Keeping our team members safe has always been our priority. As we have navigated the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve innovated and put even more measures in place to protect those on the frontlines who are feeding the nation.

We regularly rely on a team of people at each of our facilities, led by a complex safety manager, to ensure health and safety guidelines are followed by all. One of those managers is Lisa Blotsky at our location in Cumming, Georgia.

Lisa has worked for Tyson Foods for nearly 21 years — mostly in a role related to workplace safety.

“My job is to make safety easier and reduce any barriers to worker safety,” she says.

This includes overseeing fire prevention, training on ergonomics, safe lifting, cutting techniques and ensuring the proper use of personal protective equipment. But since the beginning of COVID-19, Lisa and her team have taken on much more. In fact, her daily routine looks quite a bit different.

To start, she enters the building, has her own temperature taken, checks safety signage, and makes sure facial coverings and hand sanitizer are in place.

“I then ensure our infrared temperature scanner is up and running, and I verify that the nursing team has backup manual temporal thermometers,” she says. 

From there, she observes team members in the breakroom for personal protective equipment and checks in with other personnel who are tasked as being social distancing monitors.

These monitors work with Lisa to ensure table shields are in place, facial coverings are properly used, team members remain 6 feet apart, and outside seating is utilized when necessary.

Next, she and others in the plant attend a daily COVID-19 team meeting.

“I go over any new guidelines we have and remind them of current ones we have in place,” she says.

After the meeting, she tours the production floor to ensure all workstation dividers are intact and everyone is wearing their personal protective equipment. She also visits the outside locations such as our feed mill, hatchery, and truck shop to ensure everyone is following COVID-19 mandates. 

Navigating enhanced regulations due to COVID-19 has been a team effort that requires the coordination of many different departments. Lisa relies on a safety committee to help coach team members through new protocol, along with trained managers and the social distance monitors.

“[COVID-19] has been a new challenge that this location has definitely risen to,” she says. “It’s been great to implement some new designs to keep those folks in place and working safely and efficiently.”

Because when team members feel well taken care of, it shows up in the work they do.

“It’s wonderful to know that we have full lines of happy people coming to work that feel safe,” Lisa says. “I’m extremely proud of how our company and our location has come together to work as a team to solve these unique challenges.”

Lisa and her counterparts across the country are the true strength of the Tyson workforce. Their teamwork mentality, dedication to safety, and ability to see beyond this crisis will help ensure our nation thrives in the future.

 “We are developing skills for teamwork and for problem solving that we will definitely be able to use into the future and make us successful going into 2021 and beyond.”