CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—Rubber News has identified nine firms that have qualified to be named among the rubber industry's Best Places to Work.
RN has completed its fifth annual program in conjunction with Workforce Research Group, which independently determined the rubber-related companies that qualified under its criteria.
The nine firms that have been named as Best Places to Work will be profiled in the June 10 issue of Rubber News, and the company with the highest overall score will be named the top workplace in the industry.
The 2024 Rubber News Best Places to Work, in alphabetical order, are:
- Ace Laboratories Inc. of Ravenna, Ohio, a rubber, silicone and polymer testing firm;
- ChemSpec Ltd. of New Philadelphia, Ohio, a distributor of specialty and commodity chemical additives and specialty polymers;
- HB Chemical of Twinsburg, Ohio, a North American chemicals distributor for the rubber industry;
- The Kumho America Technical Center in Akron;
- Reed Rubber Products Inc. of St. Louis, a manufacturer of extruded thermoplastic rubber seals and gaskets;
- The Rubber Group of Rochester, N.H., a maker of custom molded goods for a variety of industries;
- Specification Rubber Products Inc. of Alabaster, Ala., a producer of non-tire rubber products;
- Zeon Chemicals L.P. of Louisville, Ky., a maker of synthetic rubber; and
- Zochem L.L.C. of Dickson, Tenn., a manufacturer of zinc oxide that also has an operation in Canada.
Eight of the nine firms are repeat honorees from the 2023 program, with Zeon being the old newcomer (though it was part of the 2019 and 2021 classes).
HB Chemical—last year's overall winner—and Reed Rubber are the only two firms to have earned the distinction each of the five years of the program. Specification Rubber and Zochem were named Best Places to Work for the fourth time; The Rubber Group for a third time; and Ace, Kumho and ChemSpec for the second time each.
For the scope of this project, eligible companies had to derive at least 50 percent of their revenue from elastomer-related operations. Companies also had to be a publicly or privately held business; have a facility in the U.S. and/or Canada; have a minimum of 15 employees working in the U.S. and/or Canada; and be in business a minimum of one year.
Determining the Best Places to Work was a two-step process. The first involved an evaluation of participating companies' workplace policies, practices and demographics. The second included an employee survey to directly assess the experiences and attitudes of individual employees with respect to their workplace. The combined scores determined the qualified organizations and the final ranking.
