Intek wins SME's Excellence in Manufacturing Training Award

The award, established to showcase manufacturing leaders and provide outstanding benchmarks for companies seeking to build a workforce strategy, honours Intek Plastics’ exceptional commitment and dedication to upskilling its workforce, enhancing talent, and preparing new and incumbent employees for successful careers in the manufacturing industry.

SME, through its workforce development division, Tooling U-SME, is an manufacturing industry workforce development solution provider, working with thousands of companies including more than half of all Fortune 500 manufacturers as well as nearly 1,000 educational institutions across the USA

"This award seeks to honor companies that recognize the value of investing in their workforce, which is very evident in the results achieved by Intek Plastics over the last decade," said Jeannine Kunz, Chief Workforce Development Officer of SME. "Intek is a company that has overcome significant challenges and adversity in its business climate, and production volumes and has come out stronger, better staffed and ready for growth, with a robust recruitment and training system in place to support expansion."

"We had a couple of significant years," Jill Hesselroth, CEO of Intek Plastics said. "Fortunately, we were able to work together with our customers, employees, suppliers, and board of directors to come up with some excellent plans."

During the pandemic, because company extrusion operation employees have a unique skill set that takes a substantial amount of time to develop, Intek prioritized their retention. Despite employment cuts that became the norm across the U.S., Intek a expanded capacity coming out of the pandemic.

"Over the last seven years, we’ve pivoted toward a culture based on servant leadership," Hesselroth said. "In practice, that means every single employee – whether they’re a leader, mid-management, or on the shop floor – is expected to help one another in order to be successful in their work."

Hesselroth said the success of its servant-leader model depends on a number of factors, including: