ON BALANCE
An Editorial in a Series
by Harold S. Stein, Jr., President
Who Is a Supervisor at Crane?
I confess to having opened up a can of worms with one question I asked our clients in a
confidential survey about Crane’s services. Where I stumbled was in asking about
adequate communication with our supervisors. In most instances the responses we
received indicated that the question was “not applicable”. However, there was a group
divided in sentiment between “Who is the supervisor?” and “Who needs one?”
I should have known better, since Crane has purposefully built up its technical staff with
what can officially be defined as “supervisory-qualified” personnel. You see, coming into
this industry as a community pharmacist, I envisioned our technicians as practitioners
and the physical properties we protect as our patients.
For over a thirty-year span I selected, trained, equipped and compensated our present
team to fulfill that role. Each one, as an essential requirement of the company, must
possess the technical license from the Structural Pest Control Board that is required of a
supervisor. Each must undergo the Continuing Education requirements for annual
license renewal, while in turn, each of our supervisors must possess the identical
licensing requirement reserved for an owner of a company.
As a result, more than 64% of our current field staff has college matriculation in fields
such as Entomology, Urban Pest Management, and Biology. Some of our technicians
had original careers in Agriculture, Forestry and Horticulture, and one was even a dental
technician and another a chiropractor!
Little wonder, then, that our management style is more horizontal than vertical, and that
our supervisors are primarily involved behind the scenes in program design and
consultation. The reality of all this is that each client is actually subject to a higher than
industry-wide standard of supervision. In addition to a Manager, each of our Divisions
has a separate Quality Control Supervisor whose sole responsibility is to monitor,
inspect, supplement and teach. A standard technique they use is to select several
customer locations each day, where they unobtrusively inspect the work and then make
any corrections to the service or protocols if necessary. They frequently leave a calling
card inside one of the rodent stations and instruct the technician to turn it in when it is
discovered! Sneaky? Not really – just keeping everyone on his toes.
But, all in all – as it took our clients to remind me – the strength of the company lies in
the dignity, capabilities and professionalism of our technicians. Let’s just say that the rest
of us here will endeavor to sustain that quality and ensure its continuum!