Northgate Manufacturing Drive
Volume hiring for a new production line — every shift staffed before launch day.
Staffing a New Line from Zero
Northgate was opening a second production line and needed operators, shift leads, and maintenance technicians hired, trained, and ready before the equipment went live. The timeline was fixed — the launch date could not move.
Tight Labor Market, Fixed Deadline
Skilled operators were scarce locally, and night shifts are always hardest to fill. Previous hiring attempts had produced high early turnover, so retention mattered as much as speed.
Shift-by-Shift Delivery
Role Calibration
Walked the floor with supervisors to define exactly what good looked like per station.
Community Sourcing
Reached beyond job boards into trade programs and referral networks for steady pipelines.
Retention Design
Shift differentials and onboarding buddies cut the early-quit pattern from prior attempts.
The line launched fully staffed, night shifts included, and first-quarter retention ran well ahead of the plant’s previous hiring rounds. Northgate kept Copperleaf on for ongoing maintenance-tech searches.
Daniel Whitfield — Co-Founder, Northgate