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Use this 90-day checklist to identify where work could stall, where your team is stretched too thin, and where staffing support could help. Complete each section to protect critical output, reduce avoidable pressure, and keep essential work moving.

Section 1: Define the Output You Need to Protect

Over the next 90 days, our most important business outcomes are:

 

The work that absolutely cannot slip includes:

• Customer service / response times
• Production / fulfillment
• Sales support
• Administrative processing
• Compliance deadlines
• Payroll / billing
• Recruiting / onboarding
• Critical projects
• Other:

If this work slows down, the likely impact will be:

• Lost revenue
• Customer dissatisfaction
• Employee burnout
• Overtime costs
• Quality issues
• Missed deadlines
• Safety or compliance risk
• Other:

Section 2: Spot Your Bottlenecks Before They Break Something

The departments or roles where work is already backing up are:

 

The main causes of these bottlenecks are:

• Not enough people
• Open positions
• Absences / call-offs
• Skill gaps
• Too much manual work
• Too many approvals
• Unclear ownership
• One person knows how to do the work
• Managers covering too much frontline work
• Other:

The person, process, or role we are most dependent on right now is:

 

If that person/process/role became unavailable, what would happen?

 

Action to reduce this bottleneck:

• Crosstrain another employee
• Document the process
• Reassign lower-priority work
• Add temporary support
• Bring in specialized contract help
• Start recruiting for a backup or replacement
• Other:

Section 3: Plan for the Unexpected

In the next 90 days, we may need to prepare for:

• Employee resignations
• Vacations / PTO
• Illnesses / call-offs
• Seasonal spikes
• New customer demand
• Project launches
• Hiring delays
• Overtime fatigue
• Budget changes
• Compliance deadlines
• Other:

The roles that would be hardest to cover quickly are:

 

Why would they be hard to cover?

• Specialized skills required
• Hard-to-find talent
• Long onboarding time
• No internal backup
• High turnover role
• Requires certification or screening
• Other:

Our backup plan for these roles is:

 

Section 4: Protect Your Workers' Sanity

The teams or employees showing signs of strain are:

 

Signs we are seeing include:

• Increased overtime
• More errors or rework
• Missed deadlines
• Lower morale
• More call-offs
• Slower response times
• Frustration between departments
• Managers constantly stepping in
• High performers carrying too much
• Other:

The work we could pause, reduce, automate, delegate, or outsource includes:

 

To reduce pressure on our team, we will:

• Clarify top priorities
• Stop or delay lower-value work
• Reduce unnecessary meetings
• Add administrative support
• Bring in temporary help
• Adjust schedules
• Crosstrain employees
• Rebalance workloads
• Ask managers what support they need
• Other:

Notes:

Section 5: Choose the Right Staffing Support

Based on our risks, the best type of staffing support may be:

• Temporary staffing for immediate workload relief, absences, seasonal demand, or backlogs.
• Temp-to-hire when we need help now but want to evaluate long-term fit.
• Direct hire for critical roles that require long-term stability.
• Contract/project support for specialized work, discrete initiatives, defined deliverables, or short-term initiatives.
• Payrolling/onboarding support if we have selected workers but need employment administration help.
• Recruiting consultation to evaluate hard-to-fill roles, pay rates, market availability, and hiring timelines.

The roles we may need help filling are:

Role	Needed By	Type of Support	Priority

Questions to ask our staffing partner:

• How quickly can you help us fill these roles?
• Are our pay rates competitive?
• What skills are realistic in today's market?
• Which roles are best suited for temporary support?
• Which roles should we recruit for permanently?
• How can we reduce time-to-fill?
• What screening or onboarding steps can you manage?
• How can we prepare before demand spikes?

Section 6: Build Your 90-Day Action Plan

Final Review: Are You Protected?

Before you close this plan, answer these five questions:

If you check "No" to any of these, start there. That is where your output is most vulnerable.