible labor platform (called SimpleFLX) that allows them to do all that scheduling in one place. It consolidates it down so they can have a quick picture of their staffing pipeline, how much they’re spending on staffing, and where their best talent is. It’s the future of how staffing works, and it’s driven a lot of benefit for many of our clients.
Q. What advice would you give to a food industry executive looking to strengthen their relationship with their existing staffing agencies?
JO: You want an agency that’s looking to be a partner with you. You want to be able to tell them your plan and have open conversations about what your projected needs are and where you’re going.
A lot of times, clients that are working with these agencies don’t give them the full picture, and they don’t treat them like a partner. So let them know if you’re building a plant, thinking of expanding, etc. and task them with coming up with creative solutions. Whether you struggle with filling the night shift, you’ve got a remote location, or whatever it is, let them come in and provide more than just bodies. That’s what makes the relationship between agencies and their customers so beneficial.
Q. On the flip side, how can the food manufacturing facilities and their teams set themselves up for success before they enlist the help of staffing agencies?
JO: It starts with leadership. If you’re going to work with flexible staffing, you need to treat that talent the same as you treat your regular employees. They shouldn’t have different bathrooms, different vests, whatever it may be — that puts people off.
Companies can use this as a way to hire and increase their direct staff over time. Some people will want that flexible schedule, but there are others who want long-term work. You want to present those options. Leave room for advancement, so someone starting out as a picker-packer on the line could later become a supervisor or a lead.
Q. AI and automation are becoming more and more common in food manufacturing and processing plants. How are you seeing that relationship between technology and human labor shifting, and what should executives be doing now to prepare for that shift?
JO: I haven’t seen it as much in food manufacturing yet, at least with our clients, but we do have a couple companies that are opening up plants with more of that technology involved. I think you just need to be aware of it. You will probably need a similar number of employees, but they’ll be focused on different types of work. Let the robots handle the menial day-to-day type tasks, while the employees run the bigger equipment.
That’s going to continue to change as automation increases. The logistics space is already fully embracing that type of technology.
Q. Any other closing thoughts for our audience?
JO: We’ve been doing this for 15 years now, and it seems like it changes all the time. Just make sure that you’re building those deep relationships with agencies. That delivers the best staffing results over the long haul. The right agency becomes an extension of your business, and working with them as a true partner can make your job a little easier.
Credit: Source link
