In celebration of National Employee Appreciation Day this year, we want to recognize all the hardworking frontline sanitation workers who help protect the food we eat every day. They are the backbone of our food supply chain, and without them our world and the products we eat would be much different.

Our partners at PSSI take great pride in knowing that it is more than just a job for our food safety sanitors. They are passionate about protecting public health. Even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, our teams remained focused on making sure hundreds of food processing facilities and warehouses stayed safe, clean and on-time.

“I enjoy the safety aspect of working for PSSI and the chance to be involved in public health and safety.” – Eric Rivera, Management Trainee

  “I joined PSSI because I wanted to see how every part of the food service industry works, and sanitation is a big part of that.” – Nick Pietrzykowski, Food Safety Sanitor

Building and supporting localized teams of reliable, highly driven sanitors in every plant we support is one of our top priorities. PSSI has a unique community-based recruiting approach that focuses on specific localized needs. Our team spends a significant amount of time on community engagement and getting to know the communities we serve. This includes working with local employment offices and other community-based organizations to find the right team members.

As a result, applications and new hires have been trending positively.  Applications in January this year were 9% higher than January 2021 and 29% higher than December 2021. New hires from January this year were also 15% higher than January 2021 and 17% higher than December 2021.

Another huge contributor to the quality of our sanitors at PSSI is our Employee Retention Program (ERP). This 4-week training program is specifically designed to address the unique challenges in recruiting, developing, and retaining employees that are new to PSSI. It is a structured, consistent on-boarding process required for every single new hire to ensure they feel valued, supported, and prepared to meet the demands of their position.

“The ERP program helped me understand what all my job entails and the importance of why we do it. I was able to better my work pace over time to make sure we released and started production on time. The program also helped me keep myself on task so that I could be ready and graduate on time.” – Dulce Arambula, PSSI Safety Committee Member

“The ERP program helped me see how the whole sanitation process goes. It prepared me to be more detailed with my work and understand the importance of the cleaning process.” – Jasmine Montoya, PSSI Food Safety Sanitor

“I have great management support and a good team.” – Kim Rogers, PSSI Food Safety Sanitor

“The ERP program taught me how to be more aware of my surroundings and helped keep me and my co-workers safe.” – Lazaro Rodriguez, PSSI Lead

We understand the need for a consistent, reliable team in protecting the food processing plants and warehouses we serve. Our frontline sanitors play an integral role in our delivery, and we take no shortcuts in making sure we have the right team. Our unique recruiting approach, positive employee referrals, and on-boarding support are just a few examples of how we do that.

Thank you to our frontline team for your passion and dedication in helping PSSI continue to raise the bar on the standard of food safety.