Hey there! Welcome to the latest episode of “Our Way Today” with your host, Jan Griffiths! Today, Jodee Eason, the HR manager at Teijin Automotive Technologies’ Sarepta plant, will join us for a chat. 

Jodee starts the conversation by sharing her biggest challenge in today’s competitive market—employee retention. Despite this challenge, the Sarepta plant boasts a remarkable number of long-term employees, but how?

Jodee says its workplace culture is the key to the plant’s success. From daily stand-up meetings to monthly manager updates and heartwarming newsletters, Sarepta’s open communication creates a true sense of belonging and family among its employees.

But wait, there’s more! Jodee takes us on a tour of Teijin’s employee morale and engagement programs, including family fun days, birthday and anniversary celebrations, safety awards, and an epic Employee of the Month program. She also highlights the plant’s fantastic benefits, competitive pay, and career advancement opportunities, making it an absolute dream workplace. 

Jodee’s insights into the daily efforts that go into making employees feel valued show just how crucial human resources are to a company’s success. They remind us that a strong workplace culture isn’t just about policies and programs—it’s about the people who bring them to life every day. 

Themes discussed in this episode:

• The challenge of employee turnover in today's competitive market.
• The importance of effective communication strategies, including daily stand-up meetings and newsletters.
• Recognizing and rewarding employees through programs like Employee of the Month and annual awards.
• Detailing various programs and initiatives aimed at recognizing and rewarding employees.
• Opportunities for career advancement from entry-level positions to leadership roles.
• Balancing work with personal interests, such as traveling to adventure.

Top Quotes:

[01:48] Jodee: “Communication is key; we have learned that. We do several things to communicate with the employees on the floor, such as employee stand-up meetings every day; before the start of every shift, the supervisors have a meeting with the employees and go over production and what's going to be run for the day. Monthly, we have a manager attend those meetings and cover any business issues that we need to cover with them.  We also have an in-house newsletter. We have a corporate newsletter and then we have an in-house Sarepta newsletter to communicate to employees. And it gives them the opportunity to add some feedback to us through those newsletters.”

[07:11] Jodee: “I think it's one of the best places to work in this area. We are the largest employer in the immediate area of Sarepta, Cullen, and Springhill. We have excellent benefits; we have low premiums for our medical insurance for our employees. We are consistent with our pay; we are competitive with our pay. And we do activities to include our employees as much as possible. So, I think it's a great place to work.”

[07:43] Jodee: “If a person comes in and starts out as a production technician, within two years, they can move up to a senior production technician. We have process team leaders that they can move into or LFTD techs. So, there's room for advancement even if you're an entry-level employee.

This is the Our Way Today podcast, the podcast created exclusively

for Teijin Automotive Technologies.

Let's dive in.

Joining me at the mic today is Jodee Eason.

Jodee is the HR manager at the Sarepta plant.

Jodee, welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Jodee, HR, wow.

That's a challenge.

Very much so.

What is

The number one challenge that you're faced with?

Well, in today's market, it is a big competition to try to get

employees and retain those employees.

It's a very competitive market at this time so our turnover is

probably our biggest challenge.

Well, but obviously, you've been doing a pretty good job at Sarepta

because you've got a number of employees down there that have been at that plant

for more than 10 years, and you yourself have been there for more than 20 years.

That's correct, yes.

Why, Jodee, why have you been there for 20 years?

You must like the place, tell us more.

Well, I started out at this facility before the building was even

completed, so that was in January of 2001.

So, I started from the ground up, and I've just continued to

be here for these last 22 years, trying to make it a better place.

How'd you do that, Jodee?

How do you make it a better place for people to stay?

Because I think often businesses underestimate how important it

is to create that culture where people feel like they belong.

How do you do that?

Communication is key, we have learned that.

We do several things to communicate with the employees on the floor, such

as employee stand-up meetings every day; before the start of every shift,

the supervisors have a meeting with the employees and go over production

and what's going to be run for the day.

Monthly, we have a manager attend those meetings and cover any business

issues that we need to cover with them.

We also have an in-house newsletter.

We have a corporate newsletter and then we have an in-house Sarepta

newsletter to communicate to employees.

And it gives them the opportunity to add some feedback to us

through those newsletters.

They can put stuff in the newsletter to go out to all the employees to review, and

we also have production minutes daily.

We post those production minutes on the TV in the canteen so employees

know daily what production is doing and what we're doing inside the plant.

So, communication is a big thing.

We have trained our supervisors and management on communication

in several different ways.

So, communication is definitely the top priority.

