Parsippany, N.J.-based Asaclean-Sun Plastech Inc. is appearing for the third consecutive time on Plastics News' Best Places to Work list, and this year, it's at No. 3.
One unique employee benefit that sets it apart is an all-expenses-paid, weeklong trip to visit to Tokyo and Kyoto, where they spend time touring the offices, the plant where products are made, the tech center and the various Japanese sights.
Technical sales representative Jeremy Cooley, who has been with the company since April 2013, visited Japan in May 2016.
“I had the opportunity to tour the Tokyo office of our parent company, Asahi Kasei, and also travel into Kawasaki and visit an Asahi factory and polymer center,” Cooley said. “The remainder of the trip included a bus tour of Tokyo, as well as a couple of days sightseeing in Kyoto.”
Cooley said he was able to visit the Golden Temple, Kiyomizu-dera Temple and Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine in Kyoto.
“One [destination] I found extremely interesting was a world-famous fish market [called Tsukiji Market]. … You watch them as they are bringing in these humongous fish and auction them off,” President Glenn Kornfeld said. “It's just so cool.”
Kornfeld said they typically wait for employees to be with the company for at least two years before sending them to Japan.
“We don't do it on the spot; we want to make sure people are going to be here and stay,” he said.
Established in 1996, Sun Plastech manufactures purging compounds in more than 70 countries.
In addition to the trip, Sun Plastech's 22 employees also take advantage of a personal wellness coach, who comes in and works with employees in both group and individual sessions. The group sessions are called Lunch and Learn, where the coach discusses a particular topic and the company brings in lunch for everyone. Past discussions have included stress relief and weight loss.
“More importantly, I think the most important thing is that she is a certified health coach,” Kornfeld said. “Besides those several different times per year for Lunch and Learns, she is also here four times per year when the entire company is together. She comes here for four complete days and meets with every employee in a one-on-one basis to review the goals they have worked on to see if they are adhering to their goals [and] to talk about anything and everything they want to work on.”
Kornfeld, who has been in his current role as president since July 2004, was not always in the plastics business. He worked as a public accountant for six years before responding to a newspaper ad to become an in-house accountant for Sun Plastech.
“I had mentioned to them when I interviewed, I said, ‘Of course, my goal right now is to do a good job in accounting, but I would eventually like to move into management because that's really where my passion is.'”
After working in accounting, Kornfeld moved to controller, treasurer and vice president before becoming president. He said he makes sure employees recognize they have the same long-term potential with the company that he had.
“We've had several instances like that, like where the sales manager went to vice president,” he said. “One of our salespeople went from salesperson to technical manager. We've had accounting professionals become controllers.
“We absolutely try to develop the skills of the people here who have them to advance, and that's one of the many ways we have been able to keep people.”
Click here for links to other Best Places to Work businesses for 2017.
