How to Get Ahead of the Summer Hiring Crunch: Workforce Planning for Q3/Q4

By the time July hits, it’s already too late. We’ve seen manufacturers scramble year after year, shuffling schedules, burning overtime, and plugging holes with rushed hires, only to limp through their busiest months. The seasonal pressure to meet rising demand without a clear labor strategy almost always leads to reactive decision-making, reduced morale, and unplanned expenses.

We all know the pattern. Summer arrives, demand surges, and the same fire drill kicks off:

• Open roles pile up
• Overtime costs skyrocket
• HR goes into reactive mode
• Supervisors get stretched thin

When these challenges stack up, they start to pull energy away from the areas that matter most. You end up managing a crisis instead of leading a strategy. And every hour spent putting out fires is an hour lost to building something stronger for the future.

But it doesn’t have to go that way.

Why April and May Are Make-or-Break Months

Most manufacturers will need to ramp up labor in Q3. Whether it’s to meet seasonal production, prepare for holiday fulfillment, or catch up from earlier delays, demand is coming. And if you are not already planning your labor strategy, you are putting your operation at risk.

When workforce planning lags, three things tend to suffer:

1. Retention – Burnout from short-staffing leads to avoidable turnover
2. Quality – Compressed training timelines result in more mistakes and slower ramp-up
3. Cost – Emergency staffing, overtime premiums, and inefficiencies hit the bottom line

None of these are surprises. They are patterns. And that means they can be anticipated, measured, and addressed.

A Hypothetical Scenario: What Happens When You Wait

Let’s say a manufacturer delays their summer ramp-up planning until mid-June. At first, it seems like everything will work out. But PTO requests begin to stack up. Attendance issues increase. Supervisors on second shift start rotating through temporary help with limited training. Turnover rises just when you need stability most. Training gets rushed. Output suffers.

By September, the team is stretched thin and leadership is looking for short-term fixes. Total overtime costs have climbed well past what was budgeted. Customers are pushing back on delays. The workforce is worn down, and morale is shaky.

Not because anyone made a bad decision. Just because the right decision came too late.

Now contrast that with a team that starts planning in April. They build a Q3 staffing forecast. They run a retention risk analysis. They work with a workforce partner who can layer in talent, manage onboarding timelines, and support frontline leaders. When summer arrives, they are not scrambling. They are executing.

That difference matters.

What Smart Operations Teams Are Doing Right Now

Across our clients, we are seeing several proactive moves that are helping manufacturers get ahead of the seasonal crunch. Here are four worth considering:

1. Run a Retention Risk Audit Start by identifying your most at-risk roles and employees. Who might leave in the next 60 to 90 days? What do you know about their current level of engagement, stress, and job satisfaction? If you had to backfill five roles today, which would cause the biggest disruption? Getting ahead of retention risks is more effective than throwing incentives at them after they’ve made up their mind to leave.

2. Forecast Labor Demand by Shift and Site Avoid general headcount planning. Break it down by site, department, and shift. Look at last year’s absentee patterns. What happens when school is out? When supervisors take vacation? When training overlaps with demand spikes? Build your plan based on real-world patterns, not ideal conditions.

3. Cross-Train for Flexibility Cross-training gives you agility. It also builds engagement, improves morale, and creates a sense of progression. The teams that fare best during high-pressure periods are often those with the most flexibility. It’s easier to hold the line when people can move into different roles confidently.

4. Engage Workforce Partners Early The best staffing partners do not just fill seats. They build plans. At Landrum Workforce Management, we help our clients layer in talent over time, assess workforce gaps, manage onboarding strategies, and even support frontline supervisors during high-stress transitions. But none of that can happen when the call comes in too late. The earlier we are involved, the more value we can add.

What Not to Do

As you prepare for Q3, here are a few common pitfalls to avoid:

• Waiting for open roles to appear before developing a hiring plan
• Assuming last year’s strategy will work this year
• Relying too heavily on sign-on bonuses without addressing team culture or shift structure
• Ignoring supervisor bandwidth and assuming they can absorb turnover

Good hiring plans are not just about candidates. They are about capacity, timing, and leadership alignment. When you wait too long, you lose all three.

Final Takeaway

Workforce issues are not solved in the moment. They are solved ahead of time. That means forecasting, building retention strategies, creating flexibility, and establishing clear partnerships with the people who help you hire, train, and lead.

You do not need a perfect plan. But you do need a timely one.

If your team is beginning to feel the pressure or you want to avoid repeating last year’s mistakes, now is the time to act. If you know this, but lack the bandwidth to address it proactively, that’s where a partner can help. Whether you need support in one facility or a full Q3 workforce strategy, Landrum Workforce Management is ready to help.

Let’s have the conversation while there’s still time to be strategic.