Contributed by Marygrace Taylor
KANSAS CITY, MO — Pies, cookies and dinner rolls, oh my. October through December is the busiest time of year for retail bakers, thanks to late fall and winter holidays. They roll around at the same time every year, and advance planning is the secret to a successful season.
“Our volume increases significantly, sometimes doubling or tripling compared to the rest of the year,” said Matt Adams, area director of Polly’s Pies in Orange County, CA. “To meet that demand, we scale up our team accordingly. It’s a coordinated effort that requires planning well in advance to ensure we’re fully staffed and ready to execute with precision.”
Here’s how Polly’s Pies and other seasoned bakery owners pull off their Q4 labor needs.
Starting the search
Start wrangling seasonal hires in early fall. High school and college students who work for the bakery over the summer are always a go-to, as are culinary and baking school students seeking seasonal externships.
Brian Pansari, owner of La Bon Bake Shoppes in Whitehouse Station, NJ, looks to retired people and those who work jobs that tend to be quieter during the winter months.
“People who work with farms or farmers markets are super busy during the summer, but they may be looking for work in the winter,” he said.
Reviewing labor data and relying on past experience are good guides for figuring out seasonal labor needs. That includes combing through product demand by day part, staffing patterns, and the number of business days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. With that insight, bakery owners can decide how many people they need to hire and create shift schedules that support peak production windows.
“We rely heavily on historical sales data and performance metrics from previous years,” Matt said. “We analyze what worked well and what may have fallen short.”
Keep notes throughout the holiday season. In January, take stock of what worked and what didn’t, and make changes for next time.
“Ask employees, including seasonal ones, to write down problems as they encounter them,” Brian recommended. “Even if they don’t have a solution, you can problem-solve later.”
Play to workers’ strengths
Be strategic about training. One way to make the best use of labor, whether seasonal or permanent, is to assign people focused tasks that play to their skills.
“It’s rare these days to find applicants with prior baking experience, so we focus more on potential than a resume,” Matt said. “With the right training and support, even those without formal experience can thrive in a bakery role.”
High-volume tasks that are repetitive and relatively simple keep temporary employees from becoming overwhelmed and give seasoned employees the opportunity to do something different.
“Maybe they’ll just work on pumpkin pie filling, which frees up our year-round employees to do more complex stuff,” Brian said. “Or if they’re on the retail side, have them bag orders or assemble cookie trays so a more experienced employee can take orders and deal with customers.”
The holiday season’s grinding pace can wear on all bakery employees. While it may not always be possible to avoid marathon shifts, reassigning employees to different tasks can help keep them engaged.
“If someone is working an 11-hour shift, they’re not going to be doing the same quality of work the whole time,” said Iliana Berkowitz, founder and owner of As Kneaded Bakery in San Leandro, CA.
“On big production days, I’ll order food so people don’t have to think about cooking dinner. It’s a small gesture, but when things get hectic, it can go a long way toward boosting employee morale.”
A successful Q4 requires thinking ahead — and looking back — when it comes to fulfilling staffing needs. Bakers who spend Q2 reviewing past labor needs and actively engage in hiring during Q3 will be ready to meet the influx of customers and sales that arrive with the winter holidays.
This story has been adapted from the September | Q3 2025 Craft to Crumb mini-mag. Read the full story in the digital issue here.
