CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—Rubber & Plastics News has identified nine firms that have qualified to be named a rubber industry Best Places to Work.
RPN has completed its second annual program in conjunction with Best Companies Group, which independently determined the rubber-related companies that qualified under its criteria.
The nine firms that have been named a Best Places to Work will be profiled in the Nov. 30 issue of RPN, and the company with the highest overall score will be named the top workplace in the industry.
The 2020 Best Places to Work, in alphabetical order, are:
- Americas International of Akron, a distributor of materials, equipment and services;
- CTI of Akron, a Poling Group company and supplier of testing machinery and lab equipment;
- Engineered Products & Services Inc. of Franksville, Wis., a distributor/fabricator of finished rubber goods;
- Hallstar of Chicago, global specialty chemistry company;
- H.B. Chemical Corp. of Twinsburg, Ohio, a North American chemicals distributor for the rubber industry;
- Reed Rubber Products of St. Louis, a manufacturer of extruded thermoplastic rubber seals and gaskets;
- Specification Rubber Products of Alabaster, Ala., an end rubber product maker that can use any process;
- Sur-Seal L.L.C. of Cincinnati, which makes custom sealing solutions for various industries; and
- Zochem L.L.C. of Dickson, Tenn., a manufacturer of zinc oxide.
Three of the companies also were named RPN Best Places to Work in 2019: H.B. Chemical, Reed Rubber and Sur-Seal, with Reed taking the top honor.
For the scope of this project, eligible companies had to derive at least 50 percent of their revenue from elastomer-related operations, which include natural and synthetic rubber, thermoplastic elastomers, polyurethanes and silicone. Eligibility was open to makers of end-rubber products as well as suppliers, service providers, distributor/fabricators of finished rubber goods, and distributors of materials, equipment or services.
In addition to operating within the defined scope of the rubber industry, eligible 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.
Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process. It also analyzed the data and used its experience to determine the final ranking.
