HR Professionals on the Front Lines of Recruiting and Retention: Part 2

By Lindsey Munson, editor, Inside Rubber

Getting job applicants in the door and converting them to employees is just the first step in ensuring a manufacturing plant is fully staffed to meet its customers’ needs. A focus on retention is critical, and human resources professionals in five rubber companies across the US have created game plans within their companies to fuel, engage and build long-lasting relationships with employees.

Albert Levalle is the human resources manager for La Habra, California-based VIP Rubber & Plastic Company. VIP Rubber has been manufacturing custom rubber extrusions, plastic extrusions, rubber sheet products, molded rubber products, plastic pipe and tubing in the US since 1961. Daniel Gifford, human resources manager, and Sandy Burnett, human resources generalist, oversee recruitment and retention activities for Bando USA, Inc., Bowling Green, Kentucky, a supplier of automotive and industrial power transmission and conveyor belts.

Garware Fulflex USA, Inc. (Fulflex), Brattleboro, Vermont, is a manufacturer of rubber sheets and elastic tapes, and Anne Meyer serves as its human resources manager. Fernando Gauna is a human resource recruitment specialist at R.E. Darling Co., Inc. (REDAR), a composite manufacturing company in Tucson, Arizona. And at Ebco, Inc., Elgin, Illinois, Bill Bernardo is the CEO who leads the familyowned and engineered-driven company supplying OEM customers with elastomer solutions.

Fueling New Employees

From review incentives to rewarding excellent attendance and safety records, companies prioritize employees by creating a sense of value, recognizing hard work and encouraging growth opportunities.

REDAR encourages employee participation in engagement activities, Gauna said: “Giving employees outside opportunities away from work creates an environment that allows teams to build a deeper respect for one another. The company offers a variety of activities, including a Family Feud game show night, wellness challenge and classes from Zumba to boot camp, appreciation week and family events.”

In addition, REDAR executives do quarterly lunches with newly hired employees as a time to get to know one another and gather feedback on the process of onboarding, team orientation, training and everyday work experiences.

Fulflex’s new hire orientation used to be a few short hours. Meyer said, “HR paperwork would be filled out, they would watch a few safety videos and take a quiz, then take a facility tour and start training.” To help new hires feel more at ease, confident in their new role and acclimate as part of the team, the company recently restructured its new hire orientation. Now it’s a full day of fun, learning and engagement activities, including lunch with peers and managers, to provide a oneto-one experience with full safety training with videos and quizzes, policy and procedure overview, harassment training, benefits review and more.

New hires also are engaged in a 30-, 60- and 90-day HR review so there is continued communication and the opportunity for the new hires to provide their feedback on what’s working and what is not so Fulflex can facilitate continued improvement with onboarding, etc. All of this is done with specific personnel, such as the human resources manager, HR administrator, department managers and anyone who would be a guide for the employee. Engagement is important for both new hires and tenured employees. Fulflex provides monthly grinders and salads for all staff, attendance raffles and birthday cards that include a gift card from a company favorite, Dunkin Donuts.

Ebco adds fuel by conducting a 90-day review of its new hires. If employees meet or exceed expectations in that review, they could receive a bonus. Bernardo said, “We want to be competitive when it comes to getting top-notch talent, so we pay at or above published pay rates for the county and state. We also offer tickets to sporting events and have monthly massages available, among many other incentives.”

Once on board at VIP, an employee immediately becomes part of the family. By choosing to invest in its employees –not only through a benefits package but also through personal touches such as birthdays, department parties, a summertime bash and holiday time off – VIP has seen the reward within its culture. Levalle shared, “Each department is like a family. They get to celebrate big life events from anniversaries to awards given for safety, training, etc., all with a dedicated budget from the company.”

Bando has a Gain Sharing Bonus program where employees are recognized for going above and beyond in their day-today work. “The program is about contributing to the ‘gain’ of being better as an employee, department and facility,” Gifford said. “It allows employees to step up and be a leader, whether it’s showing up for work every day, following safety procedures, speaking up if there’s an unsafe situation or helping their department to succeed in its goals. It assists in creating a culture of self-accountability, positivity, hard work and reward.”

