The Situation
Hormel's ham-boning plant needed to hire 120 production workers within three months. Attrition had risen to 30–40%, federal stimulus was compressing the effective wage gap between working and not working, and management was genuinely unsure whether the location could attract enough qualified labor at any wage — or whether consolidating or relocating operations was the only viable path forward.
The stakes were significant: if the location couldn't support the headcount, the right answer was to move or consolidate. If it could — with the right wage adjustments and recruitment strategies — then a costly and disruptive move could be avoided entirely. What leadership needed was a definitive answer, not more uncertainty.
The Approach
We conducted a workforce assessment and wage feasibility analysis designed to answer one specific question: is it possible for Hormel to attract enough qualified labor at this location by raising wages, or is the supply problem structural? We interviewed hiring managers at the five largest regional employers competing for similar positions, as well as economic development stakeholders with direct visibility into regional hiring conditions.
We benchmarked occupational wage rates at the 25th percentile, average, and 75th percentile levels across target SOC codes including food cooking machine operators, food processing workers, industrial machine mechanics, and maintenance workers. In-depth labor supply and demand modeling was performed across 20-, 40-, and 60-minute drive-time geographies from the facility, producing a granular picture of available workforce at each distance band.
The analysis didn't just answer "can we hire here" — it told the client what wages to pay, how to reach the available labor pool, and what retention strategies had worked for comparable employers in the same market.