Best Places to Work: Ace Labs keeps customer-focused, employee-centric approach

Ace Laboratories in Ravenna, Ohio, attributes being a Best Places to Work to several reasons, including having fresh perspectives, a focus on customer service, embracing change, implementing new technologies and an understanding of work/life balance.

Ace started as a one-man operation in Akron, Ohio, in a 2,000-sq.-ft. facility. It grew quickly and within two years, Ace expanded into a 220,000-sq.-ft. building in Ravenna. Today, it has 19 employees.

The company does testing, consulting and development for the rubber industry. It services multiple industries, including aerospace, automotive, construction, consumer goods, energy, industrial goods, tires, and wire and cable.

In 2018, Ace earned a coveted ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation, one of the most important standards for testing for laboratories around the world. Laboratories with this accreditation have proven capabilities to provide accurate, precise data and testing.

CEO and Founder Erick Sharp has a passion for innovation and has instilled this value in his team. Ace continues to expand its capabilities and offerings, making it an industry leader.

Ace also partners with colleges and high schools to offer an inside look at a globally renowned laboratory, hoping to bring fresh ideas to the industry.

This is what Senior Technical Account Manager Kyle Knipp has to say about Ace.

"Fresh perspectives and a young team focused on providing our customers with excellent service make the company stand out. As the company continues to grow, it embraces change and new technologies to help the team and the systems run as efficiently as possible. There is a mindset of "don't be afraid to fail fast," which is empowering to employees."

"The company offers a full week of sick time in addition to vacation. Also, the whole management team understands the importance of work/life balance and employee mental health. Occasionally, if a team member starts to seem overly stressed or burnt out, the management team will encourage them to take a sick day/vacation to focus on them and to catch their breath.

"Also, all the managers have weekly one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to check in with them on a personal level and on a work level about items where the employee may need help (like a particular test or project that isn't going as it should). Also, these meetings are used to set goals or monitor workloads. It really helps employees feel that they have a voice with the management team."

"The entire team gets along really well and while they work extremely hard most of the time, they also know how to not take themselves too seriously. Ace often has company lunches to celebrate holidays or company 'wins,' or as a thank you during extremely busy seasons.

"Oftentimes, groups of employees will go out to lunch together or just sit outside and eat lunch. The majority of the team is under 45 years old, so having a young team where they are at similar stages of life also makes it a lot of fun. The few people outside of that age range also participate in group activities and have just as much fun as the rest of us."

"The Ace team likes the boundaries on the level of service customers get from a rubber testing lab (or a rubber company in general). Being unafraid to embrace technology can provide quicker turnaround times than many are accustomed to, while also giving an extra level of customer service with quote follow-ups, report follow-ups and technical support.

"Being a young team, it's important to a lot of employees to play a part in driving the rubber industry in a more sustainable/eco-friendly direction through some of our raw material screening programs, as well as through some of our analytical testing that helps customers make sure their materials conform to applicable regulatory standards."

"Of course, serving our customers and providing them with accurate data in an efficient manner is the ultimate goal," Knipp said. "But Ace also wants to see the rubber industry as a whole thrive for many years to come."

One of the ways it does that is to make rubber cool and get rid of the negative/dirty connotation that it's carried for years. For Ace, that starts with educating customers and other industry professionals through the courses it teaches with the ACS Rubber Division. But it doesn't stop there. The company also does outreach events with students from university groups all the way down to elementary school kids. The idea is that "if they can't see it, they can't be it."

Ace Laboratory's goal is to cultivate the next generation of "Rubber Nerds" and help pass along the knowledge that the industry has gathered over the last hundred-plus years so that they can push the industry to the next level, whatever that may look like.