MMT Chats: American Mold Builders Association on Best Practices for Employee Attraction and Hiring

^{This episode is brought to you by ISCAR with New Ideas for Machining Intelligently.}

Not only do I get the scoop on the American Mold Builders Association (AMBA) 2022 Employee Attraction and Hiring Playbook, I get the AMBA’s Managing Director Kym Conis and its Director of Strategic Execution Rachael Pfenninger to open up about their journeys into the world of plastics, moldmaking and associations, to explain the AMBA’s history and to share what inspires them most about this industry.

However, most importantly, they talk about the Workforce Development Task Force that helped them create 65+ pages of best practices and industry insights related to the attraction, hiring and retainment of high-quality, high-performing employees.

Here are just a few tidbits from this conversation to whet your appetite for our full conversation:

• Kym Conis is  11 years at the AMBA coming from a writing background 
• Rachael Pfenninger is 4 years at the AMBA doing her marketing magic with benchmarking, workforce development and events.
• The playbook is a members-only resource.
• 3-part survey ranked shops regarding gaining, training and retaining a workforce, and then created profiles.
• The importance of preboarding when you hire a new employee
• Associations are about trust. 
• 2022 AMBA Conference theme is “Shifting the View”  
• Emerging Leaders is growing. In 2022, the AMBA Emerging Leaders Network will offer a variety of leadership and connection opportunities, including: 
  • A plant tour workshop at Strohwig Industries, Richfield, WI (in-person)
  • A pre-conference session at AMBA Conference 2022 (in-person)
  • A leadership seminar series featuring industry executives throughout the plastics supply chain (virtual)
  • A lean-focused series with practical application (virtual)
  • An executive leadership retreat for AMBA Emerging Leaders (in-person

NEWS! A double party for AMBA and MMT both celebrating big milestones next year!