Plant Training & Onboarding Lead

Wentworth Technologies•Mississauga, ON

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Plant Training & Onboarding Lead is responsible for coordinating, standardizing and continuously improving onboarding, technical training, qualification and development programs for all hourly employees across Amhil’s & Stone manufacturing operations. The role ensures new hires receive structured, role-specific onboarding and practical on-the-job training that prepares them to safely and effectively perform the work for which they were hired. The Lead partners with Operations, Human Resources, Safety, Quality, Maintenance and departmental leaders to improve employee readiness, close skills gaps and strengthen early-tenure retention.

Requirements

3–5 years of experience in manufacturing operations, technical training, production leadership, quality, maintenance, process technology or learning and development in a plant environment.
Practical knowledge of hourly manufacturing roles, On-the-Job Training, SOPs, work instructions, skills matrices and competency-based qualification.
Experience coordinating structured new hire onboarding and role-specific technical training.
Ability to work effectively on the plant floor and across multiple shifts and locations.
Strong facilitation, coaching, communication, organization and follow-up skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and training record, document-control or learning-management systems.

Nice To Haves

Experience in plastic food packaging.
Union Manufacturing industry.
Experience in advancing employee engagement in union and non-union hourly employees.

Responsibilities

Develop, coordinate and maintain standardized onboarding programs for all hourly plant roles, including Production, Process Technicians, Maintenance, Quality, Warehouse, Shipping/Receiving and Material Handling.
Create role-specific 30-, 60- and 90-day onboarding plans with defined learning activities, job exposure, competency milestones and accountabilities.
Ensure new hires are assigned to and trained on the work they were hired to perform, with appropriate exposure to actual job duties throughout the onboarding period.
Coordinate onboarding schedules among HR, supervisors, trainers and support departments and confirm required resources are available before the employee starts.
Conduct or coordinate new hire check-ins and review onboarding survey feedback to identify and correct gaps affecting readiness, engagement and retention.
Escalate onboarding breakdowns, delayed job exposure or missed qualification milestones to the appropriate operational leader.
Develop and maintain role-based training plans, qualification standards, checklists and certification requirements for hourly positions.
Coordinate technical, safety, quality, GMP/food safety, SOP and work-instruction training using current approved materials.
Verify competency through observation, demonstration, knowledge checks and documented sign-off before employees perform critical tasks independently.
Coordinate retraining and recertification when processes, equipment, standards or employee performance requirements change.
Build and improve progression pathways for operators, process technicians and other hourly roles.
Support the design and execution of standardized On-the-Job Training programs across plants and shifts.
Partner with department leaders to select qualified trainers and mentors based on technical competence, communication skills, reliability and safety performance.
Provide train-the-trainer coaching, tools and guidance to improve consistency, demonstration, feedback and adult-learning practices.
Own and maintain plant skills matrices for all hourly roles and ensure qualification status is current and visible.
Identify critical skills gaps, single-point dependencies and coverage risks by plant, department, role and shift.
Partner with supervisors and managers to prioritize cross-training, refresher training and coverage for critical roles.
Provide supervisors with onboarding tools, progress reviews, coaching guides and training status information.
Support supervisor capability in job instruction, feedback, coaching, documentation and early intervention when a new hire is not progressing.
Coordinate with HR on orientation, retention data and employee feedback while maintaining Operations ownership of technical readiness and qualification.
Partner with Production, Process, Maintenance, Quality, Safety and Engineering to identify and resolve capability gaps.
Maintain accurate, audit-ready training records and ensure employees are trained on current SOP and work-instruction revisions.
Prepare and publish monthly dashboards by plant, department, role, shift and supervisor covering onboarding progress, training completion, qualification and retention indicators.
Analyze exit interviews, onboarding surveys, turnover, downtime, scrap, quality defects, safety incidents and customer complaints to identify training-related causes and actions.
Lead or support corrective actions when training is incomplete, inconsistent, ineffective or not properly documented.
Support internal, customer and regulatory audits by providing accurate evidence of training and competency.