Total workforce strategy boosts compliance by 91%

Situation

A global food manufacturing organization needed to fill a high volume of roles across 25 locations that called for specialized, in-demand skills, and it needed to happen fast. Production lines depended on it as any delay in hiring meant a real risk of downtime which would result in loss of revenue.

The hardest roles to fill were maintenance technicians in a location with a limited talent pool and strong competition for skilled workers. The client’s internal recruiting team was making progress, but the urgency of the demand called for more capacity.

The organization ran permanent and contingent hiring programs as separate efforts. Without a shared view across both, sourcing work was sometimes duplicated. The same candidates risked being approached twice, and no one had a complete picture of hiring.

Solution

The company first engaged PeopleScout as its RPO partner for permanent hiring. On the strength of that program’s results, it expanded the scope to include contingent hiring, bringing both workforces under one total workforce strategy with MSP and RPO teams working from a single plan and shared accountability.

The two teams started by identifying the most critical contingent hiring gaps and workforce constraints, then engaged suppliers with a strong local presence and access to the talent pools the client needed. Supplier staffing calls were conducted to align hiring requirements, market conditions, and sourcing strategy before the work began.

To find maintenance technician talent, the MSP team negotiated a targeted sourcing strategy that allowed select suppliers to support direct sourcing alongside the RPO team. Participation was deliberately limited to suppliers with a proven track record on performance and candidate quality, so the client’s openings reached the right candidates without oversaturating a small local market.

Throughout, PeopleScout’s dedicated program management office (PMO) kept the manufacturer’s internal team and the PeopleScout RPO team informed with daily updates on candidate activity, actions taken, hiring progress, and upcoming start dates. On the MSP side, the PMO held frequent status reviews to help set clear supplier expectations, drive accountability, surface issues early, and keep decisions moving at the pace the deadline demanded.

The program also strengthened the client’s recruitment foundations. At launch, PeopleScout ran a full new hire onboarding audit to establish a compliance baseline and pinpoint process and documentation gaps. Corrective actions, tighter onboarding controls, standardized processes, and ongoing program governance have improved performance every year since.

Results

• All hiring demand was fulfilled ahead of the required deadline, with no disruption to production lines.
• Approximately 40% of staffing requests were filled the same day they were received.
• 35% of maintenance technician placements were filled through direct hire, expanding access to a scarce skill set.
• Onboarding compliance improved from 77% to 98%.
• 91% reduction in identified compliance deficiencies overall, strengthening audit readiness and lowering risk.

Our Total Talent approach helped the client successfully address ongoing workforce demands in a highly competitive labor market. The manufacturer gained broader access to talent, more agility on hard-to-fill roles, and a more reliable onboarding experience. Most importantly, it kept production running through a period of high-demand hiring.