Forge Talent Systems

FORGE

Workforce strategy and talent supply chain design for operations-intensive companies.

Forge helps operational companies reduce dependency on external labor markets by designing internal talent supply chains for specialized roles. We architect the system. Your team operates it.

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The Problem

The workforce equation in operations-heavy companies is broken in a specific, expensive way.

Specialized roles sit open for months. The team covers with overtime. Contractors fill the gap at a premium. The frontline workforce hits a ceiling and walks. Most operators have never put a real dollar figure on what any of it costs.

Lost throughput

Every unfilled specialized seat costs thousands per day in units, jobs, and prescriptions not moving.

Overtime burn

The existing team absorbs the gap. Supervisors work 70-hour weeks. The cost shows up in burnout and attrition.

Quiet attrition

Frontline workers see no path up. They walk for a dollar-an-hour raise across the street. You lose the people who already know your operation.

What Forge Does

We design the workforce system. Your team operates it.

Forge architects and stands up internal reskilling programs that move existing frontline workers into certified, specialized roles. We are the system designers. Certified training partners deliver instruction. Your L&D and operations teams run the program at scale.

Diagnose

Quantify the math

Cost-of-vacancy modeling. Workforce-to-role mapping. Pipeline health assessment. The defensible economics that justify (or rule out) the program.

Design

Architect the system

Curriculum framework, candidate selection model, role-mapping, measurement framework. A complete operating system your team could run.

Handoff

Transfer the operating model

Operating cadence, decision rights, measurement framework, and a trained Program Owner. Your team runs it from there. Forge steps out.

How We Work

Four phases. One operating system.

Each phase earns the right to the next. We never quote a program price before the diagnostic, and we never recommend a program without a defensible ROI case.

Diagnose

Weeks

Quantify the cost of unfilled specialized roles. Map your workforce against role requirements. Deliver a Go / No-Go recommendation.

Design

Months

Build the curriculum, vet partners, design the operating model, create the measurement framework. A complete program your team could run.

Pilot

Months

Launch the first cohort. Refine the operating model with live data. Train the Program Owner. Hand it off.

Scale

Optional

Expand to additional roles. Move into broader workforce strategy work. Only when the pilot earns it.

The Numbers

Days specialized roles sit open. And getting longer.

Industry benchmarks for specialized roles. The diagnostic measures yours.

Average US role
(SHRM 2025)

Maintenance
technician

60+

Credentialed
technician roles

90+

Hardest-to-replace
(often 120+)

Run Your Own Numbers

Cost of Vacancy Calculator

A free, interactive calculator. Punch in your role, the days specialized seats sit open, your assumptions. See the annual cost of the seats you are not closing — and the savings achievable with an internal reskilling program.

Open the Calculator →

The Founder

Built for operators, by an operator.

Jonathan Nguyen

Founder, Forge Talent Systems

Workforce strategist and talent systems operator with experience building internal talent ecosystems across manufacturing, healthcare, e-commerce, pharmacy, automotive, and defense-adjacent environments. The pattern repeats: specialized roles open for months, a capable frontline workforce stuck below them, and a workforce function structured to fill seats rather than build pipelines.

Forge Talent Systems exists because the work to fix that pattern — done with the operator's economics in mind rather than the consultant's — did not exist in a form a COO could actually buy. Forge is that firm.

Columbus, OH

Get in Touch

Start with the number.

A scoped diagnostic that quantifies what your unfilled specialized roles are actually costing the business. If the math does not pencil, we will tell you.

Jonathan@ForgeTalentSystems.com

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Book a call if you'd like to talk through your situation directly. Send the intake form if you'd prefer to share context in writing first and have us follow up.