An Empathetic Approach to Employee Engagement

ORLANDO — Compassion, empathy and trust are essential building blocks to fostering an employee engagement experience that will be remembered from the first day on the job to the last. During NPMA’s Academy in Orlando, Fla., last month, several pest management professionals shared why these traits matter.

Samantha Forrest, territory manager at Corteva Agriscience, Joleen Matthews, American Pest project management and IT director, and Jennifer Fox, director of service delivery at Rentokil Terminix, led the employee engagement discussions on what employee culture means and why companies often struggle with engagement.

Forrest said there are more than 20,000 employees who work for Corteva. Although she may be “just a number” in that book, in her pest management team of 50, others know her name, and that can go a long way.

“What actions are we taking [as management] to say, ‘I see you, I appreciate you and thank you for showing up for the company,’” she said. “I know for a lot of business owners, it’s important to know each person’s name, and when they bring in new employees, they want to get to know every person.”

From Forrest’s experience, she said oftentimes it’s as simple as sitting down with an employee and having a one-on-one conversation to make room for better understanding on decision-making processes.

“It could be hard to take those two or three minutes with someone, but that can be a gamechanger for someone to feel heard and acknowledged,” she said. “Sometimes if you give a ‘no’ to an employee, they don’t get the bigger picture.”

Give them more opportunities for responsibility and have some “skin in the game,” Forrest said. For example, if a car wash is already paid for, let them take their service vehicle and send the truck through.

“If you expect an employee to go clean their truck, are we giving them the time in their schedules to go do it?” she said.

Monday morning meetings can be a drag, and finding new, energetic ways to engage employees can be a challenge. For Viking Pest Control Associate Manager David Brown, gamification drives motivation and productivity for his employees.

“We tapped a few of our future leaders on the shoulder and asked them to get more involved in meetings,” he said. “Our people are competitive, and that forces each team to step out of their comfort zone and get them more engaged.”

Forrest said she would offer morning breakfast at the office on certain days, like bagel Wednesday’s and donut Friday’s. “We got a ton of buy-in from our employees to show up and interact with one another,” she said.

First impressions mean everything to Daniel Moran, Rollins Senior Quality Assurance Manager, who oversees a crew of QA specialists. Moran said he believes a positive company culture starts on day one and setting realistic expectations to be successful.

“If you’re going to build a culture around safety and you have a new individual that starts with you, and your warehouse is a mess and there is no identifiable safety vision, you’ll lose those individuals,” he said.

Brown said COVID-19 forced individuals to practice disengagement in their day-to-day lives, and in many industries, including pest control, some companies are still operating that way.

“The times of empowering people and bringing people together is almost like a forgotten art because we operated that way for three years; People forgot how to be people,” he said. “If you don’t have the right people training new hires, you’re going to keep creating this cycle.”

Fox said it’s important to have empathy for each other’s differences and remember each role that makes a company successful.

“We have a natural disconnect between the sales versus service,” she said. “If people want to get more credentials or their licenses, support that.”