Guidance on building a flexible workforce

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Guidance on building a flexible workforce

18 Apr 2025

Commercial Baking Staff

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David Pelyhes, business partner at JPG, developed critical talent assessment skills through progressively more responsible roles on the plant floor and R&D leadership. He combines those experiences with knowledge of multiple food platforms and large CPG reorganizations to provide clients a clear view of the talent that will best fit their situation. Contact him at david@jpgresources.com.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Your brand just had a fantastic quarter, and the sales and marketing teams have secured a flood of orders. With higher quantities and tight deadlines, supply chain and operations teams need to scale — fast.

Most companies struggle to handle a sudden rush of orders, resulting in unexpected challenges. Without a flexible team, they end up fighting fires rather than strategically planning for the long term.

During the pandemic, people tried new ways of working, including taking on more freelance and contract work. A recent survey by Korn Ferry indicated that the number of global interim or short-term workers grew from 43 million in 2018 to roughly 78 million in 2023. The report also suggested that a 70/30 split between full-time and contract workers creates a team with the ideal mix.

Three fractional experts with JPG Talent shared the benefits of a flexible workforce and what it’s like to jump in, fill gaps and provide specialist expertise.

Increased speed and responsiveness to challenges

If a company gets a sudden rush of orders or when an important team member leaves, it’s important to promptly respond. Being ready to hire in a non-traditional way allows companies to bridge the gaps.

Fractional hires save time and resources because of a shorter onboarding period. Ultimately, a flexible workforce provides the ability to scale along with operations and the agility to evolve as supply chain needs fluctuate.

Marko Matla, a supply chain and operations professional, used his skills to help a baby pouch manufacturer with quality issues that arose when orders increased.

“They were in the middle of contracts and manufacturing negotiations,” Matla said. “They were also having quality issues with some of their pouches they had out of recall. There was a lot to solve all at once, and the issues were causing ‘out of stocks’ in the marketplace, which is never good.”

Matla came in to run operations while the company looked for a new COO. Being able to lean on
his experience in the meantime allowed the company to solve its quality issues and keep processing orders.

A mix of full-time, part-time and fractional employees offers the right balance for fast-growing businesses, allowing them to adapt quickly to busy periods and take on valuable extra projects without overextending a team.

Improved cost efficiency and productivity

With flexible working arrangements, companies only pay for the time needed from a hire. If the budget allows for 25% of someone’s time, it’s harder to hire internally. With fractional talent, a company can hire for a project or short-term need.

“They could take projects on internally, but it’s such a big learning curve that it would take much longer for an internal team to do that,” explained Beth Brown, a 20-year veteran of supply chain, procurement and operations roles. “It’s not cost-efficient. They’re taking their resources and utilizing them in ways that don’t make sense for the organization.”

Brown addressed the common misconception that contract hires are more expensive than internal resources.

“Often, companies will try to take on these projects and ask individuals on the internal team to start the project only to realize that it is a full-time job and what’s really needed is additional help with specialized expertise,” she said.

Access to specialized industry expertise

Fractional hiring gives companies unique access to experts and specialists. Much of the leading talent is highly skilled, mission-oriented and project-based. These experts can quickly assess a situation and strategize from day one.

Andrew Bott has 15 years of CPG experience, specializing in solving complex supply chain and operations problems for growing companies. He joined a seven-employee company as a fractional expert.

“Before I joined the team, the company’s founder and CEO was handling a lot of the operations work,” Bott said. “She needed bandwidth on the operations side because it wasn’t her specialty. Specialists understand how to scale. They’ve seen things happen multiple times in different environments. They know what can — and will — go wrong and can help companies navigate and avoid some of the potential pitfalls.”

Not overloading the team

Bringing in additional short-term support allows a team to focus on its core competencies and helps reduce mistakes.

“Mid- to large-size companies typically have the right staffing in place, but they don’t usually have project staffing or project managers,” Brown said. “So when they have new projects, specifically strategic projects, staff must work on a project in addition to their existing roles.”

Matla shared an example of when he brought in four additional hires to sort out supply chain, distribution and fulfillment issues. The additional staff allowed the existing team to focus on keeping the business running while the interim experts worked on sales and operations planning.

“If you don’t have your operations settled zero to six months out, then you can’t look at what your projections are,” he said. “They were in the business of firefighting. No one had time to slow down and give a thought because they were always rushing.”

Bringing in seasoned professionals to identify the most pressing issues allowed for more strategic long-term planning.

“We removed all the noise that was happening on a daily basis and operations flowed a lot better,” Matla added.

A mix of full-time, part-time and fractional employees offers the right balance for fast-growing businesses, allowing them to adapt quickly to busy periods and take on valuable extra projects without overextending a team.

This story has been adapted from the February | Q1 2025 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.

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