Ethan Allen Workforce Solutions

10/15/2026

Q4 staffing needs rarely come as a surprise. Holiday demand, PTO, call-outs, and tighter coverage happen every year.

What does create problems is waiting until your team is already stretched thin to start looking for help.

By then, you are hiring under pressure and competing for many of the same workers as everyone else.

If you know you may need extra support this fall, now is the time to start planning.

10/13/2026

Holiday hiring didn’t start in October.

Manufacturing and logistics employers began ramping up months ago, which means Hudson Valley businesses planning for Q4 now need to be especially thoughtful about where they add people.

The answer isn’t necessarily to hire everywhere. It’s knowing where added capacity will make the biggest difference without unnecessarily increasing labor costs.

Our latest article breaks down five steps to help you build a smarter staffing plan for the year-end push. [link to blog post]

10/08/2026

Are you experienced in cycle counting and warehouse inventory control? We’ve got an opening for an Inventory Counter in Wappingers Falls, NY.

$21/hr | Full-Time | Temp-to-Perm

We’re looking for someone with at least 3 years of hands-on inventory experience who can maintain accurate stock counts, investigate discrepancies, and keep up with daily counting deadlines. You’ll also use scanners and warehouse systems and operate a cherry picker and forklift as part of the role.

If you’re detail-oriented, comfortable in a fast-paced warehouse environment, and looking for a stable full-time opportunity, take a look at the job details and apply today: https://eaworkforce.com/job-board/ #/

10/06/2026

Before you add more people for Q4, look at what your operation is already telling you.

Backlogs. Delays. Product flow. Recurring bottlenecks.

For Hudson Valley manufacturers, warehouses and distribution operations preparing for year-end demand, those signals can help pinpoint where additional labor will actually improve output.

Because overhiring hurts margins. Underhiring creates bottlenecks. And hiring in the wrong place can do both.

Our latest article walks through how to put that information to work in your Q4 staffing plan. https://eaworkforce.com/q4-staffing-plan/

10/05/2026

A smart Q4 staffing plan protects your margins before holiday volume hits.

Most organizations either overhire across the floor or overcorrect for specific shortages. Both create the same result: bottlenecks, slowdowns, and inflexibility.

We broke down 5 steps to prepare your warehouse or production floor for the season ahead.

Read the full breakdown and download our Workforce Planning Guide:

https://loom.ly/0gWuabE

Build a Q4 staffing plan that avoids over-hiring and under-hiring before the holiday rush hits.

09/30/2026

Organizations are staffing up for the holiday rush, and the competition is leading them to cut corners to move faster.

Although hiring quickly is important, it can create long-term costs, reduce production quality and volume, and cause friction on your team.

Over time, these costs add up, sometimes so much that it can cancel out the benefits of moving fast in the first place.

You need to grow and you need to be able to backfill when team members move on, so what can you do?

We discussed these challenges and some of the clever ways organizations are recruiting top talent without cutting corners:

[link to blog post]

09/24/2026

Organizations try to shorten recruitment cycles because they feel the urgency to backfill or to grow their team.

However, this doesn’t mean that rushing things is the best approach.

In fact, cutting corners can end up costing you more, as you make the wrong hire and lose productive cycles.

The key is finding balance. We created a resource that allows organizations to estimate the costs of a bad hire versus a long-term absence: https://eaworkforce.com/workforce-cost-assessment/

09/22/2026

The average time to hire is 44 days. Most organizations aim to move much faster than that.

But hiring faster isn’t the same as hiring well. What if you make a hire in under 44 days by skipping some steps, and then the hire isn’t up to the challenge?

All the benefits of getting a person on the job faster are undone by lowered productivity, hits to team morale, and extra resources for training.

Worst case, you end up needing to hire someone else, and the clock starts over.

Our new comparison worksheet allows you to predict how much a missed hire costs and compare that to the cost of a long-term absence: https://eaworkforce.com/workforce-cost-assessment/

09/21/2026

Which costs more: a bad hire or an extended vacancy?

The answer isn’t as straightforward as you may think.

Extended vacancies often burden teams with overwork, hurting both productivity and morale.

But bad hires can lead to costly errors, rework, wasted materials, and wasted supervisor time correcting mistakes.

Both are cost centers, and it’s important to weigh them as such when making strategic workforce decisions.

Read our latest article for our tips on navigating this hiring challenge: https://loom.ly/l-zWGu8

The cost of a bad hire is often more than leaving a position open for too long. Here are some of the reasons why, and how to avoid it.

09/17/2026

One of the biggest hiring misconceptions we hear is 'hiring can wait until the end of the year'.

In reality, September is one of the best times to bring on new talent. Summer vacations are winding down, candidates who paused their job search are becoming active again, and employers still have time to build up their team before the holiday rush.

Waiting until November or December often means competing with year-end hiring, tighter timelines, and a smaller talent pool.

If you're hoping to hire before the end of the year, you need to start now.

Question: Does your organization typically ramp up hiring in the fall, or do you wait until the end of the year?