I'd like to pick up on something you said about the newsletter;

you said that it's not a one way street.

So, it's not just you putting out the newsletter, which is so often the case

in a lot of automotive manufacturing plants; there's the newsletter that comes

up, it's the management team telling people what's going on or what to do,

but it sounds like you have a feedback mechanism or a way for input to come back

from the shop floor into that newsletter.

Did I understand that right?

Yes.

Yes.

We have a suggestion box.

Employees can put suggestions, and we can put those into the

newsletter and correspond back to them about those suggestions.

We also have a little section in there that employees can add

things that maybe have happened in their family, like a birth of a

child, a marriage, an anniversary.

So, we allow them to put things like that into our newsletter as well.

I love that because it makes it more

personal and it makes it real.

Yes.

Yes, they enjoy that.

Yeah, because our lives it is not just about

coming to work to do the job.

We spend so much of our time and so much of our lives doing our work.

It is important to be part of a work family, right?

Right.

How do you encourage that at work?

Because I think sometimes people think, 'Oh, you know, I'm a different person

at work.' And I think, no, you're not.

You're the same human being, no matter what.

Now, how do you encourage that bonding and creating that family environment at work?

We have a family fun day or a picnic every year, and they get to bring

their family and their children, and we have different activities for the kids.

We have lunch for everyone.

We have door prizes and things like that.

We do several things for the employees, like birthday gift cards, anniversary

awards, attendance bonuses, safe driver awards for our forklift drivers.

We do Thanksgiving and Christmas gift cards.

We do a best pocket card award, that's a program where we allow the employees

to respond to us on pocket cards about safety issues, manufacturing

issues, maintenance issues, and we can correspond back and forth with

the employees on those pocket cards.

And like I said, a lot of this goes into our monthly newsletter as well.

What's the difference between a pocket

card and a suggestion box?

Are they the same thing or are they different?

They're different.

On the pocket card, they can actually fill out the area that has an issue

and what that issue is specifically; they can put their name on it.

And we do pocket card drawings; maybe the best pocket card for

that month, they get a gift card.

And then, the suggestion box, it can be anonymous.

They don't have to put their name on it if it's something that they want us to

look into, but sometimes they do and then we can go directly back to that employee.

If not, we can put that suggestion in our production minutes and answer

it there so that the employees can get the answer to their suggestion.

Hmm, okay.

I love that.

We do a lot of other things for the employees, such as

the Employee of the Month Program.

Where we select an employee of the month, and those employees get like

50 dollars, they get a t-shirt, they get a parking place right in front of

the plant, and then they are also in the running for employee of the year.

Our employee of the year, they get 500 dollars, they get a leather

jacket, and they get a parking place in front of the plant for a year.

There's different things we do like that.

We also have an activity committee that's comprised of the HR

department and the hourly employees.

So, they can give us some ideas of different activities

that they would like to do.

It sounds like it's very inclusive.

I love that.

Yes, we're pretty close family type plant here.

Jodee, as you're faced with hiring new talent and

bringing new people into the plant, if we had to record an infomercial,

if you will, to encourage people to come to Sarepta, what would you say?

Why should somebody come and work there?

I think it's one of the best places to work in this area.

We are the largest employer in the immediate area of

Sarepta, Cullen, Springhill.

We have excellent benefits; we have low premiums for our medical

insurance for our employees.

We are consistent with our pay; we are competitive with our pay.

And we do activities to include our employees as much as possible.

So, I think it's a great place to work.

Is there a good opportunity for advancement for a career?

Yes, definitely.

If a person comes in and starts out as a production technician,

within two years, they can move up to a senior production technician.

We have process team leaders that they can move into or LFTD techs.

So, there's room for advancement even if you're an entry-level employee.

Hmm, and it sounds like you yourself experienced some

career advancement at Serapta, right?

Well, I actually started as HR generalist, but after probably six

months I went into the manager position.

Great, I love that.

Jodee, let's talk about what you like to do outside of work.

Hmm, I like to travel.

I like to go to different places.

Just like this weekend I'm going and staying in a haunted hotel.

Really?

Yeah, something adventurous.

So, you're one of these sort of experienced.

If you're looking at Airbnb, they say, 'Look for an experience.' You're one of

the experienced kind of people, right?

Yes.

Yes.

That's great, I love that.

Okay.

Jodee, thank you so much for joining me at the mic today.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for listening to another episode

of the Our Way Today podcast.

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Tell us what you think—if you liked it, you didn't like it,

or you wanted something changed.

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See you next time.