Best Places to Work 2024: No. 6 Processor: Engineered Profiles

The mission of Engineered Profiles LLC is to be "irresistible" to its customers, associates and community.

What makes the company irresistible to its employees, according to the Columbus, Ohio-based company, are its "family atmosphere, advancement opportunities, profit-sharing [and] benefit programs."

"We strive to be an organization where associates can build a career with paid training, profit-sharing, generous insurance and retirement benefits, an annual footwear allowance, employee engagement events and merit-based promotions," the custom profile extruder said in its Best Places to Work questionnaire. "Because of these programs, we received the Plastics News Excellence Award in Employee Relations, and our training program has been featured at national conferences and in industry publications."

Its core values are communicated and lived every day by its management in guiding the decision-making process.

Since its founding in 1947, the company said, Engineered Profiles has "led the industry with innovations that include the first vinyl siding product made in the United States, dual- and tri-extrusions, custom coloring and raw material formulations, part decoration and fabrication, metal embedment, wood composite extrusion and a host of other processing and tooling design advancements."

The executive team signs birthday cards and mails them to employees' houses, and each month's birthdays are highlighted in an announcement. Work anniversaries are celebrated with a new badge and a gift. Some are even recognized at an all-company meeting with a plaque.

Other forms of recognition at Engineered Profiles includes an Employee of the Month, profit-sharing based on attendance and acknowledgment at quarterly shift meetings.

In terms of fun activities for team bonding, employees can enjoy summer cookouts, holiday meals and themed activities.

To improve workplace culture and productivity, Engineered Profiles has focus group meetings.

If employees feel like they have been treated unfairly based on their race, gender identity or beliefs, an anonymous ethics hotline is available.

To help with personal issues, Engineered Profiles utilizes a local organization called Matrix, which provides 24/7 access to in-person and over-the-phone assistance on a wide range of topics from certified clinicians. Employees are also given an allowance for nonmedical insurance to use on their choice of benefits.

Job advancement opportunities include formal technical training, annual career development plans, a catalog of online training courses, and the ability to attend conferences and workshops.

Engineered Profiles' "successful, homegrown training program" earned the company the PN Excellence Award for Employee Relations for 2016. Described as blending "a classroom environment with real extrusion line experience in a formalized structure," the company's training program also "helps new employees visualize a career path and see how their education can help them advance within the company."

"New employees that come with previous extrusion experience can be fast-tracked through the process to get them on the production line faster. Those with zero extrusion experience get a step-by-step instruction, including take-home materials and audio/visual aids to teach them best practices," PN reporter Bill Bregar noted in a 2017 profile on the company.

Today, 40 percent of employees are millennials.

Engineered Profiles is No. 54 on PN's ranking of pipe, profile and tubing extruders, with an estimated $78 million in sales. This is the company's first appearance on the Best Places to Work list.

"Our mission at Engineered Profiles is to 'be irresistible to our customers, associates and community,'" the company said, "and this award provides us with an indicator that we are heading in the right direction in our journey."