Hives: A New Way to Connect

FAIRFAX, Va. — With pest management professionals (PMPs) spread across the country, challenges arise when trying to connect and network with industry peers. To combat this problem, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) got to work on creating new ways for PMPs to connect.

NPMA launched the NPMA Hives program, designed and piloted by NPMA’s Professional Women in Pest Management (PWIPM) and Leadership Networking Council (LNC).

The program consists of joining five-to-seven industry professionals together once a week for 10 weeks — same time, same day, same group for the duration. Each week, one Hive participant gives the group a topic of their choosing. Then the group gathers and discusses that topic, focusing on helping that person, for 30 minutes. NPMA expects to run Hives in September, November and February each year (with the first Hives meeting this September).

PWIPM council member Chelle Hartzer, 360 Pest and Food Safety Consulting, proposed the idea of Hives from her experience in a former women’s networking group, Ellevate.

“Sometimes working [one-on-one] can get really overwhelming,” Hartzer said. “This is a great way to get a small group of people together to focus on one person, once a week, and help them with whatever they have going on in this safe environment.”

Hartzer was once a “Hive Honcho,” in the Hives pilot program at the beginning of the year. A “Hive Honcho” isn’t in charge of the group, but rather a leader that sets up each meeting, staying connected with each member of the group and being a moderator during each session.

“It’s not as intimating as a lot of people may think it is, so hopefully with the current Hive meetings happening right now and from the pilot program, we will have more people who [step up],” Hartzer said.

Each meeting is confidential, which helps members open up, knowing they are networking in a safe space. Hartzer said even though all Hive members work in the pest control industry, there’s a diverse interest group — women, veterans, manufacturing professionals, service technicians, managers, administration staff — that give a diverse viewpoint of how people think and what they’ve been faced in the industry.

“I find it fascinating because I learn more from other people when they are on the throne because everybody has got such great suggestions and tips to help that person with whatever they have brought to the group,” Hartzer said.

Hartzer described Hives as a mentoring group without the pressure of having a “mentor-mentee relationship. It’s just a group of people who can talk to each other in confidence.”

Allie Allen, executive director of QualityPro and NPMA staff liaison for the Professional Women in Pest Management (PWIPM) Council, spoke with PCT at the NPMA Women’s Forum in Charleston, S.C., on the success of the Hives pilot program and spotting a need for more networking opportunities in the industry.

Allen said with the help of NPMA’s council, Hives makes it possible for any PMP interested in meeting new people to join, and hopefully find mentoring success they might not have experienced in the past.

“For years we have tried to mentor-match and a [PMP] would come to us with a challenge and we try and pair them up with another [PMP] and hope the relationship sticks,” she said. “We are really excited to launch this as an opportunity to build people’s network to scale and not just match you with one person but introduce you to eight or 10 people at once, build deep connections and your network will be built.”

Click here to watch the full video interview with Allen for more in-depth information on Hives.

Here is what other PMPs had to say about their pilot program experience:

• “It has connected me to a group of inspiring industry professionals that I did not know or did not know well prior to this experience. I was able to learn valuable insights about personal branding, leadership, and marketing from industry peers. I loved how our Hive included representation from folks in different roles working for different companies - some large, some small- as this helps us to understand various perspectives,” - Leigh Fryxell from Anticimex.
• “I loved getting to meet new people that I may not have met otherwise because of our companies or roles we have where we work. It was also a great place to talk about literally anything. I was happily surprised by some of the topics my hive mates brought to the table that would normally not be information share outside of a tight personal circle.” - Megan Jacobson of Steve’s Pest Control.