By Renee Larr
Global Packaging in Westfield was recently named among the recipients of the 2017 WorkOne Achievement Awards. The awards were presented to companies that utilized WorkOne services for training, hiring and economic development.
Global Packaging is an affiliate of Global Forming and Global Plastics.
“We’re a private label packager for the food industry. We package salt and pepper shakers, sea salt and a variety of other spices. We sell to the top 70 percent of grocery stores,” said Dave Simonett, general manager for Global Packaging.
Global Packaging was struggling to find employees and felt it had exhausted many unique options before turning to WorkOne for assistance.
“We started working with WorkOne trying to find people to fill positions at Global Plastics and Global Packaging. In our industry, we’re in need of people. We’ve tried a lot of different ways to find employees,” Simonett said. “We’ve gone to churches. We’ve tried temporary help agencies. Because of the relationships I had with them many years ago, I went to the Hamilton County WorkOne. It resulted in us making arrangements with them and finding employees.”
WorkOne offered more insight as to why Global Packaging was chosen as an award recipient.
“In the past year, Global Packaging has hired six WorkOne clients, five of whom completed the On-The-Job Training program,” said Kayli Schroeder, communications associate. “Global Packaging and WorkOne Hamilton County continue their partnership and communicate on a regular basis regarding their staffing needs and the availability of qualified clients. The company’s willingness to hire people of diverse cultures and backgrounds is commendable.”
Simonett appreciates the award but credits WorkOne for assisting the company in finding recruits during the economic downturn.
“I think it’s nice to be recognized for our efforts, but in all honesty, they’re helping us. We’ve all read about the high unemployment rate, but we had difficulty finding people for entry level manufacturing jobs. We were looking everywhere. We’re just trying to give people opportunities,” Simonett said.
For more, visit http://in.gov/dwd/WorkOne.
