‘Don’t waste winter’

ILLUSTRATION: LEO MICHAEL

The winter pest control season is historically slow. But that doesn’t deter Alan Feuer, ACE. During an interview for this month’s cover story, “Gearing up for growth”, the technical director of Preventive Pest Control (PCC) in Albuquerque, N.M., explained that this year, winter is a time for training.

“Our rallying cry is DWW: Don’t Waste Winter!” he says. “We deliberately overhired heading into the colder months, and made a formal investment in providing even more training and proficiency upgrades available to our developing personnel. All of us on the management team knew this would cost us a considerable amount in wages, as well as time and emotion to accomplish this task.”

While training always has been paramount for PCC, Feuer adds, this winter there is an increased focus on on-the-job observations, as well as development and certification of proficiency sessions for the field and office teams. Classroom-style education on a number of topics is conducted every Tuesday,
6:30-7:30 a.m., via a Zoom call.

“Training is never done by chance, even if it is sometimes dictated by reality, schedules and client needs,” Feuer says. He advises colleagues consider this in their own training programs, keeping in mind that a business’ work force is its greatest asset.