24 WESTERN PALLET
- You always want to have a game plan as to where they (OSHA inspectors) walk through the plant with you. You don't have to show them the entire plant. Direct them to the area that they're interested in, especially if there's been an incident.
- I have never had Cal OSHA leave, in the 11 years that I've been here without some kind of a citation, whether it's $500 or $10,000. And when that happens and you get that $10,000 citation, personally, I'd rather spend the money on defending it, than to pay the state that $10,000 because it gets very, it gets very critical.
- If you're a California employer, you want to make sure that your heat illness training has been administered to all your employees, along with their sexual harassment training, because that is what they're on the hunt for right now.
COVID-19
- We have just recently put into place a program where if they can provide their vaccination card, we will add an extra $100. net into their check
- It is super important that you have your COVID policy in place for your company.
Wages, Recruiting and Retention
- You're just really having to take care of your people that show up every day. We found that we were starting to do some increases to their hourly wages, and it was worth it.
- It is a really important time to make sure to take care of your key people and maybe consider the training, offering more money, and what is it that we can do to keep them happy because it is very difficult to find reliable workers, especially where we are at. You have to keep figuring out how to keep them interested. So we have had to up the wages, Everybody starts here now at $15 an hour, and you can't even get somebody in the door.
- We have also found that one of the things that has really helped us is utilizing a local employment agency. We feel it's helping us, especially with workers comp. They maintain that employee for the first 90 days, so you get a chance to get to know the worker and if he makes sense for your place and then we can bring him on in as one of our own.
- When it comes to agencies, you want to find the right one. Some of them are way too expensive.
The WPA Master Learning Group sessions are a great way to bounce challenges and potential solutions off industry leaders and peers. If you have not already, be sure to register for an upcoming session.