Best Places to Work: Pandemic's challenges make H.B. Chemical stronger

TWINSBURG, Ohio—Creating a positive employee culture can be challenging at any time, let alone during an evolving and chaotic one—exactly what COVID-19 has presented to companies and industries around the world.

Yet for HB Chemical Corp., a Ravago company, it was a simple task to maintain employee satisfaction as a team. Collaboration is just one of the reasons why Twinsburg-based HB Chemical was named one of the Rubber & Plastics News Best Places to Work in 2020.

"For me, it was easy because of the people we have in place. Because of our people, it wasn't that difficult of a pivot," said Joe Moran, vice president at HB Chemical, about the shifts due to COVID-19.

"We have such a team environment. It was everyone rolling up their sleeves together, trying to figure it out."

When everyone is involved in the process, they are more likely to buy in to the solutions, he added.

HB Chemical faced more than just the pandemic recently. The company still was adjusting to being sold to Ravago in 2019 and its recent leadership changes, with Moran taking the role of vice president and Jeff Rand stepping down from day-to-day operations. But through all the changes, the HB Chemical team stayed together.

"The pivot was easy because the people stepped up. Every one of them," Moran said. "It's been fun in a weird way. It's been great to see how people adapt to things that are well out of their control."

Employee support

Adapting was key for two new customer service agents who were brought on one month before the pandemic hit. Personal connections come naturally in an office environment, but going remote so soon was a game changer. Support was needed, and HB Chemical provided it.

It just looked a little different.

"Whether that was going to their house and standing outside their front door and helping them through a computer issue ... or whatever it was," Moran said.

With new people at home, it made the company really think about its processes and training protocols and brought that back into the office.

One of those new customer service representatives is Kim McCabe, who said HB Chemical is a fantastic place to work.

"Management strives to make sure we all have what we need to be successful and happy," McCabe said.

"It's a family atmosphere, they care about us personally as well as professionally. We are here more than anywhere else, so it's nice to work at a company that makes you feel proud of the work you do every day."

New hires are not the only ones who need support. HB Chemical has about 15 team members working in the office (with eight more in the warehouse).

Prior to the start of shutdowns, Moran said he went to the director of operations and asked if they had to work from home.

What does that look like for office employees?

He wanted to know if they had enough bandwidth and office supplies and furniture for people to have everything they needed at home. He didn't want them to have to transport everything back and forth, either.

"So it took us a week. And in that week, we bought monitors and any equipment people needed at their houses. ... I wanted everybody who was going to have to work from home to have the same setup that they had here in the office," Moran said.

"They can go right home and they are set to go."

Employee values

"Over the past five years, and maybe even more, there's been a trend on people's value of their time," Moran said.

Flexibility in the workplace was becoming more important for employees even before COVID-19 hit, Moran said.

"COVID, obviously, then really gave people pause and gave them time to think through those things. We've tried where we can to adapt to that. ... As long as work is being done and people are accessible, I think we should provide them that flexibility because you have a more engaged work force that way. People feel valued and heard."

Conversely, since people were isolated at home, they came to value being a part of a team, he said.

"To foster that, we made sure we were doing weekly Zoom meetings, as well as Zoom happy hours on Fridays at 4 o'clock," Moran said.

Even with social distancing, HB Chemical tries to make it fun now that everyone opted to come back to the office. Recently it conducted a socially distant parking lot party with catered food and drinks and games.

"We don't take ourselves too seriously, which I think translates into a better experience for our customers," Moran said.

"We are personal. We are connected and we are easy to do business with, and that starts with all of our people and how they view work."