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Founded in Seattle in 1975 as PAC National, the company started out as a broker of corrugated shipping containers to its first customer, Airborne Express, according to Ryan Jones, PAC Worldwide’s regional human resources director. As the overnight courier industry grew, so did PAC National, Jones said.
“We soon realized that even with our success, PAC was still just a broker,” he said. “Innovation became one of the primary drivers of our business as we listened to the changing needs of our customers and developed wholesale packaging solutions to meet them. This led to PAC developing our own manufacturing capabilities.”
The company has grown into into PAC Worldwide Corporation and has nearly 900 employees globally, more than 500 of them in facilities in Middletown and Sharonville. The remainder are in facilities in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Mexico and Malaysia, shipping directly to dozens of countries worldwide.
PAC Worldwide has 14 kinds of open positions listed on the careers portion of its website, many of which have multiple openings. That includes team members in everything from production and warehouse/logistics, to engineering and accounting/finance, to quality and customer service.
Middletown is the company’s largest manufacturing facility and works as a central location for operations involved company-wide.
We posed several questions to Jones regarding PAC Worldwide’s hiring efforts and its overall direction as a company. Here’s what he had to say:
Q: What is the biggest challenge your company and others in your industry face these days? How is your company uniquely positioned to address that challenge?
A: “We feel like we are in a growth industry, and while growth does have its challenges, the biggest challenge is the ability to find people with the skillset and desire needed for our entry-level and technical manufacturing roles, such as machine packer and machine operator.
“We feel we have launched ourselves on a good path over the last few years by starting to build internal training programs, giving people clear paths of growth, and giving team members an opportunity to be involved in the growth of the company.
“We want people to know that manufacturing is a great way to provide opportunity for themselves and their family. Manufacturing is not the dark, dingy, dirty industry that it can be perceived as and we hope to be a part of changing the outlook on manufacturing jobs.”
Q: What’s the vision for the company’s growth in the next five years?
A: “Not long ago, we set out with a growth plan to grow twice our size in five years. Here we are in year three and we have already surpassed our year five goal. Our vision is to continue that growth and in doing so provide opportunity within the community we operate our business.”
Q: What’s the most prevalent roadblock the company encounters when it comes to hiring and what can jobseekers do to remedy that situation?
A: “A big roadblock in hiring is finding those with a real interest in manufacturing who have a consistent job history. Job seekers can research the company they are interviewing with and understand what that company does and what they need from a skill and knowledge standpoint. This would show initiative and help the employer know that the job seeker has a genuine interest in the company.”
Q: Some job seekers are concerned about the limits of advancement within a company. To what degree do employees at PAC Worldwide advance from entry-level roles to become department managers and team leaders?
A: “PAC has a commitment to employee development and advancement. We understand development and advancement are a journey, and by no means are we are perfect at it. But, we have a lot of people within the organization that love to mentor and see others grow into their potential. We allow people to work on projects that have an impact on the company and where it is headed.
“In fact, we have promoted a number of our current machine operators from our entry-level machine packer position, as well as promotions into many other positions.
“We have recently created a formal program for our production and warehouse team members to assess their skillset and provide goals to move up in their role. Outside of this program, we promote communication between teams and conversations regarding performance and future career goals to occur regularly. These regular interactions have resulted in many success stories. A number of our current team leaders, supervisors and managers have started in entry-level roles.”
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