Emerging HR Trends

As an industry, rubber companies are facing the same human resources challenges and market labor lows. A company’s front line is looking for emerging trends to help alleviate internal tensions, grow a balanced organization and retain skilled and seasoned employees, all with a common goal of meeting customer expectations. Together, in the trenches, companies share leading ways to adopt the power of communication, fine-tune safety protocols and change the status quo of culture.

Communication and an Open-Door Policy

From an open-door policy to creating a work-life balance among employees, Meyer receives many knocks on her door a day! When she gets a knock, Meyer typically responds with one of the following lines: “I’m never too busy for you, come on in,” “We’ll do this together” or “We’ll stay here until we get it done.”

“My door is always open. I will drop what I’m doing if an employee needs anything, right down to a personal crisis. I want to hear about it,” Meyer said. She knows this level of connection shows employees they are valued and have a workplace that cares. Culture is a huge part of Fulflex but building it is not always easy. She said, “I give everyone an equal amount of respect, no matter what level of position. Employees know that what they say to me will be held in confidence, and many reciprocate the same level of compassion and care, saying, ‘I’m happy you’re here.’ That’s when you know you’re doing something right.”

Fulflex’s Vice President of Operations Don Venice holds a State of the Business monthly meeting plant-wide for all three shifts. This meeting comes with complete transparency to employees, with Venice presenting on sales, new policies, safety and so forth. Managers occasionally will contribute to the meeting by addressing issues, concerns and successes. The presentation then is posted in the plant’s main hall for all employees to return and read – communication is key.

At REDAR, employees know of the open-door policy, and it’s used from the bottom to the top level; however, one of the most intriguing and useful systems the company put in place is its ethics hotline. Gauna shared, “This is an anonymous messaging system for employees to report any issues or concerns. In addition, we do two surveys a year, companywide, with minutes of paid time for employees to tell us about their experience with the company and provide us with feedback on what has been going well and what we need to improve.”

Like the other HR managers, Levalle has an open-door policy, and on a typical day, he can be found on VIP Rubber’s facility floor making rounds with the employees – watching, listening and having conversations. He said, “My department always has an open door; our office is on the main floor where the action is and that was one thing I changed when I started last year. The old HR department used to be upstairs.”

Gifford shared, “My office is so close to the employee break room, I can hear the microwave or employee conversations. This is important to me to be available, and employees frequently do utilize my open door.” Beyond human resources and its open-door method, Gifford heavily relies on the production managers to get a pulse on employees through weekly gatherings with each shift. These usually are done by standing in the aisle and having an open dialogue among the teams. From those gatherings, HR receives feedback, managers can address concerns and questions, safety practices are mentioned and put top of mind, and teams bond with each other.

Fine-Tuning the Approach to Safety

Meyer said safety is a big challenge for Fulflex. “We don’t have a designated on-site safety representative to offer “As a team, we review the situation. Employees just want to be heard, listened to and given a sense of value. With that, as a company, we’ve provided Psychological Safety training by partnering with our insurance broker,” said Meyer.

Meyer strongly believes it starts with a culture of mutual respect and accountability, from the top-level employees to the lower level. She said, “The workplace culture must shift. If you see something, say something.” Meyer began making the shift in developing a “Stop and Spot” observation card. She said, “It’s a simple checkbox card with categories (i.e., behavioral, PPE, Line-of-Fire, etc.,) that an employee fills out and drops in one of the multiple safety observation boxes located throughout the facility. Whether the card is filled out for recognition or a safety concern, it’s encouraging all employees to come forward and look out for themselves and their co-workers. Every Friday, Fulflex has a safety meeting and, instead of gathering with a small committee, it’s required for every person in the building to attend, as each employee is considered to be a member of the Safety Committee.

