When life gets challenging, sometimes the best medicine comes in unexpected forms. Ashley Hengen, human resources manager for PIC North America, will never forget the day an unusual infection left her with temporary paralysis that made her unable to walk.
“I was playing soccer at a tournament and came down with a lung infection,” she explains. “The infection was caused by one of the strains that is in the bubonic plague. To this day, we have no idea where it came from or how I got it.”
You Can Do Hard Things
When it reacted with her body, it caused temporary paralysis in her legs. All she can remember is how painful it was and that she wouldn’t let anyone touch her legs because of the extreme sensitivity she was experiencing.
“As a 14-year-old who was very active in volleyball and soccer, being bedridden and not knowing if you were going to walk again was incredibly scary,” Hengen says. “I was so angry.”
But that’s when she learned she could do hard things. After meeting with many physicians and specialists, she met a doctor who was able to come up with a treatment plan that worked.
“I had to learn the concepts – no different than a baby when they start walking – and rewire my brain how to take steps,” she says. “It was painful and embarrassing, but I learned how to walk again. That experience has carried me through a lot of hard times in life. When I’m having a bad day at work, which thankfully is few and far between, I’ll think back to that situation and ask myself: is this as hard as the time you had to learn to walk again?”
Maybe that’s why Hengen’s colleagues say she always has a smile on her face.
“I’ve learned you’ve got to go through the tough things to have the really awesome things at the end,” she adds.
She says learning this at a young age has equipped her with an outlook, work ethic and empathy for others that allows her to show up to work every day with a greater sense of purpose.
Recruitment: Start with the End in Mind
Hengen approaches her job at PIC North America with the end in mind. In other words, she thinks about what she wants to happen in the end and then works her way back. She believes this is key to successful recruitment in the barns.
“If you start with the end in mind, you can actually build the path, bring the right people to the table that have those passions, and look for that very specific group of people who fit your operations and needs,” Hengen says. “By going this route, you alleviate some of the ‘churn and burn’ that happens when you know what your desired candidate profile is and what your operation needs. When you’re set up to go and find it, you’re more likely to retain those employees rather than finding those who aren’t a great fit.”
Retention through “Career Jungle Gyms”
Hengen advocates for a strategic approach to hiring that looks beyond immediate vacancies. By identifying the desired long-term outcome, producers can find candidates who are more likely to stay and grow within the operation.
One of the best things PIC has done is build out a job framework with career ladders and jungle gyms. She says it starts by identifying every role that exists in the company, as well as the behavioral and technical competencies that are required to be able to get there.
“To retain our staff and think solely of production first, we have an entire career path built out from individual contributors all the way to supervisors, managers, general managers and directors, along with the steps to be able to get there,” Hengen explains. “It creates transparency and shows the teams if they would like a bright future, even just within production, here’s what the roadmap looks like.”
They created five to 10 different pathways within the global supply chain alone that have five to seven rungs of those ladders and ways that they intersect. And that’s just one piece of the business, she says.
The Power of Feedback: The “Gatorade” Lesson
Small wins build trust. Hengen says she learned not to overlook “minor” requests as they are often the gatekeepers to larger feedback.
The HR team travels to each farm that they support at least once a quarter to have meetings with leaders and staff. Hengen says it’s not just a check-in, it’s a way to engage and motivate people. Along the way, she’s learned that asking for feedback can feel intimidating to employees. To create another way to share feedback, she set up suggestion boxes in the break rooms.
“One of the teams that we were working with had fairly low engagement levels and felt that their opinions weren’t being heard and considered,” Hengen explains. “We had tried a lot of different approaches – one-on-one conversations and bringing in higher levels of management into the farm more often.”
What she discovered is that people just wanted a simple, easy, safe place to share their ideas and feedback – enter in the suggestion box.
“We got really excited when we saw a couple pieces of paper in it after we put it out. When we opened them up, the first one we pulled out was an employee requesting Gatorade. The second one asked for Gatorade powder packets,” she says. “We thought they were going to share these big pieces of earth-shattering feedback, but at the end of the day, all they wanted were some electrolytes.”
She says that was an easy fix. In fact, she was just visiting that farm recently when a team member asked her if she would like a Gatorade because they now have Gatorade in the farm.
“There was nothing else in the suggestion box when I went back to check that time,” Hengen says. “Instead, when we had our team meeting, I got more verbal feedback. If you feel like it’s tough cracking open with your teams, finding those unique ways for them to be able to give that feedback in a safe space may help.”
Hengen’s ability to transform barn morale by simply listening and creating a place for others’ voices to be heard is one way that she is building a more engaged and successful workforce. Tune it to The PORK Podcast to learn more about how she uses Net Promoter Scores to measure employee satisfaction, onboards employees and handles tough conversations.
