Blue Diamond Has a Big Workforce to Protect From COVID

Blue Diamond Has a Big Workforce to Protect From COVID

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh
Blue Diamond Growers have a big workforce, especially in the processing area. And that workforce, COVID was a big challenge, said Mark Jansen, the CEO of Blue Diamond Growers.

“Probably the single most important and biggest challenge for us was figuring out how do we keep our workforce not only safe, but trust and be confident that they are safe when coming to work. This is a food business, we're an essential business and have the right to continue to operate. Because if you recall, early in the days of COVID, we had counties, cities and the state et cetera, all giving their own guidance,” said Jansen. “And so, we had to wade through that, but most importantly, we were very proactive in things like temperature tests, and mask wearing and buying plexiglass to create safe divisions in spaces, along with improved air filtration.”

Jansen said that people who could work remotely, did work remotely.

“So those that absolutely had to be there, such as those on the front lines, in manufacturing in the warehouse had less of and employee workload on those spaces,” noted Jansen. “And so we've been very fortunate in that since. COVID began, we're not aware of on our campuses anyone transferring the disease,” Jansen said.

“Certainly, with more than 1800 employees, we've had many, many workers who got COVID. And we work with them and quarantine those who might've been around them, just to be safe. But by doing that, we've been able to build the trust that our workforce, and our frontline team members know that they can feel confident in coming to work,” he said.

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