Packaging machinery makers build filling, sealing, labelling and cartoning machines for plants that cannot afford a stopped line. The visit after dispatch matters as much as the build.
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Share your requirementsA packaging machinery maker builds machines that fill, seal, wrap, label or carton food, medicines, chemicals and consumer goods. The shop cuts frames, guards and change parts, assembles mechanisms, fits motors, sensors and PLC panels, then runs the machine on the customer's own sample pack before dispatch. Buyers are brand owners and contract packers who want the line earning quickly. Work goes on after commissioning: spares, breakdown calls and format changeovers for new pack sizes. Service engineers are always on the road, and the few who can tune a machine to a new film or bottle are known to rival makers. Related reading: manufacturing HR.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in packaging machinery makers. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
A stopped customer line brings a call at short notice, so engineers leave for days and the shop loses its best fault-finders.
A machine that runs well on the sample may jam on the customer's film or bottle, and the knack of curing it sits with a handful of fitters.
Delivery dates for format kits and spares are committed on the phone, and stores and assembly absorb the squeeze.
Alignment, timing and sensor settings are learnt on live machines, and a half-trained fitter creates field complaints.
Hours of lost output at a customer's plant become a complaint to the owner, and the engineer takes the blame on the phone.
An engineer who knows your machines and your customers is easy to approach, and the customer relationships go with them.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Retention and Attrition Management; Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Onboarding and Probation. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
How many people, in which roles, by when, and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes, one for complaints, one for conduct, kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a packaging machinery makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Who goes, which spares travel with them, how long they stay and how the visit report is filed.
Who goes, which spares travel with them, how long they stay and how the visit report is filed. Rest and travel days follow the shift and leave rules.
A scale based on which machine families each person can set up and fault-find alone, linked to pay.
A scale based on which machine families each person can set up and fault-find alone, linked to pay. See pay benchmarking.
A standard list of tests on the customer's sample product, signed by the fitter and the inspector before the machine is crated.
A standard list of tests on the customer's sample product, signed by the fitter and the inspector before the machine is crated.
A short learning path with a senior fitter as guide and a check at each stage.
A short learning path with a senior fitter as guide and a check at each stage. The onboarding process can carry it.
A review of repeat faults on an agreed schedule so assembly learns from the field and engineers feel heard.
A review of repeat faults on an agreed schedule so assembly learns from the field and engineers feel heard. Use HR reporting to track the pattern.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Pay for service engineers and fitters set against other machine makers, so a rival's offer is easier to resist.
A step-by-step learning path for new fitters and service engineers, one machine family at a time.
Plain rules for call-outs, travel days and compensatory rest for engineers who spend long stretches on the road.
Monthly figures on travel days, repeat faults and exits, so owners can see the pattern.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator can struggle as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead article
Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
6 min readRead article
A first-week plan for bringing in an outside specialist: what access to give, how to protect client data, and the confidentiality steps to settle on day one.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Offer a clear grade, fair pay for travel days and a hand in planning visits. Engineers stay where they are trusted and their time away is recognised.
A written scheme beats private deals. Decide when rest is given and how extra hours are logged, and check the details with a qualified professional.
Pair each with a senior on one machine family at a time, and set a short list of skills to show before moving on. Review progress monthly.
The trial used a sample, and the customer's own product behaves differently. Test on the real film or bottle where you can, and record the settings.
Not necessarily, but they need a regular look at field faults together. When assembly hears the repeats, the same problems stop returning.
We start by counting your engineers' days on site, asking your best fitters what only they can tune and reading recent service reports for repeat faults. A call-out routine and a fitter grade scale make a fair opening piece of work, with scope put in writing afterwards.
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