Consumer Packaging Manufacturer Improves Q4 Efficiency, Employee Engagement, and Labor Cost Control With ShiftWorks

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Overview

A consumer packaging manufacturer entering its peak Q4 production season faced sustained pressure to meet elevated demand while maintaining operational efficiency, controlling labor costs, and preserving workforce morale. The company used Veryable’s Workforce Management (WFM) platform to align labor hours to production demand and track efficiency, throughput, and labor cost per unit. It also relied on Veryable’s on-demand labor marketplace to scale up and down with real-time demand and tackle high-volume days or last-minute surges.

Even with planning and flexible capacity in place, leadership identified a recurring challenge during Q4: short-notice attendance disruptions on scheduled shifts were creating overtime pressure, execution variability, and employee frustration during the busiest time of year.

To address this, the company implemented ShiftWorks, the mobile application within Veryable’s Workforce Management platform, with a specific focus on the Shift Release feature to improve day-of execution and the employee experience throughout peak season.

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Operational Challenges

The manufacturer operates multiple consumer packaging lines supporting retail and e-commerce customers. During Q4, production schedules are compressed, shifts are extended, and throughput targets leave little margin for error at shift start.

Labor hours were planned through WFM, and on-demand labor allowed the operation to scale with demand as volumes increased. However, when scheduled employees encountered last-minute conflicts caused by illness, family obligations, or transportation issues, coverage recovery relied on informal processes such as phone calls, text chains, and manual schedule edits.

These reactive workarounds frequently resulted in:

• Overtime added late in the shift to recover lost output
• Mid-shift adjustments that disrupted line flow
• Attendance points assessed even when employees attempted to resolve coverage themselves
• Declining morale among experienced operators during peak weeks

Leadership recognized that while demand planning and capacity scaling were well supported, attendance management at the shift level remained a significant source of cost and friction.

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Workforce Foundation: Planning and Scaling Capacity

Before Q4, the manufacturer had established a clear workforce operating model:

• Workforce Management was used to align labor hours with production demand and provide visibility into efficiency, throughput, and labor cost per unit, enabling leaders to manage execution against plan.
• On-demand labor was used to scale up and down with real-time demand, allowing the operation to address high-volume days and last-minute surges without overcommitting labor on slower days.

With this foundation in place, leadership turned its attention to stabilizing execution on scheduled shifts during peak season.

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Step 1: Deploy ShiftWorks to Centralize Day-Of Execution

Ahead of Q4, the manufacturer rolled out ShiftWorks to frontline employees and supervisors as the system of record for schedules, shift communication, and approvals.

With ShiftWorks in place:

• Employees had real-time visibility into schedules and open shifts
• Supervisors managed approvals and changes in a single system
• All schedule activity created a digital audit trail
• Informal texts, calls, and whiteboard updates were eliminated

This provided a shared, authoritative view of who was scheduled to work, reducing confusion before shifts even began.

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Step 2: Enable Shift Release to Handle Attendance Conflicts Without Disruption

Once ShiftWorks adoption stabilized, the company enabled Shift Release as the formal process for managing unavoidable attendance conflicts.

When an employee could not work a scheduled shift:

1. The employee initiated a Shift Release through the mobile app rather than calling off.
2. The released shift was surfaced only to eligible teammates, based on predefined rules such as work area, skills, certifications, and hour thresholds.
3. Supervisors reviewed and approved releases to ensure operational fit.
4. Once claimed and approved, the schedule updated automatically within Workforce Management.
5. Because coverage was maintained and policy followed, attendance points were not assessed.

This converted disruptive call-offs into controlled, auditable shift hand-offs that preserved coverage and standards.

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Operational and Workforce Impact During Q4

Throughout Q4, the impact of ShiftWorks and Shift Release was visible in daily execution.

Shifts were more likely to start fully covered, improving first-hour output and reducing downstream disruption. Attendance issues were resolved earlier in the cycle, which reduced reliance on last-minute overtime.

On-demand labor continued to be used to scale capacity up or down with real-time demand and last-minute surges. ShiftWorks ensured that attendance-related issues on scheduled labor did not undermine execution or morale.

From a workforce perspective, employees reported less stress and greater trust in attendance policies. Having a clear, fair process reduced resentment and improved engagement during the busiest time of the year.

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“We saw fewer blow-ups at shift start and far less overtime panic. Just as important, people stopped feeling like one sick kid or car issue was going to cost them their job.”

– Director of Operations

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Results (Q4 vs. Prior Year)

By the end of the Q4 peak period, the consumer packaging manufacturer achieved measurable, quantified improvements:

• Overtime hours reduced by 18%, primarily by avoiding last-hour coverage scrambles
• Attendance-point incidents decreased by 27%, as more conflicts were resolved through shift releases instead of call-offs
• Voluntary turnover declined by 14% during and immediately following Q4, particularly among experienced operators
• Packaging line efficiency increased by 6–9%, driven by more consistent shift starts and fewer mid-shift disruptions
• Labor cost per unit decreased by 5%, despite higher overall production volume

These gains complemented the company’s use of Workforce Management for labor alignment and on-demand labor for real-time scaling.

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Measuring What Matters

Post-Q4 analysis focused on metrics that mattered across Operations, HR, and Finance:

Leadership tracked:

• Shift release volume and fill rates
• Average time to fill released shifts
• Overtime hours avoided
• Attendance points avoided
• Turnover during and post-peak
• Labor cost per unit during highest-volume weeks

Because ShiftWorks operates within WFM, all changes flowed directly into operational reporting.

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Conclusion

For this consumer packaging manufacturer, Q4 success depended on more than planning for demand and scaling capacity. The missing piece was controlling what happened on the day of the shift. By implementing ShiftWorks, the company replaced reactive attendance handling with a clear, disciplined process that preserved coverage, reduced overtime, and improved morale during peak season. The result was steadier execution, lower labor costs, and a workforce that stayed engaged when it mattered most.