The COVID-19 pandemic has forced U.S. seafood business to overhaul the ways in which they protect and engage their workforces.
Changes enacted over the past 11-plus months have impacted employees across the seafood industry, from the processing floor to home offices, onsite cubicles, and virtual boardrooms, according to a panel of executives who spoke during this month’s Global Seafood Marketing Conference (GSMC), presented by the National Fisheries Institute.
While people have always been central to the seafood industry, the pandemic has added further emphasis of employees’ critical roles, High Liner Foods President and CEO Rod Hepponstall said.
“The health and safety of our employees is always first and foremost, and the pandemic heightened that,” he said.
As COVID-19 spread rapidly across the U.S. in the first quarter of 2020, High Liner, like many others in the industry, had to quickly and efficiently update its employee safety and wellness protocols to fit the times.
“We went through protocols to ensure that we had the appropriate PPE so we could keep our three North American facilities running, which in itself was somewhat of a Herculean task,” Hepponstall said.
Great American Seafood Imports Co. also considered its employees needs and health first and foremost during the re-envisioning process, company president Sam Galletti said.
“Dividers, curtains, and PPE, everything that the CDC – and in our case, the L.A. County Health Department – were suggesting, are all great things that we’ve done now,” Galletti said.
The new processes put in place by Great American Seafood Imports over the last year in response to COVID-19 will probably outlast the virus, Galletti saidd.
“To be honest with you, I don’t see us changing even after the pandemic is beyond us. These are things that are really important, and keep our employees healthy and safe,” he said. “Whether it’s the common cold or the next flu season, whatever it is that we’re going to find ourselves facing in the future, the things that we’re doing today are going to be extremely helpful for tomorrow.”
Mental health initiatives have also taken on added prominence for seafood companies over the last year, Hepponstall said.
“We added to our emphasis around employee well-being, and health and wellness. We are doing as much as we can to ensure that we enhanced our mental health capabilities and provided more resources to our organization," he said. "We have launched health and wellness campaigns. We’re doing as much as we can to engage the team virtually."
Communication styles have transformed with more employees working remotely, Hepponstall said.
“We have enhanced our awards and recognition program, launching a brand new platform so that while we’re remote, we still have the opportunity for that personal touch and to recognize performance for the organization,” Hepponstall said. “On the virtual side, we are very deliberate with communication. Every several weeks, myself and other senior leaders will participate in a virtual social gathering – at four o’clock in the afternoon, end of the day, it’s not work-related; it’s all just talking about what’s happening in each others’ lives.”
Managing employees remotely has required agility in 2020 and 2021 from leadership, Hepponstall said.
“We’ve had to help our managers understand that the traditional ways of managing, quite frankly, don’t apply, and may not in the future as well. It’s been an interesting opportunity for us,” he said.
Post-pandemic, High Liner aims to continue expanding on its digital profile and resources to keep pace with consumers virtual habits.
“Areas where we’ve recognized the need for us to make some adjustments are in areas such as bringing on digital capabilities that we didn’t have before. And I think that’s a big opportunity for our industry – digital resources are really in hot demand right now, because of what’s happening and the need to get to the consumer shopper,” Hepponstall said.
Photo courtesy of Mark Agnor/Shutterstock
