Plastic mould makers build the steel tools that injection and blow moulders run. One tool takes weeks of skilled work, and a master toolmaker is among the most poached craftsmen in manufacturing.
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Share your requirementsA plastic mould and tooling maker designs and builds steel moulds, dies and fixtures for injection and blow moulding units. The path runs from part drawing and mould design to roughing and finishing on CNC and milling machines, spark erosion (EDM) of fine details, hand fitting, polishing, assembly and a trial shot with correction before delivery. A tool may take weeks or months and is paid in stages. The mould designer, senior toolmaker, EDM operator and polisher each hold skills built over years. Customers press for early delivery, and trial corrections fall on the same few people. See also HR for manufacturing.
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 plastic mould and tooling 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.
The handful who can fit and correct a complex mould are known across the cluster and approached regularly.
High-gloss and mirror-finish polishing needs patience, and younger workers prefer machine jobs.
Faults seen in the first trial shot send the tool back for hours of work, and the same people carry each correction.
Drawings arrive with little thought for how the tool will be cut and fitted, so toolmakers redo what screen review could have fixed.
A large tool may occupy a team for months, then work thins, and idle weeks cause quiet worry about pay.
Firms train toolmakers for years and then lose them to a rival or to a workshop of their own.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Career and Succession Management; Learning and Development; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
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.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
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 plastic mould and tooling makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Levels from helper to master toolmaker, with the tasks and tolerance expected at each, tied to pay.
Levels from helper to master toolmaker, with the tasks and tolerance expected at each, tied to pay. See compensation benchmarking.
A multi-year route with a mentor, pay steps and checkpoints so apprentices see a future.
A multi-year route with a mentor, pay steps and checkpoints so apprentices see a future. See learning and development.
The senior toolmaker reviews each new mould design with the designer before the first cut is made.
The senior toolmaker reviews each new mould design with the designer before the first cut is made.
One view of tools in progress and expected trials so the shop can balance hands and overtime.
One view of tools in progress and expected trials so the shop can balance hands and overtime. See workforce planning.
Distinct grades, good equipment and protection from fine dust and dielectric fluid.
Distinct grades, good equipment and protection from fine dust and dielectric fluid. See health, safety and wellbeing.
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.
A craft grade for toolmakers, EDM operators and polishers set against the local market.
A multi-year apprentice path so trained toolmakers stay and grow.
A view of the tool queue and trials so hands and overtime are planned.
A plan for what happens when a master toolmaker or designer leaves.
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
A two-hour exercise that names the roles you could not fill quickly, who could cover them, and what readiness would actually require.
7 min readRead article
A founder's guide to hiring freshers and running a first-year programme: campus or open drives, a screening round, a training plan by quarter, mentors and checkpoints.
6 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 articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Give them a clear craft grade, fair pay, control over trial corrections and time to teach. They leave when their skill is treated like any other trade.
Show them a path with pay steps, a mentor and growing responsibility. A written ladder makes staying more attractive than starting elsewhere.
Faults surface late and fall on a few people. An early design review with toolmakers cuts surprises.
Plan the queue ahead, use gaps for repair and training, and tell staff what is expected. Silence breeds worry.
Several shops do. Be sure you can meet the quality standard and track who works on what. Check any terms with a qualified professional.
Who your master toolmakers are and who is learning from them, who did the recent trial corrections, and how designers and toolmakers review a new mould. A craft grading scale and an apprentice path make a practical first job. We agree scope in writing after that.
All 7 business types in plastic manufacturing · Find another business type
Tell us your industry, team size and the issue you want to address. Bring one example of where work gets delayed or ownership is unclear, and the deadline or decision you are working towards.
