By Chris Mauldin, Senior Operations Manager
When you have a team that is spread out across the contiguous 48 states it can be a logistical nightmare to bring people together. Yet our team of directors believes that our all-company meetings are a critical part of improving ourselves as individuals and as a company. To bring people together from across the country requires logistical planning, a halt to field business, the cost of travel, and hosting the actual meetings themselves. So, what could be so important to Firmatek that, at great cost to ourselves, we host these meetings twice a year? The answer is simple, the client experience.
Our goal as a full-service company hinges directly upon the client experience. We cover a multitude of topics during these two weeks of training out of the year, ranging from safety to data accuracy and client-facing to research and development.
A strong emphasis on safety (G.D.O.G.S.) continues to be our primary focus in these meetings. Most of the places we work present many hazards, not to mention the amount of road time each of our technicians sees on a regular basis. By keeping safety in the forefront of our minds, we provide a better experience to the client. If MSHA is on site, they know they don’t need to worry about Firmatek because of our safety standards that go beyond what MSHA requires.
Beyond safety, we share experiences and provide training on new technologies that have developed over the past six months. Continuing to exemplify our value as a trusted advisor means we need to stay up to date with developing tech as a team. Drone technology is evolving at a lightning pace, so keeping up with trends and disseminating that information to everyone in the company is a crucial aspect of being a trusted advisor. We also cover the proper ways to interact with clients in any situation. From the plant level to the international level, being able to communicate what we do effectively and how we can help companies build confidence in their numbers takes us from being a data company to a full-service company that can provide key business intelligence and actionable insights. Teaching the team more accurate and efficient ways to complete their jobs improves the client experience and helps keep Firmatek as the leader in our industry.
Of course it’s not ALL about training. When a high percentage of your team is spread out across the entire country, it can be challenging for everyone to keep in touch. From the time I first started working at Firmatek to the current day, the number one thing I hear repeated is that our employees love the people they work with! The sense of camaraderie that we have in the company may be our largest strength. There is a constant flow of information between our team and there’s not one person who wouldn’t drop what they are doing to help another team member. Therefore, you can imagine what a great time it is when we all get together at these meetings. The conversations you get to have over a beer and a hot dog at the San Antonio Missions baseball game fosters connections that last. When we’re able to confidently rely on each other, it creates an atmosphere of success that we pass along to our clients, and we’re mighty proud of that.
More blogs by Chris Mauldin:
