Best Places to Work: Open communication drives The Rubber Group's success

ROCHESTER, N.H.—The Rubber Group started as a distributor back in 1986 and has since transitioned into manufacturing, but one thing that hasn't changed is its commitment to its employees.

"The company definitely has the culture of continuous improvement, trying to be the best at everything we do, not settling for just being good," said President Robert Pruyn, who has worked for the company since the beginning.

"We morphed into a manufacturer in the mid-90s and that's when we started to internalize some processes, including die-cutting and custom molding. And then really from that point, that became our primary focus," he said.

With 55 employees, Pruyn wants to ensure they all feel a part of the team and understand their role. To do that, there is an established relationship between the highest level of management and the front-line operators.

"They have a voice and if they have concerns, they are addressed quickly," he said.

Communication goes both ways.

"As a company, (we) try to be transparent about where they stand and where the organization stands," Pruyn said.

That consistent communication is one reason The Rubber Group has been named one of Rubber & Plastics News' Best Places to Work for 2019 as determined by its employees through a survey conducted by Best Companies Group.

Beyond just sharing how the company is doing financially, The Rubber Group monitors performance and utilization by employees daily and gives regular feedback. Pruyn said this is not meant to micromanage employees, rather to make sure they are getting the support they need to get their job done.

"If someone didn't have a great day, we can usually attribute it to something where they didn't get the support they needed," Pruyn said.

"So we develop a way within the organization to get them the support so they can be successful. … As a result, people tend to have very high performance and utilization every single day. And I think that creates a sense of pride."

The management team encourages all employees to participate in a suggestion program.

"Those are assessed and typically, a very high percentage of them are accepted and get implemented quickly," Pruyn said.

The Rubber Group has an open-door policy, he added. It's not uncommon for someone from the production floor to go to his office and tell him what they think if they feel like their voice isn't being heard.

Pruyn noted the company realized that work might not be the motivating factor in everyone's lives, and the company aims to give flexibility when they need it, as well as the resources to improve their work lives.

"We went to a four-day workweek, which people love too," he said. "We encourage people not only to continue to develop skills that will help them within the organization, but if they have other interests where they want to pursue something that may not directly apply to their job, we encourage that as well."

The training process is a combination of initial orientation, and then that transitions on various pieces of equipment, and continues with cultural training.

The team is constantly training and retraining team members on things specifically job related and about how to be a good teammate, how to work well with others.

"It's not something that really ever ends," Pruyn said.

When he needs to bring new team members into the fold, he mainly does so with a temp-to-hire process. There are three local staffing agencies who do outreach and screen candidates on behalf of The Rubber Group. Candidates will then get interviewed by various front-line supervisors and will start a training/probationary period that lasts about six to eight weeks.

"Throughout that time, we are training, we're assessing skills, we're determining if they are a good fit both culturally and skill-set wise," Pruyn said.

The Rubber Group focuses on empowering team members to make their own decisions, offers them continued training throughout their time at the company and, most importantly, makes sure everyone has a voice.