Plastics and people

Hearing the same message repeatedly
can turn off employees, so Kevin
Chase takes care to deliver his message in different ways.

Chase establishes three different themes
for his company each year, but one theme,
“growth, growth, growth,” always remains
the same.

“They may hear me say it 50 times per
year,” says Chase, president of Chase
Plastic Services Inc. “You need to mix it
up.”

Chase, who employs more than
80 people at his specialty thermo-plastics distributor and has led his
company to 2006 revenue of about
$95 million, once delivered a
speech under an unfinished Chase
Plastics building, which he used
to illustrate his point.

“Instead of saying, ‘Growth,
growth, growth,’ I said, ‘Chase
Plastics is still under construction.
To complete this construction
project we have to continue to hit
our budgeted numbers.’”

Smart Business spoke with
Chase about how to develop
employee engagement and how
to avoid letting workers down.

Q: What are the keys to growth?

It’s all about the right people.

We are a ‘work hard, play hard’
company. But, if you don’t hit our
high expectations, you’re gone.
It’s not being a hard-ass, it’s just
you can’t be part of this team.
Every year, we establish a letter
grade for every person in this
company. It’s either an A, B or a
C. Cs get to Bs, or they are gone.

If you get the right people and compensate them very well for what they do, they
will take you where you want to go
because they want to grow. You empower
them through a very mature macromanagement style or variable compensation,
but they have to perform. That’s the driver.

Q: How do you find the right employees?

We have a very extensive recruiting
process that starts out with our key
human resource manager and our vice president and interviewing these people
on the phone. Once we get them through
the phone process, they come in with a
full-day team interview process of somewhere between six and eight people.

Then we test them on personality, analytical, a writing test, and then, at the end
of the process, we get our interviewing
team together, get their results and sit
around and talk about them. The first thing
is, are they a fit to our culture? Are they
going to work hard, and are they smart?

Q: How do you engage employees outside
of the office?

We do community service projects, and
there are other party things we do
throughout the year.

We call it employee engagement, but
you can’t force them. All you can do is
create the opportunity but not become a
burden on their private life. We just want
to give them an opportunity to be
engaged in the company so they feel it is
a special place to work.

It gets them outside the four walls of an
office building. When they get their
hands dirty and work on projects together, all it does is help teamwork. Plus,
when you ask them to do something
above and beyond, and they see a vice
president out there and she’s mixing concrete for a new sidewalk for a disabled
person, don’t you think that, if it were the
right mindset, you’d be able to get that a
little bit easier?

Q: How do you handle failure?

You don’t think about it. You
embrace and engulf yourself in
nothing but positive optimism that
you are moving forward. But, when
a problem arises, that’s when you
rally together and break it down.

I was fortunate to see General
Norman Schwarzkopf, and one of
the questions from the audience
after his speech was, ‘General, on
the battlefield, you are analyzing all
these problems. How do you end up
making the right decision?’ He said,
‘At the end of the day, you do what’s
right.’ During a problem or a failure,
even if we are going to lose a large
customer, if we have done everything
right, that is all I can ask.

Q: What are pitfalls to avoid in business?

It comes back to commitment. Talk
is really easy and cheap, but, as a
business leader, don’t throw out
things you think you can do but you
can’t deliver. Those false promises to
the individuals at our warehouse or
truck drivers will tear your relationship with them apart.

If you are a leader and you can’t follow
through on it, don’t say it. But, if you can
keep that commitment, then say it, and let
them know your expectations are high.

I had bosses that would come right out
and lie to me, but I was so naive and in my
20s. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t go in
the foxhole with them because I don’t
trust them.

HOW TO REACH: Chase Plastic Services Inc., (248) 620-2120
or www.chaseplastics.com