Registration opens for Rubber News' Best Places to Work program

It's time once again to find out where are the best places to work in the rubber and tire industry.

Will HB Chemical defend its crown and take top honors in Rubber News' fifth annual Best Places to Work in the rubber industry? Or will a new company take the honor, which was claimed by Specification Rubber Products Inc., Reed Rubber Products and Americas International, respectively, in the first three years of the program.

Rubber News, working with the Workforce Research Group, is inviting U.S. and Canadian companies doing business in any aspect of the rubber industry to register by Jan. 12 to participate in the program.

Best Places to Work is a survey competition designed to determine which participants are the best employers. The process is managed by Workforce Research Group, with winners announced April 2024, and profiled in a special report in the June 10, 2023, issue. At that time, the overall winner also will be revealed.

Workforce Research Group is an independent research firm that specializes in identifying and recognizing great places to work. The rules to enter are simple. In order to participate, the business must:

• Be a public or private company with a facility in the U.S. and/or Canada;
• Have a minimum of 15 employees;
• Be in business a minimum of one year; and
• Derive at least 50 percent of revenue from elastomer-related operations, including thermoplastic elastomers and polyurethanes.

Eligibility is open to companies that make tires or end rubber products, as well as suppliers or service providers in the rubber industry. These can include: End rubber goods makers; suppliers of materials, chemicals and fillers used in rubber manufacturing; custom mixers; machinery and equipment makers; mold and tooling makers; testing firms; suppliers of testing machinery and lab equipment; rubber recycling firms; distributor/fabricators of finished rubber goods to end users; and distributors of materials, equipment or services.

The first step in the competition is for a business to register for participation, and the deadline for that is Jan. 12. There is no cost to participate, as long as the surveys are completed online. To view full participation details, visit RubberNewsBestPlacesToWork.com.

After registration, the competition includes two surveys to gather detailed data about each participating company. Workforce Research Group conducts the surveys, analyzes the data and determines the winners and rankings.

The first survey is the WRG Employer Assessment questionnaire, which gives information about your company's benefits, policies, practices and demographics.

The second part is the Employee Feedback Survey. The employees answer a series of questions that focus on nine areas of employment, ranging from general employee experience and role satisfaction to leadership, benefits and work-life balance.

To ensure the credibility of the survey, organizations with 15-24 employees must have an 80 percent response rate or better on the employee survey. Those with 25 or more employees must have a response rate of at least 40 percent.

Companies that meet WRG's benchmarks are named a Best Places to Work, while those not meeting the criteria are not named. A final listing of those named Best Places to Work will be published, and the company with the highest mark overall will be named the industry's top place to work.

While participation is free for those completing the process, participating organizations can receive their Employee Feedback Report for as little as $965 (depending on the size of the company), detailing the company's employee responses. The report also includes employee engagement and employer industry benchmarking data. There is an early bird discount of 15 percent for companies that register and pre-purchase reports by Jan. 12.

For more information or to register, visit RubberNewsBestPlacesToWork.com. If you have further questions, email Workforce Research Group at [email protected] or [email protected], or call 281-602-5004.