Gauna shared that REDAR is passionate about recognizing its employees and that safety is a top priority. “Yes! We celebrate work anniversaries, give out safety awards and do ‘near miss’ monthly drawings for employees who participate in notifying our EHS department of ‘near misses,’” he said.

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Every day, VIP does essential safety walks in its fast-paced environment. Levalle said, “We make sure the facility is compliant and meets OSHA standards. Safety is a significant piece of VIP’s culture. HR gets on the facility floor, holds discussions and takes issues on the spot – and responds accordingly. It is important every employee feels safe at work.”

Each year, Bando dedicates an entire week to safety, known as its Safety Week. During this week, all of Bando’s parent companies are invited to be involved and participate, whether at the US facility or from afar. Gifford said, “With all of Bando’s locations across the world partnering together to have Safety Week, it is important to engage employees through friendly competitions, such as who has the best safety slogan or who can identify the most potential safety hazards, and then we fix them, among many other games. We dress up in hard hats and safety vests! We partner with local insurance companies that donate items to employee gift bags. It’s a big week to stop and remind each other about safety practices, have fun as a company and show that Bando values its employees. It’s also a week where HR and leadership are out engaging, connecting and interacting with employees; it’s a time for employees to have conversations beyond the facility walls.”

Culture and Celebrating Small Wins

For Meyer, it’s about the small wins and finding what makes employees tick by offering attendance rewards and benefits that are outside the box. She said, “It’s about the team – if you don’t come to work, your teammates are burdened and production can be negatively impacted. It affects the team morale and the company entirely.” Recently, Fulflex had a working day of perfect attendance, so as a reward and to show employees the importance and appreciation of showing up, pizza was provided for all shifts.

Gifford knows all too well the challenges with employees not showing up. He said, “Bando struggles with attendance, and we’ve tried to combat it with a point system.” Bando’s point system has proven effective in combating poor attendance, building morale and culture and proactively pushing employees to have self-accountability and a team mentality. On day one, employees are given a specific amount of points that can either grow or be taken away. An employees points increase for good attendance, following best safety practices, going above and beyond for the company, and so forth but decrease for poor attendance and so forth. Employees can turn points into rewards. The company’s goal in the next year will be to get fully staffed by filling the generational gap and cross-training specific job roles. So, if attendance is an issue in specific roles, Bando will be prepared to prioritize the needs within the facility and place employees appropriately.

“We’re at a turning point with the market, customer orders and employee morale that is showing leadership it’s time to make a few critical adjustments. We believe that through the highs and lows of it all, and as labor settles, employees will see a profession and career and not just a job,” Gifford said.

VIP Rubber shared its top five human resources trends that employees find valuable and meaningful:

1. Communication – From the onboarding process to a tenured employee, communicating and listening are essential to creating a value-based foundation for each employee. It’s about the connection between HR and employees.

2. Security (employee value and financial) – Everyone wants personal and financial security, fair job responsibilities and a fair wage.

3. Safety – VIP is in constant motion every day to make sure all employees are safe on the job. The maintenance team can be called on at any time to jump in and fix a machine, clean up a spill, etc. There’s a level of respect that comes with safety because employees are not just looking out for themselves but also for their team and the entire company.

4. Engagement and respect from every level – Levalle said, “It starts at the top. VIP is led by amazing leaders who are great people; they come down to the facility floor, walk around and talk with employees. Their example trickles down to the bottom line.”

5. Benefits for the employee and family – Offer quality benefits for the employee and family. Create an employee buy-in to form a sense of ownership and value between the company and the employee.

Navigating with Purpose and Action

The human resources department is the cornerstone of every company. As front-line workers who battle the labor market lows, HR teams put forth every resource to retain employees and cultivate a culture of positivity and teamwork. It is in working together and sharing methods that shines a light on recruiting and retention issues. “Culture is why employees show up,” Levalle said, “they realize they are on a team and play a vital role on that team and for the company. Every person has a job to do, and if that person doesn’t show up, it brings down production and productivity.” n