Reshoring is now a line item in a lot of capital plans, especially in pharmaceuticals, medical products and other regulated manufacturing. Moving a line or adding a site closer to your customers is a real decision with real money behind it. But the building is the easy part. The people are what decide whether it ever ships a compliant product.
If you are a plant manager, operations leader or owner weighing a move like this, here is how we would plan the workforce side.
Why the talent gap shows up first
A new or expanded site needs a specific set of people at roughly the same time:
- Quality assurance and quality control staff who can build and run the quality system
- Validation engineers for equipment, processes and cleaning
- Process and manufacturing engineers
- Regulatory affairs support
- Maintenance and skilled trades who can keep new equipment running
- Production supervisors and operators who can be trained fast
These are the same roles every other company with a reshoring plan is chasing. In both Canada and the US, experienced quality and validation people are already scarce, and they tend to be employed and not looking. Posting an ad and waiting rarely works for them.
Sequence the hires, not just the budget
Most delays we see come from hiring in the wrong order. A workable sequence looks like this:
- Quality and regulatory leadership first. They set the standards everyone else builds to. Hiring them late means rework.
- Validation and process engineering next. These roles are often the critical path for start-up, and they can be filled on contract while you build a permanent team.
- Maintenance and skilled trades before production ramps. Equipment that is installed but unsupported sits idle.
- Production and supervisory staff last, in waves. Tie each wave to a training and qualification schedule.
Work backward from your target start-up date and assign a hire-by date to each group. Then check those dates against how long these searches really take in your market.
Use contract talent where it fits
Validation, commissioning and project engineering work is often a defined scope with an end date. That makes it a natural fit for contract specialists. You get experienced people on day one, and you avoid carrying headcount you do not need once the project is complete.
The trade-off is knowledge. When a contractor leaves, what they know about your systems can leave with them. Build documentation and handover into the scope, and decide early which roles should convert to permanent.
Plan for the cross-border pieces
Employers in Canada and the US face slightly different pressures.
- In the US, incentives and policy attention on domestic production are pulling many projects forward at once, which tightens the market for the same specialists.
- In Canada, the pool is smaller and concentrated in a few regions, so relocation, TN or other work authorization questions, and cross-border hiring come up sooner.
If your plan depends on candidates from the other side of the border, deal with work authorization and timelines before you make offers, not after.
Pay for the roles that carry risk
A quality failure at a new site is expensive. It can pause production while corrective actions are worked through. That is why it rarely pays to under-hire in quality or to match pay to your older sites. Benchmark against the current market for the specific role and region, and be ready to adjust. A candidate with start-up experience is worth more than one who has only worked in a mature, stable plant.
Don't forget the ones you already have
A reshoring project can unsettle the team you already employ. People wonder about their role, their shift, their site. Tell them early what is changing and where the growth opportunities are. Promoting experienced operators into trainer, lead or technician roles is often faster and more reliable than hiring all of it from outside.
We have seen this at scale in food manufacturing. A food manufacturer in the GTA made over 20 hires in 18 months across production, skilled trades and office roles. That worked because the hiring was planned in stages around the operation, not done in a rush.
What to do next
Before you commit to a timeline, list every role the new capacity needs, mark which ones are on the critical path, and put a realistic hire-by date next to each. Decide which are permanent and which are contract. Then test those dates against the market. If any of them look tight, start those searches now. A Traverse recruiter can help you scope the roles and find the people.